If you’ve ever wondered how a book is acquired, you need to read this article about the acquisition process on Harold Underdown’s blog. Sometimes when I do school visits, the students will ask how long it takes for a book to be out in print from the time it is first acquired. Sometimes they are surprised when I tell them it takes between two to three or more years.

Another day of wonderful school visits. This time I was down in the Rio Grande Valley visiting Garden Park and Villa Nueva elementary schools in Brownsville, Texas. The students were so enthused and asked excellent questions. This was the first time they had an author visit. The librarians were super and so supportive. My objective, as always, is to inspire the students to read and write more.

On the way back to San Antonio, I bought some fabulous cascarones. Are they not too cute? According to Wikipedia: “Cascarones or confetti eggs are festive, hollowed-out chicken eggs filled with confetti or small toys.In Spanish, cáscara means eggshell. Cascarones are common throughout Latin American and are similar to the Easter eggs popular in many other countries. They are mostly used in Mexico during Carnival, but in US and Mexico border towns the cultures combined making them a popular Easter tradition.” 

Hold it! Before you send out your finished manuscript to a publisher, editor, or agent,  have you done your homework and gone over an editing checklist? Here is a very basic checklist you might want to read. It’s only an excerpt from The Writer’s Little Helper by James V. Smith, Jr., but you’ll get the idea.

The article, “Amateur and Common Mistakes,” by Courtney Carpenter appears in a Writer’s Digest blog. I happened to come across this post the other day and suddenly realized that the book mentioned looked familiar. Sure enough, I went over to my bookshelf and there it was. Way back behind so many other books on writing. I picked it out and am going over it again. It’s been a while.

I noticed that the author has a lot of checklists throughout the book. For example, there’s a checklist on Imagery versus Description, Structuring Your First Words, Conflict in Dialogue, and so on and so on. I am going to read it again, cover to cover.

Chautauqua

On another note, I am working on a narrative nonfiction picture book. I found this definition on a Writers and Editors blog: Narrative nonfiction–joining good research with compelling, character-driven storytelling–reads like a novel.

I usually write fiction, but I need to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. It’s been a fascinating journey. I’ve been doing research and I am so impressed with all the help I have been getting, from museums to newspapers to the Library of Congress. Wish me luck!

Narrative nonfiction: A narrative presentation of actual events.—Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner

Kites! Kites! Kites! The students at Henry Ford Elementary (Pharr) in the Rio Grande Valley had a kite contest in honor of one of my books, Lupita’s Papalote (kite). The librarian initiated this wonderful project for my school visit. These homemade kites were all amazing. One that stood out was from a little girl from Guatemala (the kite with fringes).

Fringed Kite

Homemade Kites

While down in the Valley, the Reading Rock Stars was in progress. I was thrilled to meet for the very first time, Laura Lacamara, the illustrator of my book, Las Aguas Frescas de Alicia.

Author And Lacamara