What would you call “writing success?” I guess those two words mean different things to different people. I found the blog post, “A Ramble: The Elements of Writerly Talent and Improvement, by editor Brooklyn Arden a great read. She addresses the questions: “How much of writing success is talent, how much perseverance, how much conscious education in craft?”

What is your definition of writing success?

The Institute of Children’s Literature is sponsoring an Early Reader Mystery writing contest. The deadline is July 18, 2015. Take a leap of faith and send in that story that you’ve written. Last year, I submitted to them a short story that I had filed away for ages. Guess what? I won first place! You can too!

Genre: Refers either to a general classification of writing, such as the novel or the poem, or to the categories within those classifications, such as the romance novel or the sonnet. – Writer’s Digest Weekly Planner

I met a wonderful group of young writers who just finished writing an anthology, “Capture.” These are middle grade students at Rhodes Middle School. I’ve been reading some of their short stories and poems and am very impressed. They are budding authors!! What makes it even nicer for me is that Rhodes is the middle school that I attended way back when. It was great being there again. All the credit goes to Ms. Sheryl Lew, ELA Instructional Coach, who was instrumental in guiding the students in this creative writing project.

Sign your children up for the third annual Latino Children’s Summer Reading Program, which starts on June 1. It is sponsored by Latinas for Latinos Lit. Two of my bilingual picture books are included in this awesome program—Alicia’s Fruity Drinks under the Food Theme and Lupita’s First Dance under the Music Theme. Register now. It is free. http://latinas4latinolit.org/reading/

The program:

“FOR FAMILIES: Designed specifically for Latino families, our 10-week summer programs are infused with cultural images and themes. You’ll find our suggestions for wonderful Latino children’s literature, as well as literacy activities to develop your child or student’s reading and writing skills.”

“GROUP PARTICIPANTS: This year, we’re excited to announce that groups can participate for free, too! Registration opens on May 1st and it’s simple. Just register your group below and you’ll receive an official Group Number that you can share with your students. They enter that number when they sign up online (at home) and then all their information will be tracked. You’ll be able to know what books they’ve read over the summer and more depending on which program you assign them.”

“Writing is a pleasure, and I feel that if I did not enjoy writing, no one would enjoy reading my books.” — Beverly Cleary

Yesterday, I was a guest speaker at UT Arlington Library where the topic was, “Stories To Our Children/Historias Para Nuestros Hijos.” I was to inspire the parents in the audience to write their own stories, but I feel they inspired me more. Some of them have participated in this awesome program before and had written their stories, which were then bound into beautiful books. With an imprint of their thumbs, many pledged to write more stories in the future. I did as well. Congratulations to Ivonne Kieffer, Yulianna Aceves, Alicia Rueda Acedo, and Sarai Suarez and the UT student volunteers for making this all possible. And special thanks to Miranda Want for transporting me around.

I am honored to have been interviewed on the WordMothers blog, which is “dedicated to showcasing women’s work in the literary arts around the world.”

Are you about to start your Great American Novel and are overwhelmed by the word count? Try reading this very brief article on the Dear Editor blog that addresses this topic. Some of the advice: “Pledge not to count words until you type THE END on the final scene. Do not set word count goals for your writing sessions.” Read on.

If you love to read but sometimes cannot find the time, go to the Publishers Weekly blog on “How To Become a Better Reader in 10 Steps” by author Gretchen Rubin. She offers ten excellent tips on this topic.

A fellow writer cross-stitched this lovely piece for me.

Yesterday I helped celebrate El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros by doing three school visits here in San Antonio. The first was at Schulze Elementary; the second was at Adams Elementary and the third one was at Patrick Heath Library in Boerne. The library sponsored a picnic-like event and free books were given to the children at the end of the celebration. Fun, fun day!!

Here is a link to El Dia’s founder, author Pat Mora.

I attended the 2015 Texas Library Association (TLA) conference in Austin, Texas, two days ago. There were authors, editors, publishers, and illustrators from all over the nation. Hundreds of librarians attended the sessions and met authors, bought books, took pictures, and just had a good time. The energy in the place was awesome with so many book lovers present. Here I am pictured with a snazzy car from DinoBuddies.com.

Here’s an interesting article from the Writer’s Digest blog from an interview of Erin Entrada Kelly by Adrienne Crezo. Kelly starts by asking, “Are you a routine-less writer? If so, consider these tips.”

“Never stop writing—even if in your head. When you’re not writing with pen and paper, write with brain and imagination.

Don’t out-talk your ideas. Routine-less writers are prone to share their Great Ideas with anyone who will listen …  it’s better to share less and plan more.”

For more, read the brief article with excellent writing tips.

Despite the drizzle, we had a wonderful turnout at the third annual San Antonio Book Festival. Hundreds of children enjoyed storytelling by local and out-of-town authors. There were panels, author signings, free gifts, and a huge selection of books, books, books. I met the beautiful, famous author Denise Chavez, the former columnist for the SA Express-News, Cary Clark, and the mayor of San Antonio, Ms. Ivy Taylor. What a day!

Author with Denise Chavez!

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