Ten-Minute Blog Break - 18th February

Turned out nice again, hasn't it?

Er, no. Not at all.

So my suggestion is to stay inside (ideally in a boat) and enjoy the best of this week's SCBWI blogs!


The weather might be awful in the UK, but in Cape Town it's hot. Or as Jane Heinrichs puts it, "So, so, so hot." Jane manages to blog about her sweltering summer without a trace of gloating and even a note of envy. She also gives us a charming watercolour animation of a little girl with more than a touch of the drama queen about her.

Love was in the air for Valentine's Day, and what better way to celebrate than with a list of romantic books? But wait a minute, romantic books for boys??? Head over to The Edge to read Dave Cousins's recommendations.

The life of a visiting author is nothing if not varied. Although not technically a blog post, I enjoyed Julie Fulton's update on her recent author visits, which took her from a nursery, to primary school and then to university! It seems that we never really grow out of loving a good picture book.

Someone who definitely loves picture books with a passion is Norinder Jones, Senior Book Designer at Little Tiger Press. If you've ever wondered what a picture book designer actually does all day, I'd suggest you hightail it over to Big Little Tales, where Loretta Shauer interviews Norinder about their work together.

Finally, here's something a little different. It takes great courage to put your own fiction writing online for others to read - especially when your readers are all authors as well! It's fitting then, that K.M Lockwood's "fairy story for writers" The Blind Seamstress is a tale about courage and finding your voice. Read parts one, two and three.

Nick.

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Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round techno-ninja. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead and currently writes short fiction for Stew Magazine, an event that was recently celebrated on this site.