Ten-Minute Blog Break - 14th October

Occasionally, SCBWI bloggers fall through my net, either because they blog at the same time as lots of other people, or don't fit the theme of a particular week. But don't worry, because if you keep blogging, I'll get to you eventually!

A blogger who I've finally found space for is illustrator Claire O'Brien, who's been writing some useful stuff for aspiring picture book makers. Claire's blog post on Creating a children’s picture book illustration portfolio from last week is full of great tips and you may also like the video she made examining picture book anatomy.

Forget fish 'n' chips, because it's fish 'n' actors who are all the rage at Darlington Civic Theatre. Sam Zuppardi breaks out his considerable artistic skills to show us why.

Being a professional children's writer nowadays is a process of juggling many types of project, and few are better jugglers than the prolific Tony Bradman, who's interviewed for Space on the Bookshelf this week. As a writer, editor and teacher, Tony was the first to publish work by Scoobies such as Candy Gourlay and Miriam Halahmy, and he's currently working on an exhausting list of new projects for OUP, Barrington Stoke and the Golden Egg Academy.

Juliet Clare Bell is suffering a creative block - could reading her old school books help? What about a photo of E.T.'s head riding on a car? Find out in her post for Picture Book Den.

Finally, there's just room for some wise words from Sheila Averbuch about the painful business of having a book on submission. Sheila advocates a fire-and-forget approach to submitting your work, assuring us that our precious manuscripts are not sailing off into mortal danger, but are simply "in hyper sleep." In which case, I have enough books in hyper sleep to crew the Nostromo (from Alien). Let's hope one of them turns out to be my very own Ellen Ripley!

Nick.


A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine (September issue out now).

Nick's most recent blog post takes a look back at a year of Stew Magazine stories and teases out the common threads that bind them. What's the Story?

4 comments:

  1. Great wrap as always, Nick. Thx.

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  2. I love how this column always delivers a surprise and a discovery. Thank you, Nick.

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  3. Great posts, put a smile on my face after a soggy journey home. Thanks Nick

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  4. Really enjoyed this selection as always, Nick.

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