Ten-Minute Blog Break - 1st September

Logo by Melany Pietersen

The skies may be grey and miserable outside my window, but at least there are blogs to read! Enjoy another slice of cake and a selection of the best posts from our SCBWI-BI bloggers.

Adults are an under-appreciated demographic in picture book circles - the books may not be aimed at them, but they are the ones who have to read aloud night after night! In a post for Picture Book Den, Rebecca Colby gives the low-down on books with something extra for the grown-ups to enjoy.

A pleasure that comes but once a year is the unveiling of Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve's latest stage costumes! Eschewing the David Bowie meets Great British Bake Off stylings of last year's Cakes in Space, they were rocking a "travelling balalaika player" look to promote Pugs of the Frozen North at this year's Edinburgh Book Festival. Sarah gives a full report on her blog (including the clinical testing of the world's first anti-Philip Ardagh spray)

From pugs to plugs - or rather the lack of them. Sara Grant has (slightly ironically) written a blog post about unplugging from technology to become a better writer.

At the time of writing, no-one had won the prize in K.M. Lockwood's rather fiendish children's book first line quiz. To make things a tad easier, she's also posted a list of the answers - but not in the right order...

Finally, can you write for children if you don't have any? Of course you can, and Nicky Schmidt tells us why.

Nick.

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Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner and has recently received the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award, for his short story The Last Typewriter.

Click here to read Nick's latest blog post for Notes from the Slushpile. His brand new children's short story The Drowners can be found in issue 9 of Stew Magazine.