BLOG BREAK Skills, Studios and Self-Promotion

Nick Cross presents his fortnightly selection of must-read blogs.

Sally Poyton's latest blog post made me really angry. Not at Sally, but at the insensitivity and privilege of the neurotypical. Sally is dyslexic, and her blog post on Being a Dyslexic Adult Reviewer of Children’s Books ponders the challenges (and rewards) of her chosen role.

At first glance, allotments and picture books seem like an odd combination. But here's Cath Jones blogging for Picture Book Den about how her love for stories and gardening led to the creation of her debut picture book.

Candy Gourlay has been unusually quiet of late, both in publishing and blogging terms. But now she's roaring back into action with two books coming out in 2018, and a blog post that worries about the question: How can an author avoid turning into a greasy self-promoter?

Last month, I featured a blog post from Kelly McCaughrain in which she planned her book launch. It seems all that thinking was well worth it, because Kelly's follow-up post about the launch itself makes it sound like an absolute riot. Circus skills, cake and a 30 piece ukulele orchestra? Yes please!

Clare Helen Welsh is doing an amazing job of getting her picture book Aerodynamics of Biscuits into schools. As a teacher herself, she has curated a whole host of learning resources around the book, of which the latest is an innovative set of biscuit-based computing activities for Key Stage 1 and 2.

I love seeing work in progress, so it's a treat that three of the Big Little Tales crew (Anne-Marie Perks, Trish Phillips and Patrick Miller) have opened up their studios to let us nosy types have a peek.

And now for something completely different. No, not Monty Python, but a blog post from Claire Fayers recommending that we all take a break with some excellent writing-themed card games. Does Harry Potter Top Trumps count?

Nick

*Feature image: Blog Break logo by Melany Pietersen

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Nick Cross is Words & Pictures' Blog Network Editor. An Undiscovered Voices winner, he both writes and illustrates for children, and was honours winner of the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for fiction.

Nick also blogs for Notes from the Slushpile. His most recent blog post charts his ongoing Adventures in Illustration.