Year-Round Resolution
December always feels like the bottom half of rollercoaster ride. I start off the year at a full rest, get in gear in the spring, take a breather in the summer, pick up steam in the fall, and by December, I’m flying down the tracks so fast, I can scarcely breathe. I think they call […]
Under the Tree
I thought I’d close out this year with a couple of Christmas poems. These are both from Under The Christmas Tree, HarperCollins. Alas, it is no longer in print.
Love and compassion
As we dive into holiday festivities and rush headlong into a new year, one thing weighs heavily on my heart: the recent rash of suicides by gay teens. The deaths, themselves, are alarming, of course. But what also troubles me is how little this issue is addressed from the pulpits of America’s churches. I suppose […]
No Offense, but …
As we run headlong toward the Christmas season, and leave behind what has felt like a season of censorship, my thoughts incline toward the most contentious book ever written. Its pages are teeming with witches, sorcerers, drunkards, despots, tyrants, thieves, and prostitutes—offensive, all. Much of its subject matter is even worse: rape, incest, infanticide, slavery, […]
Mixed Messages: Blog Shorts
I have a love/hate relationship with television commercials. For instance, I LOVE the new Old Spice guy. He puts a smile on my face every time I see his beautiful browns six-pack. (Hey, I’m into honesty, here!) Most of the Dove commercials get my vote. I appreciate their commitment to expanding the images of beauty […]
In the Ghetto
Growing up, it troubled me that the books to be found about black people concerned either slavery or the Civil Rights Movement, and preciously little else. As for books about contemporary life, forget it. It was as if African Americans simply did not exist within that framework. So, as an author, I determined early on […]
“Black History Month”
I don’t live in real time. Does anyone? It seems the practice of being present has gone the way of the dinosaurs. But I digress. My profession requires me to always think ahead. I’m forever mired in planning future speaking events, booking flights, scheduling school visits, preparing future conference presentations, navigating book deadlines—always looking ahead. […]
A Question of Worth
I love my job, and there are few occupations I would trade it for. I love writing, of course, and I look forward to opportunities to meet and speak with teachers and librarians at the various conferences and book festivals I attend. The children’s book community is the best! I also enjoy connecting with young […]
Novels in Verse: Let’s Talk
I am tremendously psyched that this has proven to be a genre with legs, at least in the children’s book market where I ply my trade. When a publisher at the last ALA told me that librarians were actively seeking novels in this format, my little heart went pitter-patter. However, before a writer decides to […]
Celebrity Children’s Book Authors and the Publishers Who Love Them, Part 3
There’s not much point in discussing celebrity children’s books without discussing the money piece of the issue. Let’s face it, publishers, who are the really guilty parties in all this, are all about the bottom line. This was less true when I came into the market than it is today. Children’s publishers, big and small, used […]