WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?? I see two birthday cakes!! Could it be??
YES!!!!
We are celebrating the birth of TWINS! Two book babies for the lovely Julie Abery!!!
And although I’d be thrilled for any of my kidlit friends who had TWO BOOK BABIES…there is a reason why I am particularly tickled pink and blue about this. And here is the lovely Julie to give you a bit of the back story of how these beautiful books came to be. Take it away, Julie!
JULIE:
What inspired Little Tiger…
The inspiration came from a list of tigerish words I had scribbled in my notebook and your wonderful ‘50 Precious Words’ story writing challenge, Vivian! To my delight and amazement my lovable Little Tiger’s rhyming romp around the jungle won your heart and first place! I was so astonished to see it at the top of the winners’ list that I called my daughter, Sarah, to check I wasn’t dreaming. Then things got even better! As my prize I chose an agent critique with Essie White at Storm Literary Agency, and to my delight this resulted in her offering to represent me and you became my agency sister!
I am thrilled that Little Tiger, and Little Panda are now going to be the first two in the Little Animal Friends series of board books with Amicus Ink in Spring 2019 with the second two publishing in Spring 2020.
Thank you so much, Julie. What fun that we are debut author sisters AND I’m so very happy that I’ll get to hug you in person in exactly ONE WEEK!
There you go, my friends. Participating in writing challenges and contests is a wonderful way to get your work out there. And now, without further ado, here’s a big slice of cake for each of you as we enjoy looking at the precious covers of these brand-new books that were both illustrated by the talented Suzie Mason.
And we can do more than just enjoy looking at the covers, right? Because the best gift we can give an author of a book we love is to buy the book, review the book, ask our local library to purchase it for their collection and tell friends about it.
I also want to add a little icing on the cake, so to speak. I’m giving away a copy of each of these book babies. And you might be one of the winners! Please leave a comment If you participate in writing contests or challenges, will you share which is your favorite?
As most of you know, I am on the other side of the world right now, enjoying the beauty of New Zealand and getting ready to fly to Geneva next week where I will visit with Julie and then train with her to the Bologna Book Fair. I’m so grateful for these friendships and for all of you in kidlitland who come by to visit my blog and comment and share on social media when good news is announced.
VIVIAN KIRKFIELD - Writer for Children 
How adorable! I love the beautiful covers.
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Thank you, Maggie 🙂
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Congratulations on the book birthdays, Julie! I always love learning the back story of new picture books, but I especially loved learning about the connection to the #50PreciousWords contest. My favorite contest? To be honest, I can’t choose – I love each & every one for different reasons – the Halloweensie, because I need to include certain words; the holiday contest, because it often includes a song title prompt; Valentiny, what’s not to love with so much emotion with so few words; #50PreciousWords, because it forces me to think about word choice and brevity. Enjoy your get-together in Geneva & Bologna!
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Thanks, Patricia! 🙂
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I love this story, and i can’t wait for these books.
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Thank you, David. 🙂
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Congrats on 2 books! They look adorable. I do enjoy writing contests and although my own personal life, etc. got in the way this year, I didn’t participate in my favorite which is Vivian’s 50-word challenge contests.
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I love this happy post! I can’t wait to see these two adorable books.
I love the 50 word challenge contest.
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These books are adorable. So many favorites among writing challenges, but probably 50-word challenge is number one.
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Congratulations! Adorable! I’ve participated in #50PreciousWords and Susanna Leonard Hill’s Valentiny Writing Contest. I love them both! I love the challenge of word limits. 🙂
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Congratulations on your book birthdays!! I love writing challenges and there are so many good ones out there. The one that keeps me motivated and coming back is Storystorm every January. I generate so many great ideas, and then the blog posts to support along the way is a great combination for me.
I know a perfect little person whom I would gift these books to, my neighbor’s new baby. They look and sound amazing!
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Thanks Nadine. 🙂
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Wow! What a great story. I love contests…must I choose a favorite? Ive won books and critiques from entering. I must say that 50 Precious words is at the top of my list. It’s one of the most challenging. It makes a children’s writer think! There’s writing, editing, cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting without losing beginning, middle, and end without losing story. I bet I’ve written more than 50 words with this response!!!
PS
Sounds like your whirlwind, world wide trip is going fantastic, Amazing adventure.
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I can’t wait to read these!
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Beautiful covers and congratulations Julie on having two books out. Loved the post Vivian, awesome as always.
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Thanks Diane 🙂
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Congrats Julie. I hope to meet you and Vivian at the Book Fair in Bologna. Will you have a few copies of your book with you by any chance?
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Hi, thanks Eleanor. We will be there from Tues to Thursday, what about you. I thought I might take a couple. 🙂
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I will be attending a conference all day April 2 then I’m free to tour the fair ’til April 4.I have Vivian’s phone number. I will contact her via email to give her my contact info so we can meet up somewhere. I don’t have a copy of my book yet, but it’s a matter of time and I’m hoping to have something with me in April.
Keep a copy of your book for me.:)
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Wow, I totally want to win a book! These look so cute, and what an inspiring, happy road to publication. I could list a ton of adult-poetry contests but I’m new to the PB world. So the SCBWI of the Carolinas contest to win tuition to their fall conference and your 50 words contest are the only two PB ones I’ve entered so far. Enjoyed– immensely– working on both. There is a Sustainable Arts Foundation for which writing parents can apply, and they have a PB category. The Feb. submissions are over, but they’ll open it again this fall. I’ll post it on the 12 x 12 facebook page when the time comes. I didn’t realize they had a PB category until this year. Cool!
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I saw a sneak peak of some of the pages of Little Tiger and Little Panda on Amazon, and I just know that board book fans are going to love having these books read to them. (In a few short words, Little Panda reminded me of videos I’ve seen of panda cubs at the National Zoo.) Good luck with these books, Julie!
It’s way too hard to pick a favorite writing contest – I love the challenge that writing for a particular purpose, such as limited word count, creates. I’ll just add another contest to the list. Each year, the Shoreline Arts Alliance sponsors the Tassy Walden Awards for unpublished children’s book authors who live in Connecticut. It’s a great opportunity to get your writing in front of experienced professionals if you live in Connecticut.
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