About viviankirkfield

Writer for children - Reader forever - Mom of 3, educator, author of FOUR OTTERS TOBOGGAN: AN ANIMAL COUNTING BOOK (PomegranateKids, PIPPA'S PASSOVER PLATE (Holiday House), SWEET DREAMS, SARAH (Creston Books); MAKING THEIR VOICES HEARD: THE INSPIRING FRIENDSHIP OF ELLA FITZGERALD AND MARILYN MONROE (Little Bee Books); FROM HERE TO THERE: INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WAY THE WORLD MOVES (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Jan 19, 2021); PEDAL, BALANCE, STEER: Annie Londonderry, First Woman to Bike Around the World (Calkins Creek/Astra, Feb 20, 2024) picture book junkie, lover of travel, hiking, fly-fishing, cooking, and playing Monopoly with my grandson.

#50PreciousWords Writing Challenge WINNERS

Posted on March 11, 2018 by viviankirkfield

CONGRATULATIONS!

The #50PreciousWords 2018 Writing Challenge was a HUGE success! You all made it so with your fabulous participation: 298 awesome stories and a comment thread that contained almost 1900 positive comments!

The guidelines were simple:

Write a story appropriate for kids ages 12 or under, using only 50 words…they can all be different words, or you can use some of them over and over…just as long as the total word count of the story is 50 or less.
It can be prose, rhyme, free verse, silly or serious…whatever works for you.
Title is not included in the word count.
No illustration notes please.
Please post your story in the comment section below. If you have your own blog and want to post your story there also, please do. And let us know your post link. I ask for the link so that people will visit each other and find new friends in the kid lit community. Please make sure you put your name in the post. If you have any trouble at all posting the story, please email me and I will be happy to do it for you: viviankirkfield@gmail.com.
Deadline for posting the story in the comments is Tuesday, March 6, at 11:59pm.
Winners will be announced in a special blog post on Sunday, March 11.

Here are the prizes: Continue reading →

Baptiste Paul: Will Write for Cookies PLUS Giveaway

Posted on March 10, 2018 by viviankirkfield

WILL WRITE FOR COOKIES

INSIGHT – INSPIRATION – INFORMATION

FOR WRITERS

TODAY’S GUEST

BAPTISTE PAUL

In 2016, I attended the Wild Wild West SCBWI conference in Chicago and got to meet our Will Write for Cookies guest. His wife, our own Miranda Paul, was signing some of her books and I had a chance to chat with Baptiste. I don’t know if he will remember…I’ll have to ask him. But we talked about books and families and it was lovely. And when I discovered he had a debut picture book coming out in March, I knew I wanted to have him stop by to share some of his journey with us.

Baptiste Paul is a man of many talents—from woodworking to gardening to entertaining hoards of children for hours on end. Born and raised in the Caribbean (Saint Lucia), Baptise is a native Creole/Patois speaker and enjoys roasting his own coffee and chocolate. Baptiste holds Degrees in Environmental Studies and Political Science from Bucknell University and currently resides with his family in Green Bay, Wisconsin. His debut picture book, THE FIELD, launched on March 6, 2018.

Welcome, Baptiste! Thank you so much for stopping by to visit with us. I’ve got a bunch of questions and we’d all love to hear your answers, so let’s get started. Continue reading →

Perfect Picture Book Friday: THE FIELD Plus Giveaway

Posted on March 9, 2018 by viviankirkfield

WOW…I’ve had an awesome week! Thanks to almost 300 incredible writers who shared their stories in the #50PreciousWords Writing Challenge. More about that on Sunday when we announce the winners and honorable mentions and hand out some prizes.

But we’ve got prizes today also. Oh yeah! A couple of weeks ago, author and circus guru Jackie Leigh Davis stopped by to chat and offered a copy of her brand-new book, DIY CIRCUS LAB FOR KIDS…and it is SIGNED! And the winner is:

ANGIE QUANTRELL

The next week, author Carol Gordon Ekster visited and generously donated a picture book manuscript critique as a giveaway. And the winner is:

BEV BAIRD

Congratulations! We’ll connect so you can get your prizes. And don’t forget, dear friends, on Sunday, we will hand out FIFTEEN super prizes for the #50PreciousWordChallenge.

And not to disappoint, our post today ALSO has a giveaway…thanks to debut picture book author, Baptiste Paul, who will answer some questions here tomorrow on Will Write for Cookies.

Are you ready for our picture book review?