Will Write for Cookies: Anna Forrester

Posted on April 29, 2017 by viviankirkfield

WILL WRITE FOR COOKIES

INSIGHT – INFORMATION – INSPIRATION

FOR WRITERS

TODAY’S GUEST

ANNA FORRESTER

Anna and I connected in the Picture the Books 2017 group. We are on the same page about so many things.

Anna has taught kindergarten (me, too) and second grade, and advocates for and designs landscapes for play; her debut picture book, BAT COUNT came out with Arbordale Publishing in February 2017. BAT COUNT introduces bats, white nose syndrome, and the empowering practice of citizen science in a story of action, reassurance and hope.

Welcome, Anna! I’m thrilled to have you visiting with us today.

ME: Who were your favorite authors/illustrators when you were a child?

ANNA:

I definitely connected more with books than with authors as a kid. We had a lot of Dr. Seuss around our house (I was terrified of those empty green pants), and Sendak. My lesser-known favorite books were Marie Hall Ets’s PLAY WITH ME and Evaline Ness’s SAM BANGS AND MOONSHINE. That little girl who narrates PLAY WITH ME was such a good girl, and Sam, in SAM BANGS AND MOONSHINE was so flawed in such a deep and human way. The two present a pretty interesting contrast.

ME: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started writing for children?

ANNA:

When I started writing, I was totally focused on getting published. And while getting more books out there is still a goal, I’ve found writing, all by itself, to be its own reward. It is such a profound and generative thing — it is this incredible excuse to explore questions and ideas that I love, and to dig into craft; for me, just writing, every day, is the real gift.

ME: Where do you like to write/draw – inside, outside, a special area in your home, on the computer, in a notebook? And when do you find time to write?

ANNA:

I used to write a lot by hand – morning pages, first drafts, etc. – in these great little notebooks that my husband brings me from his job. But the truth is: my brain is SO much faster than my hand, so my fingers cramped up. Plus my handwriting is almost illegible – even to me.

Now I mostly write a lot on the computer –even my morning pages. I feel a little bit guilty about that, but it’s good to be able to read what I write.

I still write a few things by hand, in those notebooks: workshops and meeting notes (I seem to focus and absorb better if I’m writing) and occasional poetry (always free verse – I’m hopeless at more structured poetry).

I have an old typewriter (manual — not electric) that sometimes I write on as well. When you’re typing you can’t constantly self-edit like you do on computer (technically you can, but it’s not worth the effort), so the words just flow. At the same time it is SO physical and tactile: your fingers have to really work, and it is noisy. I love it – and am always blown away by how different my writing is when I type. Plus it’s legible.

As for where: absolutely anywhere – though I do log a lot of desk time.

ME: When during the day (or night) are you most productive? Do you set a schedule for working or do you write/draw when the muse speaks?

ANNA:

Notes and scribbling happen any time. But otherwise: mornings. My brain is so much better earlier in the day. If I have a deadline I’ll do late, but I am so much slower and foggier.

ME: Why do you write for children?

ANNA:

Kate DiCamillo said about writing for children, “I love that books for kids allow for magic and demand hope.” HOPE is the real magnet for me. It is such a powerful – and necessary – ingredient in children’s books and in life.

A couple of weeks ago I went to hear the essayist Rebecca Solnit speak, and she put another overlay on the idea of HOPE that really resonated with me as well. She was talking about the tools that artists and writers need to have at their disposal in order to work through the overwhelming helplessness that so many of us feel in the face of the challenges of what’s been dubbed the Anthropocene Era: climate change and mass extinctions and their seemingly inevitable outcomes.

Solnit talked about HOPE as a critical tool, because hope is forward-looking – focused on the future — and it contains, within it, the seed of POSSIBILITY. And when you think about it, POSSIBILITY is what we all seem to always be exploring in our stories, and what we want children to experience a sense of, too.

Aside from writing about writing for children or – in my other life – about their play, writing for adults was never something I felt drawn to.

ME: That is so exciting, Anna. Yes, possibility! That’s what my #50PreciousWordsforKids is all about…creating an opportunity…a platform…for kids to become the storyteller and use their imaginations. Is there anything you’d like to say directly to parents and teachers?

ANNA:

Apropos of HOPE and POSSIBILITY: both are incredibly empowering. It is so important that we are always offering children opportunities to experience their own agency and cultivating in them a sense of their own ability to impact their world for good. Skills are important, but only to the degree that they enable us to DO.

To find out more about Anna and her books:

Her website: Hmmmm: www.annaforrester.com

or on Twitter @annaforr.

And Anna has a special recipe to share with us.

CHEESIES

This super-simple recipe is my great, great grandmother’s. It makes a savory treat that is one of my – and my kids’ – all- time favorite comfort foods. (My mom used to make them when company came over; we make them all the time.)

INGREDIENTS:

2 c. grated sharp Cheddar cheese

1 c. soft butter

2 c. sifted flour

1 t. salt

dash of cayenne pepper

pecan on top (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cream the cheese and butter together. Add flour, salt and cayenne and mix until dough is smooth and well-blended. Roll and shape dough into rolls about one inch in diameter.

Chill two hours, or until dough is firm. (We often double the recipe and leave a few logs in the fridge for a few days.)

Preheat oven to 350. Slice the dough into thin rounds – roughly ¼” thick.

Place on ungreased cookie sheets about one inch apart add set a pecan of on top of each.

Bake for 12-15” or until slightly brown.

Remove cheesies from sheet with spatula and let cool on a brown paper grocery bag (the grocery bag is a key part of the tradition).

This looks really yummy, Anna! Thank you so much for sharing your great-great-grandmother’s recipe with us.

I think this would be fun to do with my grandson…he loves Cheese Doodles.

Have a great weekend, everyone! And stay tuned for tomorrow’s #50PreciousWordsforKids post.

Jackie Azua Kramer: Will Write for Cookies PLUS Giveaway

Posted on April 22, 2017 by viviankirkfield

WILL WRITE FOR COOKIES

Plate of Cookies

INSIGHT – INFORMATION – INSPIRATION

FOR WRITERS

TODAY’S GUEST

headshot

JACKIE AZÚA KRAMER

Jackie and I connected in a couple of kid lit Facebook groups. I absolutely love her picture book, THE GREEN UMBRELLA, which we spotlighted during her book blog tour. I’m thrilled to announce that THE GREEN UMBRELLA was just chosen as a Bank St College Best Books.

Her story melds so perfectly with the reuse/recycle/repurpose theme of Earth Day http://www.earthday.org/, I knew we would want to welcome her to Will Write for Cookies today.

And because I think it’s fun for you to know a little bit about our guests, I grabbed a paragraph from her website about page:

Many lives ago I was an actor, singer & school counselor. Now I’m an author, and wile away my time writing children’s picture books. What ties these all together are my dreams and imagination. Most of the time you’ll find me reading, watching old movies, globe trekking and whenever possible sharing laughter & food with my family.

Welcome, Jackie! Thank you so much for stopping by to visit with us.

ME: Who were your favorite authors/illustrators when you were a child?

JACKIE:

It may sound cliché, but Maurice Sendak, Dr. Seuss and Arnold Lobel. They were my generations Mo Willems or Mac Barnett. I wore my copies thin of In the Night Kitchen, Horton Hears a Who and Frog and Toad are Friends. At the time, reading in school was very dry and uninventive. It was a welcome relief to discover these books at the library and simply laugh out load or see yourself in these stories. I remember crying when I read Frog and Toad because I knew as a child what it meant to feel lonely sometimes.

ME: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started writing for children?

JACKIE:

Apart from the ‘ins and outs’ of the publishing industry, not much. I felt then, as I do now, that wonder is the secret sauce. Wonder allows you to stay curious, open and present, and from that can come great stories. There is one thing—I would have read more picture books.

ME: Where do you like to write/draw – inside, outside, a special area in your home, on the computer, in a notebook? And when do you find time to write?

JACKIE:

All the above. I love my writing space at home, but sometimes there are too many shiny distractions. When the weather is warm, I love to sit on my deck under a canopy of trees. I also love the back corner of my library that faces an old church.

ME: When during the day (or night) are you most productive? Do you set a schedule for working or do you write/draw when the muse speaks?

JACKIE:

I’m writing ALL the time. Just not on paper or my computer. Much of the time, I write in what I call my ‘writerly mind’. In that space–I imagine, dream, think and wonder. Bit by bit, the idea for a story begins to form along with a possible structure. The Boy and the Eight Hundred Pound Gorilla (Candlewick Press, TBD) at 300 words lingered in my thoughts for almost two years.

ME: Why do you write for children?

JACKIE:

Honestly, I write for children because I feel I have something I want to share with them. My hope is that my stories are conduits to feelings—joy, curiosity, sadness, laughter, surprise. Nothing is worse than knowing a child read my book and at the end there wasn’t an ‘AHA’ moment.

ME: Yes, you are so right, Jackie…those are crucial elements to strive to have in our stories. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

JACKIE:

Join Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators—that’s a must. Have something where you can jot down inspirations, thoughts, ideas. Don’t edit or limit your ideas at this incubation stage. Quirky, nuggets or impossible, silly, bizarre and wrong ideas, collect them like a jar of penny’s. One day you’ll cash in BIG!

Thank you so very much, Jackie, for sharing your insights. I know everyone is walking away with a renewed (YES, renewed…pun intended) excitement for why we are all writing for children.

To find out more about Jackie and her books:

www.Jackieazuakramer.com

Twitter @jackiekramer422

Facebook: Jackie Azúa Kramer

The Green Umbrella on Amazon

Oh, wait a minute…don’t walk away yet. First check out the treat recipe. And then make sure you leave a comment to be entered in Jackie’s giveaway. And because it is Earth Day, please join the fun and post or tweet a photo of you doing your Earth Day thing…recycling/repurposing/reusing…make sure you tag me and Jackie so we can see it.

And because we are doing things a bit differently in honor of Earth Day, Jackie has a savory dish for us to try. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe she shared my hubby’s FAVORITE brunch.

JACKIE: I have a simple breakfast dish that we love in our family, Egg in a Basket. And eggs and spring also go well together.

Recipe for Egg in a Basket:

Cut a medium slice of your favorite round bread. I like a good sour dough. Take out most of the center of the bread. Place in a hot pan with butter and crack two eggs in the center. Flip once and cook eggs to your preference. I love the eggs over easy which compliments the crispy bread. Tip: In the last 30 seconds, add a slice of cooked bacon on top. Bacon makes everything special.

Vivian’s note: This is my husband’s favorite brunch…we call it Egg in a Nest and we add a slice of cheese…American, Swiss, or provolone…let it melt on top…mmmm…mmmm…good!

At this very moment, I am at the NESCBWI with so many of my kid lit friends…maybe even you! Next week, I hope you’ll stop by again for an NESCBWI recap, a Book Review and Giveaway from Rosie Pova in honor of Mother’s Day (doing it early so the prize will get to the winner by Mother’s Day), a Perfect Picture Book Friday with Tara Lazar and a Will Write for Cookies with Anna Forrester. And don’t forget to leave a comment and share a recycle/reuse/repurpose photo on social media.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Linda Whalen: Will Write for Cookies PLUS Giveaway

Posted on April 8, 2017 by viviankirkfield

WILL WRITE FOR COOKIES

INSIGHT – INFORMATION – INSPIRATION

FOR WRITERS

TODAY’S GUEST

LINDA WHALEN

I first met Linda in the Picture the Books 2017 group…what an awesome array of authors and illustrators! I’m thrilled with the quality of books that are debuting this year!

Linda Whalen lives with her husband on a plot of land in Northern California. Born a city kid, she married a farm boy from the mid-west and fell in love with country life. Surrounded by family, pets and bunches of wild creatures, life is never dull. After working in, and then owning her own child-care facility, Linda is now pursing her passion of writing for children. She also enjoys time spent with her art supplies.

Maybe Linda will one day illustrate her own stories…we’ll have to ask if that is a goal of hers.

Just a reminder that Linda is giving away give a copy of LITTLE RED ROLLS AWAY. If you want to see my review of it, click here. Make sure you leave a comment below. And if you haven’t already joined my email list, please click on the sidebar logo. I promise not to send you any junk…just good stuff.

And now, let’s give a big Will Write for Cookies welcome to Linda!

ME: Who were your favorite authors/illustrators when you were a child?

LINDA:

There were no funds for books in our household when I was growing up. But I did get an understanding that books were important because my mother had a set of The Book of Knowledge that were very dear to her and I wasn’t allowed to touch them. She also had a book that was a collection of children’s stories which she read to me occasionally. I still have that book and read it to my children often. When I was eleven she bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia and I loved flipping the pages and reading about all sorts of things outside of my little world. I still have the set and every yearbook that goes with it. The fact that someone actually wrote what I was reading didn’t sink in until I was a teenager.

Once I started reading books I couldn’t get enough of them. To quote my husband in our early years of marriage, “you always have your nose stuck in a book.” He’s used to it now.

ME: What do you know now that you wish you had known when you first started writing for children?

LINDA:

Gag the internal editor! I was like so many new authors who think that the words you put on that blank piece of paper had to be perfect in every way until at a conference, I heard a speaker say “write crap, then edit.” It took a while for it to sink in but it really does release the creative side of writing to just let go and write what comes to mind. Believe me there is a lot of editing going on when I’m done. Then there’s editing after critique and editing after the sale. So just let go and go with the flow on the first draft.

ME: Where do you like to write/draw – inside, outside, a special area in your home, on the computer, in a notebook? And when do you find time to write?

LINDA:

I resisted writing on anything electronic. I love the feel of a pencil in my hand however, I’m much faster on the computer and can get the words down in a hurry. When writing by hand I sometimes have a hard time reading my own writing when I’ve rushed to get an idea down. Now I do both. I print out what I write electronically, grab a pencil and cuddle up somewhere to read and tear apart what I’ve written. I never clean my car or purse out completely, I need those scraps of paper to scribble down ideas when I get them. Of course, I do pull over and stop if I’m in driving. On retreat or vacation when life isn’t whizzing by I like to write outside if my allergies will let me. I’ve found the balcony of a cruise ship is wonderful place to let your mind go where it wants. However, that doesn’t happen often so wherever I can find the time and space, I write.

ME: When during the day (or night) are you most productive? Do you set a schedule for working or do you write/draw when the muse speaks?

LINDA:

I’m working on setting aside a specific time to write (like a job…eek!) My life is way too crazy for that but I’m trying. If I haven’t taken the time to write for a while I get a little itchy to do so, it’s the same way with art. My daughter has said to me, “Mom, I think you need to go write something.” Maybe I get a little grumpy when I ignore my creative me. So, I guess I prefer letting the muse strike.

ME: Why do you write for children?

LINDA:

Children have always been a big part of my life both personally and professionally. I love reading stories to children and seeing their emotions dance through their eyes as they listen. What better way to connect with that dance than to write the words.

Words written to bring joy, warmth, spark the imagination, sooth, and teach while entertaining young minds, cross all boundaries of color, gender, or wealth.

My husband while not an avid reader read bedtime stories to our children and often the words would spark his imagination and he would go off script and weave other elements into the story. While the author might not appreciate this, I think getting a reluctant reader to read stories to children is a great way to spark their imagination and interest to read more.

WOW! Linda…I love your reasons! And I know everyone joins me in thanking you for sharing those insights.

And now for one of my favorite parts of Will Write for Cookies…the treat recipe!

Coconut –Oatmeal Cookies

1 C. butter

1 C. brown sugar

3 eggs (well beaten)

2 C. Flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

2 C. shredded coconut

2 C. oats

1 C. chopped nuts (optional)

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS:

Cream butter and sugar until fluffy
Add eggs. Mix well
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamons.
Add flour mixture to sugar mixture blending well.
Add coconut, oats and nuts.
Drop rounded tablespoons on greased cookie sheet.

Bake in 350-degree oven for 15 minutes.

Now, that’s what I call an oatmeal cookies that begs to be eaten! Dear friends, to find out more about Linda:

Website: http://www.lindawhalenauthor.com

Twitter: @lindacwhalen

FB: Linda Whalen

LITTLE RED ROLLS AWAY on Amazon

Please don’t forget to leave a comment to be entered into the giveaway for a copy of LITTLE RED ROLLS AWAY.

And a BIG thank you to everyone who has been spreading the word about the #50PreciousWordsforKids Writing Challenge. Don’t know about it yet? Click on the link in the sidebar to get all the details…or email me at viviankirkfield@gmail.com…it’s going to be AWESOME!

Have a beautiful weekend, dear friends. Anything special planned? Our son is flying in from Chicago on Sunday to spend the night because he has a business meeting in Boston on Monday. Yippee! We love spending time with him!