November’s Not Just for Novelists Anymore!

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here’s one last reminder of tomorrow’s Author Book Club event at the Damascus Library from 2:00 to 4:00 where I will be giving a talk on …

The Beauty of Reinvention: Slumps. Roadblocks. Wrong directions. We’ve all had them, we’ve all hit them, we’ve all taken them. Join me as I discuss my career slumps, roadblocks, wrong directions, and how constant career reinvention, improved work habits, and a renewed love for writing can put a writer back on track again.

Hope to see you there and check here for more info!

And now, we have an awesome guest post by the lovely Kerry Aradhya, science writer, children’s poet, dancer, and aspiring picture book author. Take it away, Kerry!

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I’m pretty sure a lot of you have heard that November is National Novel Writing Month (affectionately known by many as NaNoWriMo), when writers bond online over the common goal of trying to write an entire novel in just one month. Well, as a picture book writer, that challenge makes my head spin. I can’t even imagine writing that many words in only 30 days! If you are like me, and feel more at home writing or illustrating picture books, then you’ll be thankful there’s an alternative.

A few years ago, author Tara Lazar officially launched Picture Book Idea Month (also known as PiBoIdMo) to challenge writers and illustrators to come up with 30 picture book ideas during the month of November. She hosts this fun annual challenge on her blog Writing for Kids (While Raising Them), where she also includes guest posts from picture book authors, illustrators, and other industry professionals throughout the month.

Anyone can follow PiBoIdMo on Tara’s blog, but if you officially register for the challenge here, you’ll also be eligible for some pretty fabulous prizes. Registration is open from October 24th to November 4th this year. I participated last year and came away with lots of new online friends and a little notebook full of picture book ideas to keep me going for a while. I’m definitely signing up again!

Whether or not you’re up for the PiBoIdMo challenge, there’s another online picture book party in November that is sure to get your juices flowing. Just last year, author and storyteller Dianne de Las Casas and four other authors and illustrators founded Picture Book Month, which is an annual international celebration of picture books. The initiative was so successful last year that it was even mentioned on Oprah Winfrey’s blog!

Picture Book Month has its own website, where you will find a different inspirational post about the importance of picture books each day during the month of November. E.B. Lewis, Karma Wilson, and Chris Raschka are among the many picture book champions who will be posting this year. I hope you’ll check it out!

And, don’t forget that our chapter’s “Writing/Illustrating Retreat by the Sea” is also coming up in November. More information on the retreat and registration (which is open until November 6th) is available here. If you can make it, it will be a perfect time to focus on all those new picture book ideas and to gather even more inspiration!

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Thanks, Kerry, and happy writing/drawing, everyone! 🙂