Coloring Page Tuesday - Cupcake!

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     Some of my favorite people celebrated birthdays this past week. Happy birthday Vicky and Stan! Didn't bake you a cake, but I drew you a cupcake! Yum.

Click here to view the entire Coloring Page Tuesday collection.
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog! Click here to find more coloring pages.

     Learn more about my fun picture book Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese - click the cover.

Five favorite sights

So, last Monday we covered our Five Favorite Smells. Not only is thinking of favorite smells a relaxing activity to get all those wheels in your head to shut up so you can go to sleep, it's not a bad writing exercise either. Do you forget to include all the senses when you write? Sometimes I do, and I have to go back in and add what a place feels like, smells like. How is the light? What is the weather?
   Anyhow - today we cover sight. My five (ha!) favorite sights are:

   • A grey sky on a purely writing day.
   • New buds on the branches of the tree just outside my window.
   • A fiery yellow sugar maple at its peak in Fall.
   • A beautiful sunrise/sunset. (Not original, but hey.)
   • A freshly made bed, right before I crawl into it.

How about you?
   I had so much fun reading your answers last week and I know you'll remind me of tons of things I've forgotten to list. Have at it!

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

This wonderful short film by Moonbot Studios and William Joyce has been nominated for an Oscar award. To celebrate, they've made it available online for free for a short time. CLICK HERE to have a look!

Teacher Grant

The Kids In Need Foundation is providing free school supplies to disadvantaged kids and underfunded teachers. Grants range from $100 to $500. Click the image for more info.

Springmingle this weekend!

Today (Friday) kicks off our 2012 SCBWI Southern Breeze Springmingle conference here in Atlanta! That would be the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Southern Chapter covering Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It's a wonderful gathering of friends and fellow creators as we learn from some of the top Editors, Authors, and Illustrators in the biz. I have the pleasure of being Kirby Larson's angel this year (and showing her around Atlanta like she did for me in Seattle last summer). Hope to see you there!

Reading Rainbow APP?

According to School Library Journal, the rumor is that LeVar Burton has plans to bring back Reading Rainbow as an APP! 'Twould be very cool to have Reading Rainbow back in any form at all. Although you can hang out at RRKids for now. No further details on the APP yet, but stay tuned!

3 Dimensional PRINTER!!!!

I want one of these SO BADLY! Can you imagine the implications on art - sculpture? Gads, it makes my head want to explode. How so very cool!

Thanks to Daily Dawdle for the heads up.

Coloring Page Tuesdays - Poodle!

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     Poodles and snowballs just seem to go together, don't you think? This winter poodle was requested by Holly's grand niece, Brooklyn. Enjoy!

     CLICK HERE for more Valentine's Day images and Click here to view the entire Coloring Page Tuesday collection.
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog! Click here to find more coloring pages.

     Learn more about my fun picture book Glitter Girl and the Crazy Cheese - click the cover.

5 Favorite Smells

So I was laying in bed last night (lying? whatever). Anyhow, all those things I've got to do were racing through my head and keeping me awake, as they so often do. To thwart them, I came up with a new way to calm myself down: Think of my five favorite smells/sounds/sights/etc.
   Today, I'm listing smells. My five favorite smells are:

   • Blooming abelia and orange blossom bushes caught on a gentle breeze.
   • Baking bread and brewing coffee (even though I can't drink the stuff).
   • The smell of my husband's cooking from the upstairs hallway. (He's really good.)
   • Gardenias and magnolia blooms.
   • The smell of a burning fire (fireplace) on a crisp, clear winter day. (Can I add the smell of grilling in July?)

   Okay, so maybe that ended up being more like seven or eight things. Hm. What are your five favorite smells?
   Oh, and you can pair these lists with your five least favorite smells/sounds/sights as well, but I found that to be much less productive towards the sleep process.

OK GO - Three Primary Colors

Here they are again - that band that makes the awesome music videos. This time they created a great video for Sesame Street - THREE PRIMARY COLORS.

Thanks to SwissMiss for the heads up!

The WYNWOOD WALLS

I think street art is such an under-recognized form and that there should be more organized efforts to make art available to everybody. Like this one...

HCTN TRAILER from Here Comes the Neighborhood on Vimeo.

Thanks to The Kid Should See This for the heads up.

Deadlines vs. Creativity

I think this little video spells it out rather well...

Thanks to June Goulding for the heads up.

Katie Davis' HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK - Giveaway!

You know Katie Davis, fellow host of #KidLitPRChat, right? Well, genius that she is, she's collated all her marketing savvy into a new ebook for us to learn by. It's called HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK: TIPS, TRICKS, AND SECRETS TO CREATE A BESTSELLER.
     If anybody should know the secrets, it's Katie. She is the creator of the wildly popular podcast BRAIN BURPS ABOUT BOOKS. (CLICK HERE to listen to the special episode all about her new book. Hint: I'm in it.) And her most recent efforts led to her being awarded the 2011 Trailee Award for her book trailer for LITTLE CHICKEN'S BIG DAY. SO cute...



I asked her about her latest...

Q. - Hi Katie - congratulations on all the success with LITTLE CHICKEN'S BIG DAY and your other books. You are THE Queen promoter in the children's book biz. What made you decide to write a book about it? 

A. - Picture book writer Carolyn Crimi gave me the idea years ago. But I wasn't really excited about sharing my knowledge in a book until I wrote a blog series leading up to my launch of LITTLE CHICKEN'S BIG DAY. So many people commented about how much it helped them that it made me want to reach an even broader audience. I figure why should I be the only one who learns from my mistakes?!

Q. - If there's one thing a soon-to-be-published author could do to improve their marketing, what would you recommend?

A. - Hmm. It would have to depend on what that soon-to-be-published author has done already.
   • No web site? Get one!
   • You have a web site but don't update it regularly? Start now!
   • You update regularly but don't interact with your commenters? Respond!
   • You tweet? Great!
   • You tweet but it's all about you? Look outward!
It's no singular thing, and all the things are interconnected. At center is it's really all about connecting, transparency, and reciprocity. That is what is the most effective for me.

Q.  - All of your books are published traditionally, except for this one. Why did you decide to do HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK on  your own? 

A. - It never occurred to me that someone would want to publish it! But also, there are probably over 200 links in this eBook and since things change so rapidly I can create new editions fairly quickly and re-upload them to the online booksellers. I am trying to get a google books version done so indies can carry it, but wow, they make it very complicated!

Thanks for stopping by, Katie!!!

GIVEAWAY!! Katie has kindly offered to give away one free copy (a downloadable .pdf) of HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK to one of my lucky commentors. Just leave a message ON THIS BLOG POST and be sure to include your name and email addy (spelled out is fine - like this: your name at whatever dot com) so that I can contact you if you win. Once I reach 12 comments, I'll do a random drawing.

HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK is also available for the Kindle, Nook, or iPad - CLICK HERE.

WAIT! There's more! Katie has visited lots of other blogs while promoting HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR CHILDREN'S BOOK, and there's different information at each of them (including more giveaways and an awesome tour of Katie's creative space). So be sure to visit:

Feb 1 - E is for Book
Feb 2 - Banana Peel Thursday
Feb 3 - Creative Spaces
Feb 6 - DearEditor.com
Feb 7 - Writing With a Broken Tusk
Feb 8 - Shutta Crum
Feb 9 - McBookWords
Feb 10 - Kerem Erkan
Feb 16 - Elizabeth O. Dulemba
Feb 17 - Fiction Notes
March 1 - 12x12 in 2012
March 2 - Christine Fonseca

P.S. - Don't forget there's another giveaway going on for a free children's book app - CLICK HERE!

I Write Picture Books

Have you seen these floating around facebook? This one hits especially close to home...

Click to see it larger.

Coloring Page Tuesday - Lovebirds

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     Happy Valentines Day! It's LOVE day! Spread some everywhere you can.

     CLICK HERE for more Valentine's Day images and Click here to view the entire Coloring Page Tuesday collection.
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog! Click here to find more coloring pages.

     Learn about my Cinderella story picture book, The Prince's Diary, click the cover.

Do you have a default song?

I sing and hum. A lot. And oftentimes I catch myself humming one of about three or four songs. I call them my default songs and I've been singing/humming them my entire life. They are: Yellow Submarine; Peter and the Wolf; and God Save the Queen. (I think there's one more, but I can't think of it right now.) I have no idea why these are my defaults. I find the first song annoying, and I'm not even British. I really only like the second one. So truly, why these songs? I suppose it could be worse. I could be cursed with "Feelings." Gads.
     Do you do this too? What are YOUR default songs?

OK GO - Needing/Getting - official video

Just the pianos alone! How'd they get that many? Wait... the guitars! This official video by OK GO just gets more amazing the longer you watch.

Of course, these are they guys that did that amazing video for "This Too Shall Pass" which I shared in March 2010.
Thanks to Daily Dawdle for the heads up.

"The Snow Ball" app!! (and GIVEAWAY!)

Today I have the distinct pleasure of honoring a dear friend and amazingly talented illustrator, Liz Conrad, who we lost to cancer in 2009. Liz worked on a series of board books written by David Steinberg (Price Stern Sloan): The Turkey Ball; The Witches' Ball; The Bunny Ball; The Beach Ball; and The Snow Ball. With Liz's enhanced cut paper style, these books came to life as an adorable and successful series.
     And then came apps and ebooks. David had the wonderful idea that Liz's art would adapt well, and he was so right. With the family's permission and support, THE SNOW BALL app is born!
     And oh, does Liz's artwork shine! Turns out her style fits apps so incredibly well. And with the deft programming of PadWorx, movement and a game, PENGUIN ATTACK, bring THE SNOW BALL to life. Liz would have been thrilled. Without bias, I can say this is one of the best looking, most adorable children's apps I've ever seen.
     I asked David about how the app came to be...

Q. What a wonderful tribute to Liz and her artwork. What encouraged you to create "The Snow Ball" app?

A. The business of making children's books is really some kind of magic alchemy. You have so many ingredients that, when they come together just right, can really spring off the shelf. This is the way I felt about the five "holiday ball books" that I worked on with Liz. There is something about the playfulness of her designs and the colors and textures she chooses, that just always make my words complete. I love those books.
     Over the last year or so, I've been watching this evolving world of children's book apps for the exploding tablet market, and Liz's books jumped out at me as really lending themselves to this kind of treatment. When you look at her illustrations, there are so many fun details and you can't help wanting to see those adorable characters come to life. They're just begging for interactivity! So when my wife and I decided that we wanted to explore this new interactive book form, the first books I naturally wanted to try out were the ones Liz and I did together. I have always had a soft spot for The Snow Ball, and then when we mapped a production schedule out with PadWorx, the company we worked with in Toronto on this app, winter was the logical first season to go with. I contacted Liz's family to make sure they liked the idea, and they did--so we dove in and worked hard to make the app as magical as we imagined it could be. I am happy with the way it turned out and really the best praise I have received was from Liz's family, saying that they were sure Liz would have been happy with the results, as well. Of course, the app is dedicated to Liz's memory and we've committed to donating a portion of proceeds to the Cancer Society.

Thanks so much for creating THE SNOW BALL, David! CLICK HERE to learn more about David as well as the app at his website.

THE SNOW BALL is now available for $1.99 at:
The iTunes store for iPads & iPhones
and Android
AND you can download the game, PENGUIN ATTACK for free (without the book) at:
The iTunes store for iPads & iPhones
and Android.

GIVEAWAY!!
David is kindly offering one free app to the winner of my drawing. Just leave a comment ON THIS BLOG POST and once we reach at least 12 comments, I'll do a drawing. You must leave your email address (your name at something dot come is fine) so I can get in touch with you, and live in the US or Canada to win.

OK Go - Needing/Getting - Official Video

Oops - this is going up on February 9th...

Coloring Page Tuesday - Atlas and the Snowball

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     Don't you feel like this sometimes too? And yet, if he can get that snowball up there, it will be the beginning of the most awesome snowman ever!

     Click here to view the entire Coloring Page Tuesday collection.
     Click the image to open a .jpg to print and color. Send your colored image (less than 1mb) to coloringpages@dulemba.com and I'll post it to my blog! Click here to find more coloring pages.

     Learn about my Cinderella story picture book, The Prince's Diary, click the cover.

manuscript in progress..

Along the lines of celebrating hurdles when you reach them... Friday I printed out my latest novel for my first readers to edit and give feedback. This is the novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo and at 65,000 words, it is a half ream of paper - the perfect length. It feels so good to see it in physical form. (I keep petting it - nice manuscript.) But the most interesting thing about this story so far (there will be another round of revisions) is it's taken me all of three months - November 1 - February 3. My last novel took 2 1/2 years (currently out on submission). The one before that took 4 years. I have to wonder if I'm getting the hang of this writing thing.

Getting to Know Ed Emberley

I learned how to draw using my thumbprint - did you? Mr. Emberley has created so many wonderful books for children to learn how to draw. And that's after an amazing career of drawing himself. The video is about 20 minutes and totally worth watching:

Getting to know Ed

Ed Emberley, Children's Book Illustrator | by Ed Emberley

View this entire course and more in the lynda.com Online Training Library®.

Thanks to Prescott Hill for turning me onto this!

Pink Fluffy Unicorns Dancing on Rainbows

I'm speechless... but smiling!

Thanks to Justine Musk for the heads up.

If you liked this song, also check out "Gravy and Toast." (He says he has 500 of these on the interwebs, so we can all become obsessed Andrew fans at SongsToWearPantsTo.com.)

Happy Groundhog Day!

From a close cousin, The Caddyshack Gopher:

Don't forget to color!

The Artists

Every child believes themselves to be an artist - until they compare their work to others' or are told differently.
     I love the joy the first artist gets from his creation... until he compares it to somebody else's work. There's a strong message there. Create for the way it makes you feel - not for how it fares in the world.

The Artists from Giant Creative on Vimeo.

#kidlitPRChat is tonight!

At 6:00pm EST (Wednesday, February 1st) with Dianne de las Casas, Katie Davis and Yours Truly. Tonight's topic will be "How Is Your Net Working?" We'll discuss:

• How do you network?
• Where do you network?
• What are the big no-nos of networking?
• What are the 3 most effective ways to network?
• Top 3 ways to follow up after you've met someone?
• How to turn an acquaintance into a friend...

TweetChat is my favorite way to join in on the conversation. Just plug in the hashtag: #kidlitPRChat at 6:00 and voila!
Hope to see you there!

CLICK HERE to read the transcript.

Maru gets a new hidey hole

You've seen Maru before, right? The cat who became famous for jumping in and out of boxes? Well, his sweet parents got him a new house of sorts. If only they hadn't put it on a rolling chair...
Put your coffee down, you don't want to spit on your screen.

Gads, that's a happy cat.