Today is the day that Desert Girl, Monsoon Boy, illustrated magnificently by Archana Sreenivasan and written by me, releases into the world. It is intended for readers aged 4-8 (but, of course, readers older and younger than that are very welcome). It is the first picture book I’ve written, and the best-reviewed book yet of… Read more »
Agents
So you want to get your children’s book published?
Updated May 2023 With some regularity, I get e-mails from people who have written a book for children and would like advice on how to get it published. The first thing I always tell them is “Congratulations! Writing a book is a huge accomplishment!” (Seriously. It took me seven years to write my own first children’s… Read more »
Last stop on the MSFV Success Story Blog Tour: Meet David Kazzie and win his e-book!
Well, what was hopefully only the first Annual Authoress’s Success Story blog tour is winding down with today’s post, the last in the series. But last is certainly not least, and I am thrilled to be interviewing author David Kazzie! David is also generously offering commenters a chance to win a copy of his Kindle… Read more »
Announcing a Success Story Blog Hop!
Hello, readers! As you may remember, a couple of contests at the blog Miss Snark’s First Victim directly resulted in me signing with my wonderful literary agent, Ammi-Joan Paquette, and selling my first novel (currently titled The Delicious Double Life of Gladys Gatsby, set for release in 2014). So now, to celebrate, I’m taking part… Read more »
A very literary (and tasty!) east coast trip
Oh, my–almost two weeks have passed since my trip ended. I’d better get this post up, huh? 🙂 I left Colorado just in time to escape 98-degree, bone-dry days and the worst of the wildfires, and flew into NYC just in time to catch 98-degree, 100%-humidity days that made me feel like I was back… Read more »
Hooray for Ann!
Just a quick post to say CONGRATULATIONS to my good friend, fellow Dartmouth alum (yeah, class of ’01!), and awesome critique partner Ann Bedichek, who is now officially my agency-sibling, too! Hurrah!! I knew from the moment I read Ann’s fabulous middle-grade novel, Scientastic SuperGirls, that she would not be unagented for long. It’s always nice… Read more »
Choose Your Own Adventure Giveaway!
Yep, I’m still finding ways to celebrate the fact that my debut middle-grade novel, The Delicious Double life of Gladys Gatsby, is getting published. (When you have a two-year wait for publication, you need to stretch the fun out as long as you can!) This past weekend, my husband and I threw a little “Tara has… Read more »
Gettin’ my nerd on.
Whoa, two posts in one week? Does this signal the beginning of a new, more rigorous blogging schedule? Nah. I’ve been too busy drafting a new WIP (that’s “Work In Progress” for the un-writerly-acronym-initiated), so posting here will probably remain somewhat sporadic for a while–though I am hoping to do a nice celebratory book giveaway… Read more »
What’s so bad about going on submission?
So, as I mentioned in my last entry, Agent Joan and I are gearing up to “go on submission” soon, which is just a fancy of way of saying that she’s going to send my novel out to some editors and see if anyone likes it enough to publish it. I’ve actually been feeling more… Read more »
How I Wrote a Novel and Got An Agent, Part 2
(Part 1 can be found here.) So, where were we? Oh, yes—a coffee shop in Tanzania. After six years, I had just written “The End” on a piece of paper containing the last page of the first draft of my novel. Andy was still up on Kilimanjaro somewhere, so I went out for Indian food… Read more »