Sneek Peek at The Soggy Town of Hilltop

I’m still working on a web site, flash games, promotion material for my books and a new rhyming picture book, all which are in various stages of completion. But I should have something to show for it by next month. I’m glad we’re gaining an hour due to Daylight Savings Time, because I could use it!

I did see some illustrations from The Soggy Town of Hilltop and I’m very happy with them. Eugene Ruble is the illustrator for this book and I think he did an excellent job. Eugene was an illustrator for the Voltron cartoon series for those of you old enough to remember it. Now Eugene is one of the talented artists at Guardian Angel Publishing(GAP). He is also doing the illustrations for my counting book titled, Lightning Strikes, that GAP is publishing. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he comes up with.

On a side note, I am old enough to remember Voltron. Unfortunately, what I remember most about Voltron is my attempt at assembling a three foot tall replica of the robot that my mother bought for my nephew. Enlisting the help of my sister and brother-in-law, we managed to put this thing together, but it did take most of Christmas morning to do it. My nephew was about two years old at the time, and could have cared less about Voltron. He proceeded to play with the box it came in. The box was quite a hit.

Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, here is a sneak peek at The Soggy Town of Hilltop. This book is scheduled to be released in January 2010.

Prose vs. Rhyme

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything new. So I’ve taken a short break from creating online games and websites, and have been trying to get back to basics. I’ve framed out the idea for a new picture book, but now I’m left with one nagging question. Should it be in prose or rhyme?

I’m leaning towards rhyme for no particular reason other than it seems to be the best way for me to tell the story. It also means that I’ve picked the most difficult route to travel. To write a rhyming picture book, I still need all the elements of a story, I need a clear beginning middle and end; a strong plot, a likeable character, maybe a villain or two, some sort of conflict, and a good, believable resolution of the conflict, all while paying attention to rhyme and meter.

I’ve heard it said that a story shouldn’t be told in rhyme unless it absolutely has to, but I’m not exactly sure what that means. What’s the method for determining whether a story should rhyme or not? All of Dr. Seuss’s work could have been written in prose, but it wouldn’t have been the same. I think it’s just a plain judgment call.

I know why people say this though. Writing a story in rhyme is hard to do well. I’m sure that many otherwise promising stories have been sunk by faulty rhyme or meter, or that they were missing a necessary element of a true story.

I actually started writing this story in prose, and then I wrote another rhyming version. I like the rhyming version better. It has a certain character that the other version doesn’t. So for this reason alone I am taking the more difficult route. I don’t know where this will take me. Hopefully, I’ll wind up with a completed, polished piece. But I could also wind up with an unfinished, abandoned piece, which has unfixable problems.

A challenge…sure. But I’m not intimidated by a challenge. A rhymer it is.

Some More Things Coming Together

I think I have enough games and activities to start assembling my kid-friendly website, so that’s the next thing on my list. I need to put together the opening page and figure out how I want to organize the games. I’m thinking about organizing them by the game type and having a puzzle page, word game page, etc. But I’ll have to see how that works out. It’s still going to be a lot of work though, between designing the pages and testing the links. I’m going to be glad when the website is launched and I can get back to the business of writing again. I’m itching to write some new material. I did get a chance to submit some more work though and that makes me happy. I have five more submissions making the rounds out there.

On the publication front, I received the cover for my book, If I Could Be Anything. Marina Movshina did the illustrations and I’m very happy with them. She was a pleasure to work with and I’m looking forward to the book’s release. The latest word I’ve received is that the book will be coming out in November. Here’s a sneak peek at the cover.

Happy Writing.

Kevin

Interview of me at The Storyteller's Scroll

Just starting to dig out from the long holiday weekend. I went to the Jersey shore for a much needed vacation. I did bring my laptop with me and wound up working on another game for my website though. My intenet access was sporadic so I didn't get a chance to blog about my interview at The Storyteller's Scroll. After I won the contest, Gayle asked if I could do an interview. It explains my particular path to publication and what's been going on afterwards. If you get a chance, stop by and say hello. The link to Gayle's blog is below.

http://thestorytellersscroll.blogspot.com/

Whoo Hoo Again!

Coming through once again, Guardian Angel Publishing has accepted my picture book manuscript, My Brother, the Frog. There’s no release date yet, but my publisher already has an illustrator in mind. I’ll post more info on this, if the illustrator accepts the project.

In other news, I’ve still been working on online games and have reached a decent sized inventory of games and activities. I plan to launch my site in the fall when my first book, If I Could Be Anything, is released. Right now, I’ve been loading and testing games, but it’s not a working website yet. The following game isn’t going to be on my kid-friendly site, but I couldn’t resist making it once I found out that I could switch the target pretty easily. I figure that adults might get a kick out of this so I’m posting this here. It’s based on whack-a-mole and you have to click the mouse to register hits.

http://www.kevschildrensbooks.com/whack/whackanauthor.html

Also, I wound up winning the contest that Gayle Krause, hosted on her blog

http://thestorytellersscroll.blogspot.com/

The grand prize was an autographed copy of her picture book, Rock Star Santa. Gayle autographed it for my daughter, who was thrilled to see that the book was personalized for her. Rock Star Santa is a modern day “Night Before Christmas. The verse and the illustrations are great, and this would make a fine addition to any child’s library. It’s published by Scholastic for anyone who would like to put a copy under the Christmas tree this year.

More Tech Stuff

I must have spent the past two months up to my eyeballs in technology, while I tried to piece together some online games. I managed to get a working matching game, puzzle and online coloring book. I also reserved the domains kevschildrensbooks.com and kevinschildrensbooks.com, that I’ll be using to host these games. I’m not quite sure which domain I’ll eventually use, but I figured that I should probably reserve both.

Most of the games I came up with are based on The Sister Exchange, illustrated by Kit Grady. But now I’m waiting on some graphics from Marina Movshina who illustrated If I Could Be Anything. After, I see what I can do with the new graphics, I think I’ll be close to finishing the new website. Because, then it will just be a matter of creating the main page, along with any links. That should be a piece of cake compared to what I’ve been trying to teach myself lately. I’m planning on officially launching this site in the Fall to coincide with my first book’s release. I’ll be posting more information when I have a firm date.

On to other things, I actually wrote something new. It seems like forever since I’ve actually written anything and it felt terrific to exercise the creative portion of my noggin again. But Gayle Krause, a member of my poetry critique group, came up with a contest that was too much fun to resist. It was about creating a poem blending characters from two different fairytales. My entry is called “The Date”, and you can see that and others on her blog at,

http://thestorytellersscroll.blogspot.com/

And you can always post one of your own if you like. The grand prize is an autographed copy of her picture book, Rock Star Santa.

Whoo Hoo!!!

I’ve still been researching promotional possibilities for my books and have been trying to develop some online activities for kids. As a result, I have been up to my eyeballs in tech stuff and not writing much. I’ll talk about that some more in a later post when my new website is up and running and I can show you some results.

But right now I’d like to share some good news. Guardian Angel Publishing continues its streak of being my dream publisher and has accepted another picture book of mine. It’s a rhyming picture book titled, Just For Today. It’s about a child dealing with separation anxiety. I don’t have a release date yet, but I will keep you posted when I have more information.

This makes book number seven for me and it feels both great and strange to be saying that. I guess that’s because none of my books have been released yet. I guess it won’t be entirely real for me until my first book, If I Could Be Anything, comes out in the Fall. Meanwhile, does anyone know how to center a flash file in html?