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THE BUTTERFLY WHO HAD NO COLOR

7/25/2022

TITLE: The Little Butterfly With No Colors
AUTHOR: Brittany Herrera and Yosi Vidal
ILLUSTRATOR: Eszter Angéla Békési
PUBLISHER: Self-Published (March 21, 2022)
ILLUSTRATOR: Eszter Angéla Békési
ASIN: BO9W6XV33Y
ISBN-13: 9798497491944
FORMATS: Paperback, Kindle
Price: Kindle $3.75, Paperback $12.95

This adorable picture book is a must for your child’s library. In it the child will learn about patience and waiting for what he or she wants. It teaches young girls that they don’t have to look like everyone else. It shows your child that they can ignore ‘the mean girls’ and all the bullies in school since they will win in the end by having patience.

If you would like to see this book for 0-6-years-old in your child’s library, you’ll find it on Amazon.

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BRING YOUR STORY to LIFE!

7/19/2022

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What in the world? You’ve just finished your latest and (hopefully) your greatest story. You’ve let your friends read it and of course, they liked it. They’re your friends. You also read it to Rex, asleep in the corner of your office. He gave a yawn of approval too. So, you proofread your manuscript and proofread some more. Is the punctuation okay? Check. Does each word move the story along? Check. What’s wrong with it? Try reading it to Rex again and listen to your words. Forget about your friends and family since they’re just going to tell you what you want to hear. There. Hear that? Read that section again. There’s no life in your character nor is there good description in the narrative. You have write visually and bring your book to life.

What is writing visually? It’s something we’ve all heard before. Show, don’t tell. For those of you who haven’t heard those particular words here’s my definition: It’s when you reader is able to put himself/herself in your book. You should engage all five senses to do this. Let your readers feel Jason punch Harry without warning. Let Mary smell those fragrant roses. Describe these sentences so your readers can feel that punch or smell the rose. Have your characters talk naturally. Describing in a few words what they feel (emotionally), see, question, etc. Also, people aren’t robots in real life. When was the last time you saw someone talking and their expression never changed, they didn’t talk with their hands, or they didn’t fix their hair when the wind blew?

For instance: Keira left school. “I’m going to the mall,” she said to Sasha. Here’s the same sentence brought to life. Keira raced down the hall stopping when she saw Sasha putting her books in the locker. “I’m going to the mall after school,” she puffed. “Wanna come?” “Sure! Wait a sec until I fix my hair. Maybe that new guy will be there.” Which description would you rather have in your manuscript? Which one shows more instead of tells?

Take a look at these sentences: The three young people climbed the hill. Okay. Now read this: As the three friends climbed, they swatted flies away from their faces. Bees buzzed around them while low-hanging tree branches smacked them in the face. Which sentence shows more thus giving it life?

The trick is to give your characters some character not only in the dialogue but in the narrative as well. In the narrative, your reader can see them struggling up that hill. In dialogue they can see, feel the emotions of the girls and relate to them.

Here’s a video by The Three Minute Writing Teacher that will help you along the way to bring your book to life!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d68vWb5rvso

I’ve also found some books, blogs, or websites that will help you with this.

BOOKS
Word Magic for Writers by Cindy Rogers http://www.amazon.com/Word-Magic-Writers-Cindy-Rogers/dp/1889715247/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420086148&sr=1-1&keywords=word+magic+for+writers
You Can Write Children’s Books by Tracey E. Dils http://www.amazon.com/You-Can-Write-Childrens-Books/dp/1582975736/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420086272&sr=1-1&keywords=you+can+write+children%27s+books
Picture Writing by Anastasia Suen http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Writing-Write-kids-library/dp/1582970726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420086481&sr=1-1&keywords=picture+writing

Blog
How To Write Visually by Donald L. Vasicek http://www.donvasicek.com/writing/how-to-write-visually/

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HOW TO RAISE TENSION IN YOUR CHILDREN'S STORY

7/12/2022

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Some of you know that I’m working on my garden. Because of the bright sun that hits the back of my house, the plants usually burn up and die despite my diligently watering them each day. Will I be able to get my garden to flourish this year? Will it look nice? This is tension or you can call it suspense. Do you need it in a children’s story? Yes!
Even the youngest readers need tension in their picture books. Middle grade readers need more tension, and you need even more for young adults. So, just how do you accomplish this? It’s not really that hard and I have some suggestions.

The power of three. Do you remember learning about the power of three? It goes like this:

Your main character wants to accomplish something but there’s a problem. He/she thinks they have the problem solved.
The main character (along with his/friends, dog, or whoever) set out to accomplish they goal only to find a problem ruining their plans of reaching the goal. This can be an obstacle caused by the antagonist. That might be the school bully, time for supper, the weather, a disability, or anything else you can think of. For a gentle picture book, it could be that your main character is learning the alphabet when her mind goes blank at the letter M. Do any of these heroes/ give up? No. He or she wouldn’t be a good main character if they gave up. Now, he/she may stop and have doubts on whether the goal can be accomplished.
Instead, the hero/heroine goes back and re-thinks the problem and starts over again with the help of friends or the trusty dog. This time he/she reaches his goal.

The power of three works for any age level but is especially good in a picture book. For middle grade to young adult, you want more problems. You can increase the power of three to the power of four, five, six, seven, and so on. The older the child, the more problems prevent him from reaching the goal.

Shorter sentences. Increase tension by using shorter sentences or try using short, incomplete sentences that end in an ellipse. This is a great way to increase tension for middle grade and up. Study how this technique was used in the Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling or Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke. This way really keeps your reader turning those pages and feeling breathless by the time the hero/heroine reaches the goal. In Harry’s case, it was always during the battle scenes with Lord Voldemort. In the Inkheart series the problem was escaping killers, getting out of the bookworld, and back home.

Increasing Problems. Increasing the problems in a picture book can be created with relative ease. Take the example I used above about the heroine learning the alphabet, gets to the letter M, and her mind goes blank. That’s a problem. You could use other common obstacles like little brother not sharing and he starts screaming about it, a lost toy, and so one. But for middle grade books and up the stakes are higher. It could be the school bully stealing the heroine/hero’s lunch money thus forcing him to go all day on an empty stomach. It could be the theft of a new coat forcing him to walk home from school in the middle of winter shivering. This raises questions in the reader’s mind that must be answered. Will the hero confront the bully after school? Will it turn into a fist fight in front of the whole universe? What about the problem of the stolen coat? What happens? Does the hero simply go to the teacher and leave it up to her to get his coat back? What happens? The older the child is, the more you raise the stakes. The more obstacles get in the way too. Or your antagonist has a following willing to do anything he says…a gang. Like I said, raise the stakes!

Time limit. Is there a certain period of time the hero/heroine has to get the problem resolved? Take homework. It usually must be finished by the next day. Or is the main character making a birthday present for Mom and it should be finished by her birthday. This is another way of putting and raising tension in your story.

I hope I gave you some ideas on how to make your book fun and exciting for readers. Remember, without tension in your children’s book (or any book), it’ll fall flat.

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My Poor Puzzling Pepper

7/4/2022

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Hi! This is not going to be about writing today. It's going to be under the 'more' of Kidlit and More.

Where I live, I'm allowed a 3-foot by 5-foot section where I can plant a small garden of anything I want. This year I'm trying to grow vegetables. This is my way of trying to beat the rising prices at the grocery store.

I have a tomato plant, a pepper plant, and one of those three tier planters. In it I planted basil, radishes, and green onions. Everything is doing just fine, but I'm puzzled by my pepper plant. I've never tried to grow one before!

To my knowledge, all pepper plants grow up in height as well as produce fruit, right? Well, mine is about three inches high and has three peppers on it. What can I do to make it grow in height?

I've read all the plants about the care of peppers. Nothing. No information about my particular dilemma at all. I've talked to friends who gave me advice that I took, tried, and I don't see any difference. My three-inch-high plant just keeps producing peppers. Finally, I searched Google and put my exact problem in the search bar. TA-DA! I got a result!

Google's advice was to only water twice a week. That will encourage the plant to grow in height. I hope they're right. I'll try it, anyway. This contradicts everything else I've read on the subject.

My pepper plant is a puzzle to me. Does anyone have any suggestions to help my poor puzzling pepper grow? Leave your suggestions in the comments.

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