Archive | December 2017

KidLit Love: Little Red Gliding Hood

Dec15

While not exactly a retelling, this book is an absolutely adorable story about not judging a person by their image or reputation and it’s filled with favorite fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters.

little red gliding hoodI’m going to admit that I picked this book up because I love figure skating. I love it now, and I especially loved it as a kid. You can keep your baseball and basketball and football… give me figure skating!

Tara Lazar wrote a very sweet story about our favorite Red. This time she’s a skating fanatic, but her skates are old and she needs new ones to keep her feet comfy and keep her safe when dancing across the ice. A competition is announced with the prize of new skates, making this the perfect opportunity for her! The problem is she needs a partner and everyone is already taken. Or are they?

little red gliding hood wolfWhile I loved the story (it didn’t feel like the author was talking down to her reader just because it was a children’s book and Red’s repeated exclamation of “Oh, slippery slush!” made me giggle more than once), I have to give a shout-out to Troy Cummings, the illustrator. All of the artwork was lovely, but the wolf! Oh my. Do you see this dapper wolf? Do you see his skating clothes? I’m in love. He reminds me of my favorite Russian skaters in the Olympics of my childhood. I can’t help it!

I recommend this one wholeheartedly. And if you speed through it the first time like I did, give it a second read and pay special note to all of the side characters, no matter how briefly mentioned. It really helps make the book.

*Is there a children’s book about poetry, books, or creativity that you want me to check out? Maybe a favorite fairy tale retelling? Make sure to leave the suggestion in the comments!

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Taking a Break

Dec4

This year has really beat me up. Various difficulties in my health, the health of family and friends, emotional strife with a few people, occasional real job work overload, financial headaches, and more have been rough this year. It happens and that’s called life, but man, my creative streak has suffered for it. I guess that’s also called life.

So I’m taking this month off. From everything. From trying to blog or write or submit my work. I’m going to enjoy holiday crafts, maybe write a few letters, and take it easy. It’s possible I’ll do the same with January, but I’ll reevaluate then.

This year I sent out 44 submissions, 1 application to a fellowship, 1 application to a residency, and a small handful of contest entries.

So far nothing has come back with that magical stamp ‘accept’, but I still have a few things out that I’m waiting to hear on. Worst case scenario I still tried harder this year than I have in years past. And that means next year I’ll try even harder. And more importantly, I’ll keep writing.

I’ve been suffering from some pretty thick writer’s block for the last 3 or 4 months too. But for the first time ever it’s not from distraction or lack of inspiration. It’s actually from overload. I have so much I need to say and get out that when I sit down to the page it all tries to come out at once and just clogs up the flow and gives me a panicky headache instead. Any ideas on how to get past this? I’ve done a little timed freewriting but even that can be hard to get out. Morning pages never seem to work out for me either.

I hope everyone has an amazing holiday season, whatever you celebrate. Enjoy the lights, spread some joy, and be kind to yourself and others. I do have one KidLit post scheduled for later this month, so keep an eye out for that. Otherwise I will see you all in the new year!