{"id":3029,"date":"2006-04-10T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2006-04-10T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=3029"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:25:23","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:25:23","slug":"monday-musings-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=3029","title":{"rendered":"Monday Musings"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve discovered a new site, thanks to the heads up of some cool people at SCBWI<\/a>. Since Autumn 2005, the website Children’s Media Professionals Forum<\/a>, brought together by April Sayres<\/a>, the phenomenally gifted and prolific picture book and middle grade nature author, has quietly flourished and given the people who work with and for children a place to meet.<\/p>\n

I like to think of myself as a ‘professional,’ but I merely lurk on the site as of yet. I get a little thrill reading how one of my very favorite authors, Jane Yolen<\/a>, works on projects and sees the world. It’s a free registration, but you can lurk without signing up (just don’t expect to be able to comment on threads or post your thoughts). Do check it out!<\/p>\n

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Kentucky author Marcia Thornton Jones<\/a> tells a funny story that has the best punchline ever<\/i>. Her first book, Vampires Don’t Wear Polka Dots<\/i> (published in 1990), was written to amuse herself when she was having a cruddy day. Before this, Marcia was a teacher and a struggling author<\/a>, having never published anything major, but always hoping, and checking and double checking her work, and struggling to get the words just right. The one piece she wrote with a fellow teacher as a joke…shone. So, there’s something to be said for lightening up and letting your work sing. Here’s another bit of proof that writing what you love – in Thornton Jones’ case, silliness — always<\/i> beats trying to write how you think publishers want you to. Forty <\/strong>middle grade books later, you’d better believe Marcia Thornon Jones believes that!<\/div>\n
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Finally, the very best story of the day — favorite children’s author Beverly Cleary<\/a> turns 90 this week. Yay! Another long-lived California writer! To celebrate this week, pick up a Cleary book. (My choice will be Dear Mr. Henshaw<\/a>, a book my fifth graders requested to read over and over.)<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ms. Cleary talks to NPR’s Debbie Eliott about the manically magically memorable Ramona Quimby,<\/a> the brightest, peskiest character in the neighborhood of Beezus and Ramona, Henry Huggins, Otis Spofford, Ellen Tibbets and all the others on Klickitat Street. Did you know there’s actually a group called “Ramona the Pest,”<\/a> in Oakland?! People are scandalized, but they mean it as a tribute…I think. Another tribute is found on Recess:<\/a> the World of Children’s Culture Every Day. (This is a cool site, too, on its own.) <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve discovered a new site, thanks to the heads up of some cool people at SCBWI. Since Autumn 2005, the website Children’s Media Professionals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-3029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-views"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3507,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3029\/revisions\/3507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}