Cynthia Leitich Smith's Blog, page 98

Video: Kathi Appelt & Alison McGhee on Maybe A Fox

From Cynthia Leitich Smith's  Cynsations

From Book View Now: "Host Rich Fahle talks with children's authors Kathi Appelt and Alison McGhee about their book, Maybe A Fox (Atheneum, 2016) at the 2016 L.A. Times Festival of Books.

New Voice: Melanie Conklin on Counting Thyme

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Melanie Conklin is the first-time author of Counting Thyme (Putnam, 2016). From the promotional copy:

When eleven-year-old Thyme Owen’s little brother, Val, is accepted into a new cancer drug trial, it’s just the second chance that he needs. But it also means the Owens family has to move to New York, thousands of miles away from Thyme’s best friend and everything she knows and loves. 

The island of Manhattan doesn’t exactly inspire new beginnings, but...

Guest Post & Giveaway: Emma Dryden on Putting the Internal Editor in a Time-Out

By Emma Dryden
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

An Editor Tries on Her Writer Hat

I’ve been a children’s book editor for over thirty years. Editing’s in my blood. Little else brings me as much joy or satisfaction as coaxing, guiding, and encouraging authors and illustrators to dig deeply and express their truest passions and richest stories.

Over the course of my career, I’ve edited well over 1,000 books, which means I’ve played some small or large part in the creative process for well ove...

Cynsational News

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Gareth Hinds by Jules from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Peek: "...you realize what you wrote is awful and you have to fix it — and that can be quite difficult and time-consuming and is something that continues to give me a hard time. Hence my lack of original projects. Adapting a text is easy for me and also exciting, because I can’t wait to illustrate it."

Driving Book Trailers by New Locations -- at Librar...

Guest Post: J. Albert Mann on Writer Resilience

By J. Albert Mann
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Rejection, reviews, competition, disappointment, deadlines, and doubt. There is no shortage of adversity in the writing life, making the ability to bounce back one of the greatest skills a writer can foster. And it can be fostered.

Because resilience is not a genetic or personality trait, but a process which can be learned and practiced. Overcoming the challenges that exist in our writing lives often feels difficult because it is difficult...

2016 SCBWI Bologna Illustrator Interview: Laura Stitzel

Laura with her cat, MilkBy Elisabeth Norton
for SCBWI Bologna 2016
and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Laura Stitzel is an independent artist in Melbourne, Australia. She has been working as an illustrator, designer and animator in Australia and Canada since 2007.

Working mainly for children’s television, Laura was recently part of the creative team at one of North America’s largest animation studios in Toronto, Canada.

 There she worked on the Emmy Award winning "Peg + Cat," and led the p...

2016 SCBWI Bologna Illustrator Interview: Lisa Anchin

By Angela Cerrito
for SCBWI Bologna 2016
and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Lisa Anchin has been drawing since she could hold a pencil and making up stories since she could speak. 

She grew up just outside of New York City, passing briefly through Massachusetts where she picked up a B.A. from Smith College, and then she returned to New York to work and to later pursue additional graduate degrees—an MA at Columbia and an MFA at the School of Visual Arts. 

Lisa now freelances full time...

2016 SCBWI Bologna Illustrators' Gallery Winner Interview: Rongyuan (Roya) Ma

By Elisabeth Norton
for SCBWI Bologna 2016
and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Providence-based illustrator Rongyuan Ma is originally from China. She is a graduate of the Children's Book Illustration Certificate Program at Rhode Island School of Design, an elected member of Art League of Rhode Island, and an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. 

She has won a series of awards that include 3x3 Contemporary Magazine (Bronze Medal), Society of Illustrator...

Guest Post: Maya Christina Gonzalez on The Heart of It & Write Now! Make Books

By Maya Christina Gonzalez
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

The Heart of It: Creating Children’s Books that Matter is an online course for aspiring and emerging children’s book writers and illustrators who want to create powerful books for kids while simultaneously coming more fully into their own power as storyteller and artist.

I combine my passion as an educator and activist along with 20 years of experience in creating award-winning multicultural children’s books to craft a course tha...

2016 SCBWI Bologna Author-Illustrator Interview: Elizabeth O. Dulemba

By Elisabeth Norton
for SCBWI Bologna 2016
and Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Elizabeth O. Dulemba is an award-winning children's author-illustrator with more than two dozen titles to her credit, including her debut historical fiction, A Bird on Water Street (Little Pickle, 2014), which has been awarded thirteen prestigious literary honors, including Georgia Author of the Year and a Green Earth Book Award Honor.

Elizabeth splits her time between Roanoke, Virginia, where she teaches Picture Bo...