Crystalee Calderwood's Blog, page 4

Family and More- Enemies or Friends? by Helena Harper

Family and More: Enemies or Friends? by Helena Harper
Who influences us in our lives? How do they influence us? Whom do we call an enemy? Whom do we call a friend? And why? Why do we have relationships at all?
These are the questions Helena Harper eloquently asks in her collection of poems that examines the relationships in her own life. She has had to rethink her definition of 'enemy', not least because her father was English and her mother German and they met in the aftermath of World War II in

Twitter Article

Twitter, Should I tweet? How Best To Tweet!

What are your writing roots?

I had a really fascinating conversation yesterday with Mark about how long we've been writing. My writing roots sprouted in Mrs. Biseli's first grade class. Each week, we were given a small black and white picture at random, which we were to paste into our notebooks and then write a story based upon it. I absolutely loved it. I always had the longest stories out of everyone in my class, and my teacher would always compliment me on my name choices.


Although I started out writing short stories, pre

Angeline Goes to the Zoo!

Today, July 25th, Angeline will be appearing at Oklahoma Zoo's 2nd Annual Author Expo! Vivian Zabel from 4RV Publishing will be there with a number of books, including my very own Angeline Jellybean! Angeline is very excited for the cotton candy Viv has promised her. ;-)

You can read all about 4RV's involvement in the festival of Viv's blog.

Amazon.com's Author Central

Author Central is a new free service from Amazon.com that allows authors to set up their own pages on Amazon.com, complete with a photo, biography, and links to every book written by the author that is available on Amazon.com. You can view my Author Page at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002IBT226

An Interview with Deb Hockenberry

Check out Deb Hockenberry's blog today for a brand new interview with me about Angeline Jellyean! It was great to be interviewed by a children's writer from my hometown, Altoona, PA. I wish the best of luck to Deb in her pusuit of getting published!

Angeline Jellybean reviewed at Stories for Children Magazine!

You can now view Wayne S. Walker's review of Angeline Jellybean on the Stories for Children Magazine website!

Contest: Help Angeline Taste the World!

Angeline came to me with a problem today. She is tired of living on the farm and wants to see the world! I'm afraid her sweet tooth is back. She told me she's heard that Ocean City has some great salt water taffy, Hershey, Pennsylvania has the best chocolate, and she can't wait to get her hands on some Turkish delight!

I promised Angeline I'd help her try as many sweet treats as possible. To achieve her goal, she must visit as many of you as possible! Here's how you can help:

1) If you've alr

Angeline Jellybean Book Review on Suite 101 by Mayra Calvani

Mayra Calvania, author of the picture book Crash! has posted a review of Angeline Jellybean on Suite 101. You can see her review here.

PLUS Stay tuned to this blog tomorrow, where Angeline and I will be making an announcement about a very special contest!

Self-Promotion: A Challenge with Self-Publishing and Small Presses

Most of us have heard of Mo Willems, Doreen Cronin or Sandra Boynton. They're all big name children's book writers signed with big name publishers. They have marketing teams behind them, designing stuffed animals, CD's, and endless lines of follow up books. But, for most of us, that kind of success is just a dream. Many people these days are turning to self-publishing or small presses to get their feet wet.

In general, publishing with a small press is still more socially acceptable than self-publ