Links I Love

For the last stop on the 31 Blogs in 31 Days trip I’d like to point out the blog of author Jo Knowles.Jo’s blog is the blog of a working writing with tidbits about revision and the crazy business we’re in. On Monday’s she offers up a writing prompt and it is always tied to some wonderful Jo story about life.

A couple of my favorite posts include this one,  Is it censorship?  and this one Daring to dream which seems like a wonderful way to end the year.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your visits to 31 blogs this month. The yellow icon will reside in the sidebar of my blog so you can dip back into them in the future.

Some people can make you laugh one moment and catch your breath at the beauty in a photograph in the next. That’s the way it is with author L.K. Madigan. She has a fun feature called authorial intrusions which are “not your typical author interviews” but some of my favorite posts are the ones where she has Tim Gunn (from Project Runway) in her head while she is trying to write.

When I want to feel like I’ve been hugged, this is one of the blogs I head for, Here in the Bonny Glen. Author Melissa Wiley has created a warm and friendly place in the blogosphere that is about writing and raising kids and homeschooling and living green and being real, right here, right now. I’ll warn you, a lot of her posts will move you to tears, but they never leave me feeling sad. Often they leave me wishing I was a part of what sounds like a wonderful family.

The Boy with the Perfect Heart is a great example of a perfectly told tear-inducing story and this one which talks about how some of us have a tendency to have more “tearing up moments” than others.

My Christmas gift to you is two blogs that hold a special spot in my heart – True Tales of Kindness and Stupidity and Front Pages. Both blogs are written by talented and creative woman who remind me that love is all around us, once we slow down long enough to really look. I love blogs that change my mood or my way of looking at something and these blogs both do that. They remind me that growth is always possible and that it doesn’t take much for us to make a change in someone’s life. Often we can do it just by pausing to sit with them for a while.

Over at True Tales of Kindness and Stupidity, a couple of my favorite posts are A Tale of Uncle Al and Two Dolls and A Fool of Myself.

At Front Pages I really enjoyed In my travels, two things and Creative Inspiration from the King of Pop. Melodye is also my Creative Art Journal buddy.

Today”s visit on 31 Blog You Might Not Know is with Janni Lee Simner. Her posts vary from life to process to the occasional low-keyed rant. Her posts almost always make me pause and think for a while which makes it a good one for me first thing in the morning. I liked this recent post, The Stories Not Written and this one, But really, the _next_ next book will be different , which is just one of the many wonderful character conversations she blogs about fairly often. (If you’ve enjoyed reading my letters to characters, I got the idea from Janni.

Enjoy!

Today I’d like to introduce you to scientist and children’s author Loree Griffin Burns.

She’s managed to combine two of my most favorite things, nature and writing, into wonderful books for children.

Trips to her blog are like little nature field trips. A couple of my favorites posts are Monarchs in Space and Seeing the Chrysalis, Finding the Spine.

Enjoy!

Today’s stop on 31 blogs you might not know is I’m here. I’m queer. What the hell do I read?Lee Wind has created a wonderful resource for gay teen books, gay culture, gay politics and more! Lee’s taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays but there are plenty of juicy posts over there for you to enjoy until he comes back in January.

A couple of my favorites are The GLBTQ Middle Grade Bookshelf! and The Power Of A Ten Year Old: A GSA Monday Inspiration

I came across this blog when I was looking for links to unusual book lists. What I found when I landed was this list on deaf characters in children’s literature. The blog covers adolescent books with deaf characters, websites, author interviews and book reviews, all related to the oft-neglected in literature, world of the deaf.
A couple of my favorite posts are this one about a Documentary about ASL Poetry, “The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox”and this interview with deaf playwrightWilly Conley.

Today’s stop on 31 Blogs (you might not know) is The Idea Garage Sale , the virtual home of author Peni Griffin. I love Peni’s mind, the way it tunnels through things the rest of us might not notice and comes out the other side with a story, such as her latest book, 11,000 Years Lost which is in the Pleistocene age. Cool, huh?

Peni believes ideas are all around us, we just need to become more aware of them. She believes this so much that she is giving ideas away to all comers. Go on now, pick one up for yourself.

A couple of my favorite posts are Coolest Thing I Learned All Year and Projects.

Since Peni is a new blogger I hope some of you will head on over to say hello.

Three Silly Chicks (aka Julia Durango, Andrea Beaty and Carolyn Crimi) are all about going for the laugh. They read, write, and review funny books on their blog and on occasion they’ve been known to drag authors and illustrators of funny books into the coop for some interviews.

A couple of my favorite interviews are In the Coop With Tammi Sauer and In the Coop with Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman!

Great blog for busting stress and getting that laugh just when you need it the most.

Today I’d like to highlight the blog by artist/writer Don Tate. Don’s blog is about the process of creating art, both for the books he illustrates (his own and those written by others), the art he does for his day job at the newspaper, and his recent journey into the world of writing for children. When I read Don’s blog I always get the sense that this is what it is really like to be a working creative person in the world of children’s publishing today.

A couple of my favorite posts are This Isn’t as Easy as it Looks where he talks about an art project that didn’t go as well as he had hoped (complete with illustrations) and Wearing My Writer’s Cap in which he shares about the long, long journey to publication his first picture book which will published next fall by Lee and Low. If you want to know how long, you’ll have to read the post for yourself.

Tell Don I said hello when you stop by.

Maybe the rest of you already know about this blog, Three Men in a Tub, but it was news to me. It’s the sketchblog of Wes Hargis and Ted Dawson and is filled with stories about comics and comic books, art and artists and, not surprisingly, sketches of original art.

A couple of my favorite posts How To Draw With Tom Gammill are Elephant in a Tree (which could also be called My Life as a Tattoo.)

Them them I said hello when you stop by.

This blog had me at chocolate. I mean really, a blog that combines children’s books with baking for kids? Yummy! This Florida teacher came up with a winning combination for blogging – she takes her favorite books from children’s literature and then gives you recipes to go with the books. If the book doesn’t have an obvious food connection, she makes up Recipes to Read by. The moral of her story is that food and books go together.

A couple of my favorite posts are Chocolate Obsession which is, as you can imagine, all about chocolate and You Don’t Want to Steal My Dog where she has a delicious looking recipe for “pup cakes” that look like dogs.

Pair this delectable blog up with who rolls out amazing feasts of words and food (yes, I am giving you two for one today just because I can) and you will have food/book connections for just about any occasion. Jama’s recent post on Thanksgiving with Arlo Guthrie at Alice’s Restaurant made me hungry for words and music and her Friday Feast: A Taste of Tuscany will appeal to foodies as well as writers and poets.

Tell them both I said hello when you stop by.

Anne Bustard’s blog, Anneographies, highlights picture book biographies tied to the subject’s birthday. Isn’t that a brilliant idea for a blog? Of course the first thing I did was go to my birthday to see if there was a picture book on one of my birthday twins, Ernest Hemingway or Robin Williams, but alas, July21st was blank. But many other days of the year were filled with some great picture book biography choices like July 16th, my son’s birthday. (He just happens to share it with Ida B. Wells-Barnett) and August 27th, my daughter’s birthday (coincidentally, it is also the birthday of former president Lyndon Baines Johnson.)This is a great blog for teachers to bookmark for when they need ideas for those pesky bulletin boards.

Tell Anne I said hello when you stop by.