Links from My Part-Time Writer, Full-Time Mom #NESCBWI16 Talk

For those of you who attended (and those of you who didn’t!), here are the links I included in the handout at my Part Time Writer, Full Time Mom workshop this past weekend. Some of these I mentioned specifically in the talk, and some are just for further reading. (A big thank you to author Pooja Makhijani for helping me with some of these links!)

Books I’ve enjoyed:

1. 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think by Laura Vanderkam (her interview with author Yvonne Ventresca)

2. Buddhism for Mothers: A Calm Approach to Caring for Yourself and Your Children by Sarah Napthali (not a writing book, but great for some perspective)

Hilarious stickfigure cartoon post

1. “Making time” by Melissa Caruso:

Related Blog posts and articles to check out (alpha by author)

1. “11 No Judgment Ways To Squeeze Writing Into Your Summertime Parenting Schedule” by Ami Allen-Vath

2. “Parenting Creating Being” by Stephanie Burgis

3. “Writing in the gaps” by Rosalyn Eves

4. “Parenting Tips for Writers” by Janet Fitch

5. “Shasta Grant on ‘The Long Way Home” Interview with Shasta Grant at Proximity

6. “Tips for Writers” by April Henry

7. “Striking the Write Life Balance” by Melanie Bennett Jacobson

8. “Writing Like a Mother(F*ker)” by Sarah Menkedick

9. “No, I Am Not Crowdfunding This Baby (an open letter to a worried fan)” by Amanda Palmer

A Sort of Related Poem I Enjoyed:

1. “girls” by Katie Anthony

#writing #parenting #amiallenvath #mommyblogpost #KatieAnthony #ShastaGrant #sarahnapthali #lauravanderkam #poojamakhijani #janetfitch #melissacaruso #SarahMenkedick #stephanieburgis #AmandaPalmer #AprilHenry #yvonneventresca #MelanieBennettJacobson #rosalyneves

#NESCBWI16 workshops

I’m going to be a part of two workshops at the NESCBWI this coming spring. For some of you who don’t already know, NESCBWI is the New England branch of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and they have a conference every spring. My first conference was back in 2008, but this will be my first time as a presenter!

The conference attendees are an interesting mix of newbies (“What the heck is a query letter?”) and award-winning authors. I love going to this conference because otherwise, I spend most of my time either alone with my computer or scrambling around with my two small (but growing) children. This is my opportunity to talk to actual grownups who care about children’s literature :)

The two workshops I’m doing are both on Sunday. The first is a panel called “Don’t Dis Disability: Writing What You Don’t Know”. This panel features experienced librarian and disability advocate Carrie Banks and award winning author Padma Venkatraman. This topic is a new one for the NESCBWI conference, so I am hoping this is the first of many future conversations about disability in children’s literature.

The other workshop is called “Part-Time Writer, Full-Time Mom: A Discussion on Parenting and Creating Books”. I think the importance of this topic is self-evident :)

I hope you can come! Registration begins February 9th but the info is up now so you can start thinking about which workshops you want to pick.

#workshop #nescbwi #PadmaVenkatraman #disability #news #carriebanks

The blog formerly known as Monkey Poop

In case you didn’t already notice, I’m taking a bit of a break from blogging. In the meantime, I’ve been playing around with the title and colors and such of this blog. Let me know what you think! Good? Bad? Kind of okay or WAY too weird?