VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

SFC Magazine News 4/1/2011 - WorldOfInkNetwork | Internet Radio | Blog Talk Radio

After a year hiatus, Stories for Children Magazine is pleased to announce its re-launch with the April 2011 issue. This award-winning Ezine has delighted children around the world for three years, featured children’s authors and illustrators from top publishers to small indie publications, and given free worksheets to educators and homeschool parents. Stories for Children Magazine’s April 2011 issue will feature award-winning author Janet Halfmann. Janet has more than thirty fiction and nonfiction children’s books. Before becoming a children’s author, Janet was a daily newspaper reporter, children’s magazine editor, and a creator of coloring and activity books for Golden Books. She is the mother of four and the grandmother of four. When Janet isn’t writing, she enjoys gardening, exploring nature, visiting living-history museums, and spending time with her family. She grew up on a farm in mid-Michigan and now lives in Wisconsin. Even though you cannot buy the relaunch issue until Ap...

     As writers, we are responsible for creating our own work structure.   No one makes us write.   No one tells us how much to write or when to do it.   If we are to be productive writers, we have to monitor ourselves.   Goals are one way to do that.      The goals we set should be measurable and attainable.   Measurable goals are goals that require some kind of output.   It might be to write a certain number of pages per day.   Or it might be to send out a certain number of query letters per month.   Whatever the goal is, it should be quantifiable.      Goals should also be attainable.   For a goal to be attainable, we have to be honest with ourselves.   So ask yourself, do you really have the time to crank out a five-hundred-page novel in six months?   Are you really going to earn $40,000 a year as a writer?   Our goals should be realistic, recognizing what is...

Teen Word Factory: Elements: The Building Blocks of Everything : "Last time, I wrote about what to do after you've got your story written. This time, I'd like to discuss what the basic building blocks are f..."

Editors and readers alike will usually ignore the voiceless writers who write stale, uninteresting articles. What everybody is looking for is a fresh voice that will get readers' attention. Basically, your voice means your style, the manner in which you're writing and you feel most comfortable writing. No one will be really able to define what a writer's voice is, but everybody knows it when they see it. Finding your writing voice can be a difficult and complex process. Believe it or not, even the famous writers took years to find their voice. Writing courses and workshops can help writers find their voice. However, there things you can do starting right now to find your writing voice. Here are some tips on how you can add your own voice to your written work: 1. Be original. Many new writers follow in the footsteps of the established writers they admire. This may often result in plain lack of creativity for the writer. So try to break any patterns you ha...

Utah Children's Writers: Surviving the Publishing Process : This week I thought I would share with you some insight on surviving the publishing process. Instead of giving you an editor's viewpoint, I asked author and professional musician Sherry Ellis to share her point of view of the publication process.

SFC Blog: Families Matter: World of Ink Double Book Giveaway! : " Sherry Ellis is a freelance writer who writes articles for parenting magazines and children’s publications. Her first book, Tha..."

There is no interview with an SFC Team Member today. Instead I have a wonderful guest post to share from World of Ink Tour Guests Tom Listul & Heather Listul Hewitt. What makes a good chidren's story / book ? Every children’s story that I have enjoyed has had some main ingredients.  Interesting Characters and Story Line First and foremost, it is important to have interesting characters and an interesting story line that will hold the reader’s attention. Children need to be able to relate to the story and have fun reading it.  Wording The words in a children’s story are the core of the book, but the illustrations are also very important. The overall feeling of a story can change dramatically depending on how the words are depicted through pictures.  Artwork/Illustrations I think a good children’s story has illustrations that match the message that the words are trying to depict. It is also fun to see illustrations that are unique and colorful, because they will...

SFC Blog: Families Matter: Featured Guest Interview with Author Sudipta Bardh... : "Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen never thought she’d grow up to be a writer. As a child, she thought of being a doctor (but she’s afraid of ..."

Do You Need Kids to Write for Kids? What do Dr. Seuss, Maurice Sendak, Margaret Wise Brown and Beatrix Potter all have in common? Other than being beloved authors and household names, none had children of their own. And yet that didn't stop them from creating books that children have cherished for generations. There's a difference between having a child, and having a childlike sensibility. Simply being a parent doesn't mean you can effectively tell a story from a child's point of view. Sure, having kids can help, and if you're paying attention you'll gain valuable insight into their world. But I've read lots of manuscripts by parents and grandparents who feel it's their job to teach a lesson to the world's young ones (and their own offspring in particular, who simply won't listen when it's time to turn off the TV and do their homework). Not to mention that they have to work all five of their children's names into the book...

Writer's block occurs when we lose our train of thought or have seemingly run out of ideas. When this occurs it is only natural to increase your determination to get the writing process back on track. Actually this can make the situation worse since it introduces more pressure which further constricts your ability to develop new writing ideas. What to do? Here are 3 tips to use for idea generation or to recapture your train of thought when the writing process for you comes to a grinding halt. Review What You Wrote This often can help to get your thinking back on track. When you lose your focus the best thing to do is 'retract' your previous steps to pick back up on your trail of thought. By reviewing your most recently documented content you can determine what your point is and the direction you were taking it. This can be a very effective way of snapping out of the writers block that has stalled your efforts. Leave Your Work Station Changing environments often ...

For Immediate Release   Co-Authors Tom Listul and Heather Listul Hewitt to be Featured Guests on RRRadio-RFK: Stories for Children –March 21, 2011   Blog Talk Radio’s Robin Falls Kids Show: Stories for Children with hosts (VS Grenier, D.M. Cunningham and Kris Quinn Christopherson) will be chatting with father and daughter author team Tom Listul and Heather Listul Hewitt about their book, Monkey Made Dream . Tom and Heather will also be sharing writing tips, and trials and tribulations of the writer’s life. Tom Listul wrote Monkey Made Dream with his daughter, Heather Listul Hewitt, when she was eight years old. A farmer from southwest Minnesota, he is also a singer/songwriter. Listul made Monkey Made Dream into a children’s song and has sang it at numerous coffee houses and children’s classrooms. Hewitt is now a speech-language pathologist, who works for a school district with students of all ages. She enjoys helping children develop literacy skills and a love for rea...

Jamie DeMumbrum, Assistant Poetry Editor of SFC, lives in Loveland, Ohio, with her husband, two teenaged children, and a hairy, high-maintenance dog. After blinking and watching her babies start to drive and think about college, she decided to pursue her interest in freelance writing for children and, sometimes, parents. When she isn’t warming the bleachers at a football, basketball, or lacrosse game, she loves all kinds of reading, writing, editing, and sewing for her home. VS: I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. I know being a parent and writer can be hard and I find myself asking if I giving my three children enough attention throughout the day. I am sure you have been in my shoes from time to time. So to start here is the first question…how many children do you have and what are their ages? Jamie: My husband and I have a 16-year-old sophomore daughter and a 17-year-old junior son. VS: As a mom with teens in the house, what do you...