Sort Blog Posts

Sort Posts by:

  • in
    from   

Suggest a Blog

Enter a Blog's Feed URL below and click Submit:

Most Commented Posts

In the past 7 days

Recent Posts

(tagged with 'Giveaway Guidelines')

Recent Comments

Recently Viewed

JacketFlap Sponsors

Spread the word about books.
Put this Widget on your blog!
  • Powered by JacketFlap.com

Are you a book Publisher?
Learn about Widgets now!

Advertise on JacketFlap

MyJacketFlap Blogs

  • Login or Register for free to create your own customized page of blog posts from your favorite blogs. You can also add blogs by clicking the "Add to MyJacketFlap" links next to the blog name in each post.

Blog Posts by Tag

In the past 7 days

Blog Posts by Date

Click days in this calendar to see posts by day or month

Writer Blogs

Agent Blogs

Publisher Blogs

Editor Blogs

Librarian Blogs

Bookseller Blogs

Reviews Blogs

Illustrator Blogs

News Blogs

Industry Blogs

new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Giveaway Guidelines, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 5 of 5
1. What's YOUR fav Indie Bookstore? And Happy Poetry Friday!
Blog Icon
11 Comments | Next
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors, on 4/25/2013
Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Giveaway Guidelines, Poetry Friday, Blogiversary, National Poetry Month, Independent Booksellers, April Halprin Wayland, Add a tag

.
Howdy, Campers!


We're jumping up and down and popping balloons, celebrating our Fourth Blogiversary...and you're invited to join in the fun by entering to win one of four gift certificates to a fab independent bookstore.  Details?  Read all about it here!
 .
And it's Friday, so happy Poetry-Friday-in-the-midst-of-Poetry-Month! Thank you, Laura Purdie Salas, for hosting PF today!


And now...on with the show:

In keeping with our blogiversary celebration, we're talking about indie bookstores.  Here's my riff:

I was a long-time active member of the Southern California Children's Booksellers Association (SCCBA), a feisty organization of indies who generously shared knowledge on how to run a bookstore among themselves and with those thinking about starting a children's bookstore. These newbies could have seen as their competitors, but instead they were embraced as colleagues and became friends. 

SCCBA was a leader among children's independent bookseller associations and in 1984 SCCBA was the midwife in the birthing of the national organization, American Booksellers for Children (ABC) (which has since merged with the American Booksellers Association.)

SCCBA itself folded into the Southern California Independent Booksellers Association just a few years ago. All this merging was hard for many of us, and sad, so sad...but SCIBA has proven itself to be a lively, engaged and strong non-profit trade association.


So which are my fav indies?  Must I choose just one?  A longtime favorite, just up the freeway from me, is Children's Bookworld, founded in 1986 by Sharon Hearne, and still going strong.

I am still mourning Dutton's Brentwood Bookstore, which closed in 2008.

BUT there's great news: indies are making a comeback and I'm lucky to have not one but two fabulous indies just a few miles from my home, both opened within the last few years:

 The marvelous Mysterious Galaxy 
and the absolutely wonderful {pages}!

Here's my rough draft of a book poem in honor of indies today:

HOOKED ON A BOOK: (The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore By Benjamin Hale)
rough draft poem by April Halprin Wayland

I’m reading the autobiography
of a classically educated, erudite
chimpanzee.

I stay up too late reading it.
Rather than listen to NPR’s Morning Edition,
I prop the book against the fish bowl as I brush my teeth.

His story
sticks to the souls of my hiking shoes
as I clamber up a steep slope in Arizona.

While buying half a head of Napa cabbage at the farmers market,
I wonder what will happen to his owner, Lydia
and why he’s writing the book from a jail cell.

Through a dinner of grape tomatoes, Napa cabbage,
juicy chicken and roasted potatoes, baby turnips and carrots,
it haunts me

like cookie dough ice cream
haunts me
from the freezer.

poem © 2013 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved

Hats off to Indies that offer us so much! Please DO NOT wander around an indie and then go home to order online.  Here's why (under two minutes and worth watching...):



And remember to enter our indie bookstore gift certificate giveaway!

I'm trying to remember to put my name at the end of these posts...this is important because those who subscribe don't see the byline which automatically posts our names for us. So...
tah-tah from April Halprin Wayland!

11 Comments on What's YOUR fav Indie Bookstore? And Happy Poetry Friday!, last added: 4/29/2013
Display Comments Add a Comment
More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag
2. Book Giveaway and Guest Teaching Author Interview with Carolyn Marsden!
Blog Icon
13 Comments | Previous | Top | Next
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors, on 11/11/2009
Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Interview, Contests, Book Giveaway, writing exercise, Carolyn Marsden, Giveaway Guidelines, Guest Teaching Author, Add a tag

The Teaching Authors are thrilled to present an interview with our dear friend and Guest Teaching Author Carolyn Marsden.

Carolyn grew up in Mexico City and Southern California. Although she wrote for adults for many years, she began to write for children after the birth of her daughters. She attended Vermont College and earned an MFA in Writing for Children. Her first book, The Gold-Threaded Dress, published by Candlewick, was a Booklist Top Ten Youth Novel of 2002. Her second novel, Silk Umbrellas, was a Texas Bluebonnet nominee and Booklist Top Ten Art Novel of 2003. Since then, Carolyn has published several more award-winning middle grade chapter books with Candlewick and Viking, almost all with multicultural themes. The Buddha’s Diamonds was a Southern California Booksellers Association finalist and a Booklist Top Ten Religion Novel of 2008. Her latest book, Sahwira: An African Friendship, is set in what is now Zimbabwe. Carolyn lives in La Jolla with her Thai husband and two half-Thai daughters.

To celebrate Carolyn’s appearance on our blog, we're giving away an autographed copy of her newest book, Sahwira: An African Friendship. To enter the drawing, see the instructions at the end of this post.

Welcome, Carolyn! How did you become a Teaching Author?

In 1981, when I was living in Tucson, Arizona, mostly writing poetry for adults, I got a job as a Poet-in-Residence. For either a week or a month at a time, I visited urban and rural schools (K-12), including those on the Navajo and Pima reservations. Whenever I entered a classroom, I had about one minute to convince the kids that writing poetry could be fun. Following the lead of Kenneth Koch (Rose, Where Did You Get that Red?), I never used poetry written for children as my examples. I enjoyed seeing the children’s writing rise to new levels when I used poems by writers like Shakespeare or William Carlos Williams, or poems from other cultures. The students absorbed the rich language, rhythms, and subject matter. To my eternal delight, the kid at the back of the class, the one the teacher told me wouldn’t write anything, the one with the learning disability, invariably wrote the best poem.

What’s a common problem your students have, and how do you address it?

The most c

13 Comments on Book Giveaway and Guest Teaching Author Interview with Carolyn Marsden!, last added: 12/3/2009
Display Comments Add a Comment
More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag
3. From Concept to Completion: A New Year at the Pier Time Line
Blog Icon
1 Comments | Previous | Top | Next
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors, on 9/2/2009
Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  picture books, Contests, Book Giveaway, Q and A, Rosh Hashanah, April Halprin Wayland, Giveaway Guidelines, New Year at the Pier, Jewish Holidays, Add a tag

Find out about our Teaching Author Book Give-Away Contest running all this week! Click here for details.

Happy New Year! This week we’re celebrating the new school year and our very own April Halprin Wayland’s book, New Year at the Pier—A Rosh Hashanah Story, which is about another kind of new year—the Jewish New Year.

JoAnn:
Give us a feel for the time line of this book—from the first inkling of an idea to Book On the Shelf.

April:
I’ll tell you, but if you’re an aspiring children’s author, it might be best to cover your ears and sing “La, la, la” through today’s post…especially the very end.

So—here’s how it started. An editor asked me if I had any Jewish stories in me. I had a few…but one ritual was the standout for me: tashlich.

I began by writing down everything I knew about tashlich—how it feels to walk up the pier, singing, with two hundred of my friends, the sun, the waves, the butterflies in my tummy, the feeling I have when I give my “sins” to the winds.



Next, I read books about tashlich, starting with children’s books, though there weren’t many. The most recent children’s book I found in which tashlich is the main subject is Carol Levin’s A Rosh Hashanah Walk (Kar-Ben, 1987).

Then I interviewed my friend, Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels of Beth Shir Sholom Temple in Santa Monica, California. Rabbi Neil is very tuned into kids; he’s written many albums of children’s songs.

I just re-read my notes from that afternoon and realize how much of what he taught me infuses the book. Look over my shoulder at a few of my notes:

• Rabbi Neil doesn’t like using the word “mistake,” as mistake means not on purpose, and sometimes you do some of these things on purpose.

• There’s a famous story of a man who goes to his rabbi and says that he gossiped about someone in town and he is now sorry and wants the rabbi to help him make it right. The rabbi said no, he can’t help this man. What? What do you mean, says the man. I really am sorry. I want to make it right. No can do, says the rabbi. But why? Asks the man. Go get me a knife and a feather pillow, says the rabbi. The man does. The rabbi stabs the feather pillow and takes out all the feathers and throws them to the winds. The idea is that you can’t always fix a situation. A situation can be changed through apology, but not undone.

• His example, regarding how you can’t fix something completely, was of a child stealing a doll and bringing it back. She might say, “I know I can bring the doll back, but I can’t make you trust me again.”

• Not: “It’s okay.” (Because maybe it’s not okay.) But: “I accept your apology.”

• Neil suggests that instead of burning her list, she uses it as a checklist.

After the manuscript was written and accepted, my editor, Lauri Hornik, guided me through the rewrites with her clear vision. I growled at her under my breath. She sent edits. I stomped around my computer. She sent more edits. Back and forth, back and forth.

But ask her now how many “Thank you, my dear darling editor!” notes I’ve sent her since the book came out! (Lauri’s since been promoted to President and Publisher of Dutton Children's Books, in addition to her previous title of President and Publisher of Dial. My new fabulous editor at Dial is Jessica Garrison.)

So here, finally, is the spoiler…the actual time line of New Year at the Pier:

• April 2002: interviewed rabbi

• October 2004: accepted by Dial

• many, many, many edits, changes, drafts…

• May 2007: projected publication date is 2008

• September 2007: book delayed until 2009

• April 2008: tiny edit—five small word changes

• June 2009: book is on bookstore shelves—YAY!

SEVEN YEARS?!?!?! Well, yes. Would you believe me if I told you it was worth the wait? Look at the harvest—a starred review in Publishers Weekly and lots of other wonderful reviews!

image credits:
photo of people walking up the pier by Rachel Gilman

erase writing:
http://christinabakerkline.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/red_pencil.jpg

1 Comments on From Concept to Completion: A New Year at the Pier Time Line, last added: 9/2/2009
Display Comments Add a Comment
More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag
4. 1) Take a deep cleansing breath. 2) Set a goal. 3) Enter our contest!
Blog Icon
21 Comments | Previous | Top | Next
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors, on 8/28/2009
Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  setting goals, poets, Show Don't Tell, first day of school, goal, April Halprin Wayland, Giveaway Guidelines, contest, Poetry, Poetry Friday, Contests, poem, Book Giveaway, goals, Coming Soon, Add a tag

One-half of knowing what you want
is knowing what you must give up before you get it.
~ playwright Sidney Howard
(he adapted Gone With The Wind for the screen)

Envision what you want your life to look like.
Then ask yourself, “What do I have to become to manifest this vision?”
~ Rev. Michael Beckwith (paraphrased)
Dear Readers,

Huzzah, huzzah--it's nearly fall and a new Teaching Authors CONTEST has begun!

New Year At The Pier—A Rosh Hashanah Story by April Halprin Wayland, illustrated by award-winning Canadian Stéphane Jorisch, is so delicious, we want you to have a chance to win an autographed copy!

Here’s lots of juicy stuff about the book, here's the 1:16 minute book trailer and here’s a summary of the book, which got a starred review in Publishers Weekly:

Izzy’s favorite part of Rosh Hashanah is Tashlich, a joyous ceremony in which people apologize for the mistakes they made in the previous year and thus clean the slate as the new year begins. But there is one mistake on Izzy’s “I’m sorry” list that he’s finding especially hard to say out loud. Humor, touching moments between family and friends, and information about the Jewish New Year are all combined in this lovely picture book for holiday sharing.


So...how can you win your very own autographed copy?

Simple. Since the book is about the new year...do you have a new school year goal? Great! Then post one reading, writing or teaching goal you'd like to accomplish by December 31, 2009 in 25 words or less.

Here are some sample goals to get you thinkin':

Do you want your student(s) to understand the concept of Show, Don’t Tell?

Do you want the courage to delete all of your emails so that the clutter isn't keeping you from writing the next Charlotte's Web?

Do you want to set aside 30 uninterrupted minutes to read for pleasure each day?

Do you want to send out a manuscript by Halloween?

What is that one goal for this bright and shiny new school year?

Be specific. Here’s the place to ‘fess up!

Win-an-autographed-copy-of-New-Year-at-the-Pier CONTEST rules:
1) Read the two quotes at the top.
2) Take a deep breath.
3) Post ONE reading, writing or teaching goal for the new school year in 25 words or less.
4) Your goal must be posted on one of the Teaching Authors blog posts between Friday, August 28, 2009 and Monday, September 7, 2009.
5) You must include your email address in your post so that we can contact the lucky winner.
Here are our general give-away rules.

The winner will be announced Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

We expect to hear back from you in the first two weeks of January—every one of you. If you don't win this time, you'll have another chance in January when you report on your progress. How did you do? Who or what helped you? Who or what hindered you?

Coming next week: more on New Year at the Pier!

And finally, because it's Poetry Friday...and to REALLY confuse you now that you're thinking about goals...I leave you with a beautiful completely contrary anti-goals poem by my wonderful friend, poet and author
George Ella Lyon:

First homework, then housework, now soulwork.

No list, no checking off, no done.

~ George Ella Lyon


image of girl with a goal by April Halprin Wayland

21 Comments on 1) Take a deep cleansing breath. 2) Set a goal. 3) Enter our contest!, last added: 8/31/2009
Display Comments Add a Comment
More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag
5. Book Giveaway Guidelines
Blog Icon
0 Comments | Previous | Top |
By: Carmela Martino and 5 other authors, on 7/14/2009
Blog: Teaching Authors (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Book Giveaway, Giveaway Guidelines, Add a tag

Tomorrow we will sponsor our first book giveaway here at TeachingAuthors! We’re excited about providing occasional gifts for our readers. However, we want everyone to be clear about our giveaway procedures.Entry Rules:To enter a giveaway drawing, you must post a comment to the specified blog post. Your comment must fulfill the requirements of that particular contest to be valid.You must include

0 Comments on Book Giveaway Guidelines as of 7/14/2009 6:17:00 PM
Add a Comment
More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag