Jigsaw Jones: What’s In a Book Cover?
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 Posted in Greatest Hits, Jigsaw Jones, the writing process | 1 Comment »One of the central themes of this blog is that whatever touches my life as a writer is valid content. Or as my pal Matthew Cordell might say, "blog fodder." So, thus: I recently got this note from my ...
Fan Mail Wednesday #17
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 Posted in Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones | No Comments »Here's one that just came sizzling through the wires, presumably typed by an older sister: Hi! My brother Tommy is a huge fan of yours. He is reading Six Innings and is enjoying it very much. My sister Kathy is reading Jigsaw ...
New York Public Library Top 100 of 2008
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 Posted in Six Innings | 4 Comments »Each year, the Office of Children's Services of The New York Public Library announces its list of "100 Titles for Reading and Sharing." Why do we care about that? Because I just got a phone call from Liz Szabla, my editor at ...
“I Cup”
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 Posted in Family | No Comments »It is a special milestone for a parent when his youngest child, his baby, asks with a mischievous grin, "Dad, can you spell I see -- no, I mean, wait -- can you spell, 'I cup?'" I watch while she ...
Readings: Autism
Monday, October 20th, 2008 Posted in Along Came Spider, Readings | No Comments »Recommended reading: A fascinating article in The Sunday New York Times Magazine, October 17, 2008, titled "Reaching an Autistic Teenager," written by Melissa Fay Greene. The article focuses on a small private school that serves -- educates -- teenage boys with ...
Inside Scoop: Book Covers, Along Came Spider
Sunday, October 19th, 2008 Posted in Along Came Spider, the writing process | No Comments »On Sunday night I began to write a post about my new "Jigsaw Jones" cover, but didn't have all the info I needed to make it happen. So, instead, let's just dub this COVER WEEK and begin here: A while back, ...
Golden Doodle Follow-Up
Friday, October 17th, 2008 Posted in Family, Readings | No Comments »If you noticed the comments section under my post about My Dog Daisy, you know that I heard from my friend, Ellen Miles, who writes "The Puppy Place" series. Here's the cover for Noodle, the book that features a Golden Doodle ...
My Dog Daisy
Thursday, October 16th, 2008 Posted in Family | 1 Comment »This is our newish family dog, Daisy. (For the hard of hearing, that's "newish," not "Jewish." We don't discuss religion with our pets -- though I'm quite sure our goldfish, Swimmy, is Buddhist, just seems to have a very Zen ...
James Preller Interviews . . . Matthew Cordell
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 Posted in Interviews & Appreciations, Mighty Casey | 3 Comments »In the past, I've had the opportunity to interview many children’s book authors and illustrators. In the clumsily named The Big Book of Picture-Book Authors & Illustrators (the title was soooo not my idea), there are profiles of 75 different, ...
Fan Mail Wednesday #16
Wednesday, October 15th, 2008 Posted in Fan Mail, Jigsaw Jones | No Comments »It's that time of week again. Here's an email I received from a mother: My boys loved your email! As we've come to expect from you, your writing had them laughing. We look forward to reading your next book. As a parent, ...