Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts from the “A Bit of Everything” Category

Meet the Speakers at the SCBWI NL Conference

Posted on September 18, 2011

These are the awesome people that will speak at the SCBWI NL Conference in Amsterdam on November 5. Remember the deadline for registration is OCTOBER 1. Seats are filling and so are the spots for portfolio and manuscript reviews! Doug Cushman is author and illustrator of award winning children’s picture books for over 30 years and the creator of many memorable heroes as the intrepid Aunt Eater, the grasshopper gumshoe Inspector Hopper, and the ace reporter Dirk Bones. A sample of some of the honors: Reading Rainbow Review Book for Aunt Eater Loves A Mystery; National Cartoonists Society 1996 Rubuen Award for Book Illustration for The Mystery of King Karfu; New York City Public Library Best 100 Books of 2000 for Inspector Hopper; New York Times Extended Children’s best Sellers…

Categories: A Bit of Everything

33 1/3 – Swordfishtrombones (via erik at booktunes)

Posted on September 16, 2011

Don’t you just love Tom Waits? I know I do, and so does Booktunes. Booktunes is about to publish the next batch of great books with music, starting with Harstad’s Buzz Aldrin, What Happened to You in All the Confusion? and — Yay! One of my favorite writers — Andrew Smith’ In the Path of Falling Objects. Two epic novels with epic playlists! Stay tuned! Awaiting the new Tom Waits album I put his Swordfishtrombones on the recordplayer and took David Smay's booklet by the same name from the ever growing Booktunes pile. The book is part of the 33 1/3 series, a collection of books each focusing on one more or less legendary album.  The book is divided by chapters titled the same…

Categories: A Bit of Everything

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Conference Now Open for Registration

Posted on August 31, 2011

Venue? Check! Speakers? Check! Program? Check! Flyers? Check Website? Check In short: The first SCBWI NL conference is now OPEN FOR REGISTRATION Are you interested in writing and illustrating for children and do you need guidance? Are you already writing and illustrating for children, but do you wish to hone your craft with the best teachers out there? Are you interested in how publishing in the Netherlands and in the global market works? Would you like to know about literary agents, about app building, about book making, and above all about writing and illustrating for kids and teens? Now is your chance! On Saturday November 5, 2011 the conference The Netherlands and the Big World Out There: Publishing in the Global Market will be…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, YA books

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Fun Stuff and Happy Days in LA

Posted on August 14, 2011

Of course there was also fun stuff in LA, not just scary stuff. Jon Scieszka was there to whip up spirits and he did that with his usual fervor. Scieszka writes because he loves to make kids laugh, he says. His inspiration comes from all the weird stuff that happened when he was growing up with his five brothers. You can read all about his adventures growing up a Scieszka in his autobiography Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka. He’s also very serious about his job as a children’s book writer. He advocates reading and literacy as fervently as he loves making the world laugh. In 2008 he was appointed the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and he has…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, Thrillers, YA books

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Platform Presence: Delight or Fright?

Posted on July 17, 2011

Recently Google announced and launched its social network platform: Google+. It’s a cross-over between Facebook and Twitter and lots of people put in a word or two about it. Some like it, some don’t, some love it, some hate it. But whatever you feel, it’s there and you can’t evade it. For me the important question was: do I genuinely need another social network to add to my visibility? That seems an easy question. Right? You could argue that, in order to get as much buzz around The Writer Known As Mina Witteman as possible, I should jump at Google+. Eventually, Google+ will lure in public from Facebook, just like the Zuckerberg trap lured in public from MySpace and Hyves. It will, no doubt,…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, Thrillers, YA books

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Turn Left At the Canal

Posted on May 25, 2011

Last Friday I took my muse to the theatre, something I do way too little, but then my muse spends a great deal of his time abroad (or so goes my rather lame excuse). The title of the play, “Bij het kanaal naar links” — “Turn Left At the Canal”– was appealing enough: I used to live close to a canal and my mom was relentless in trying to keep me away from that mysterious child-beckoning waterway. Bad, bad people roamed the banks, she said, no place for children. Needless to say her warnings lured me to that baleful place like a firewall lures a hacker to a website. The writer of the play is Alex van Warmerdam. He is a prize-winning Dutch playwright, poet, actor and…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Amsterdam Views, The Views

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