But first news about Boreas It’s been quiet on the Boreas front. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything going on here. There is! By now, paperback editions of three of the Boreas titles have been published. Hurray! Children still love the series and sales are steady. And maybe, just maybe… Boreas will make the jump to America like I did. That pleases me enormously. And now about The Memory Maker Meanwhile, I have been busy writing new books. This time in English. There is a wonderful middle grade out on submission: The Memory Maker in which Georgia “Izzy” Isherwood grapples with the loss of her mother. Her only real comfort is an old, worn t-shirt that still carries the familiar scent of her…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts tagged “Children’s Books”
It was a steep learning curve, this shelter-in-place pivot from an in-person book festival to an online happening. Instead of two glorious days in May in downtown Berkeley, we worked round the clock to get at least part of our line up ready for an online happening. And not just a two-day online festival. We managed to get two and a half months of just beyond incredible book programs to you via our YouTube Channel. What can I say about the children’s and YA programming? I learned new skills every single day. I am out of this world grateful to the entire technical team that made it possible for me to produce 30 just absolutely delightful and insightful programs for young audiences. This post is…
Tagged: abigail hing wen, aimee lucido, andrea zuill, anna-marie mclemore, anne nesbet, annie barrows, babfunbound, Bay Area Book Festival, Baybookfest2020, brian weisfeld, carol anderson, caroline paul, Children's Books, Cindy Derby, Cinnamongirl, colin meloy, dashka slater, deborah underwood, elizabeth rusch, Ellen Hopkins, emily pilloton, ernesto cisneros, ian lendler, innosanto nagara, jeff fleischer, Jim Averbeck, kate hosford, kate o'shaughnessy, kate schatz, keely parrack, kitty felde, mae respicio, maggie tokuda-hall, meg fleming, michael genhart, middle grade, miriam klein stahl, misa sugiura, nelly buchet, nikki shannon smith, paola zakimi, Picture Books, Priscilla Burris, rahul kanakia, randy ribay, rebecca hanover, romina garber, scott ostler, shawn harris, sophie blackall, steve metzger, susan szecsi, sydney hanson, yamile saied méndez, yasmeen ismail, Young Adults
What happens to a writer when there is a shelter-in-place edict that shrinks your physical world to proportions of times passé? Not much, I thought. I’ll be fine, I thought. I’m a writer and, by nature, a bit of a recluse. I mostly live in my head. Not that I don’t pay attention to the world around me. I do! A lot. But you won’t find me in the middle of the melee if I can help it. I feel most comfortable observing the world from the peace and quiet of my home. I prefer to take in life as it glides by: who moves where and how and, importantly, why? I look for connections and cross-connections, I analyze, I contemplate, I add perspective,…
Tagged: Berkeley, California, Children's Books, COVID-19, Drawing, Journal, Nature journaling, Shelter in place, Sketching, virus, writing
What I am doing these days? Getting ready for an exciting, if not thrilling Bay Area Book Festival, for which I put together the children’s and young adult program. A stellar lineup of authors and illustrators, from the quirkiest picture books to the most gripping young adult novels: Cindy Derby, Andrea Tsurumi, Tania De Regil, Mylo Freeman, Rana DiOrio, Andrew Smith, Benny Lindelauf, Gennifer Choldenko, Innosanto Nagara, Laura Atkins, Steve Bramucci, Justina Ireland, Lee Wind, Cindy Pon, Zoraida Córdova and many many more. Two days of amazing panels and interviews and hilarious contests. New this year? Most of our middle grade and young adult panels moderators and interviewers are all local students! They come from Malcolm X Elementary School to Albany Middle School to…
Tagged: Albany, Andrea Tsurumi, Andrew Smith, Bay Area Book Festival, Baybookfest2019, Benny Lindelauf, Berkeley, Book Club for Kids, Children's Books, Cindy Derby, Cindy Pon, Cinnamongirl, International Congress of Youth Voices, Lee Wind, Life, Literary Death Match, middle grade, Mylo Freeman, Oakland, Podcast, Young Adult, Zoraida Córdova
Hurray! I’ll be teaching again at the Book Passage Children’s Conference in Corte Madera. June 15 to 17. Check out the video and find out what this amazing conference can offer you! Looking forward to seeing many children’s book writer and illustrator friends in June.
This week was the start of a new chapter in my life. I recently obtained a visa for the US, a so-called artist’s visa that identifies me now as an alien with extraordinary abilities in writing children’s books. Needless to say I am super excited at this opportunity to spread my children’s books wings. But it’s also a life-changing leap into uncharted waters and I feel like the little ones in the picture below. Intimidated by the dark around them, you can see them think: are we going in or… I’m that little one at the end of the rudder. I made my choice and went in. These next years I will be exploring and navigating these, to me, uncharted waters. I’ll be enjoying Californian life, too. Let myself be lifted…
My Dutch publisher will be in Bologna, located in Hall 29 D23. Boreas again features prominently in their foreign rights guide. Please, do not hesitate to inquire with their representatives, Dania van Dishoeck, Luciënne van der Leije and Sophie Mulder. They have synopses of the three Boreas books and the translation of the first chapters of Boreas and the Seven Seas, all in English, of course. And publishing friends abroad: know that the Dutch Literary Fund issues grants for translations of Dutch literature. A substantial help in covering the costs of translation.
Categories: Books, Children's books
Mina Witteman 