Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts tagged “Picture Books

Books at the Bay Area Book Festival

Posted on July 3, 2020

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…

IllustWriter – Picture Book Writing for Illustrators and Writers

Posted on June 25, 2015

Illustrator, would you like to write your own story? Writer, do you want to hone your picture book storytelling craft? Here’s your chance! Take the next step and learn from two experienced colleagues, both children’s book writers, editors and creative writing teachers. Become an IllustWriter! IllustWriter is a 7-week (6 sessions) course in writing picture books for illustrators by Sieneke de Rooij and Mina Witteman. Zie IllustrAuteur voor de Nederlandse versie van deze cursus pentenboek schrijven voor illustratoren. Registration: Click here and fill in the form! Date/Time: October 1, 8, 15, – 1 week break, but the work goes on – october 29 and november 5 and 12, 2015 (backup date november 19, 2015); 10.00 – 13.00 hrs Location: ABC Treehouse; Voetboogstraat 11 – Amsterdam, 1012 XK Course fee: € 325,- excl. BTW (VAT), € 393,25 incl. BTW (VAT) This…

Daily Distraction: Illustwriter – Writing Picture Books for Illustrators

Posted on November 20, 2014

We have a new writers workshop scheduled in Amsterdam: writing picture books for illustrators. But writers who would like to hone their picture book story telling craft are most welcome, too! What’s it all about? You are a fine artist, and you illustrations for children are just what they like. But building those into a picture book – that’s a different story. You may tell yourself you don’t want to be like those writers who try and draw their own characters, which may turn out quite awful. But deep down, you’d like to do a book all by yourself. Why not give it a try? Get help from two experienced children’s book writers and editors. What do you know about different age groups? What…

Daily Distraction: How Does My Work Differ From Others in My Genre?

Posted on May 28, 2014

Mia 8

 

That is a tough question, as I don’t write in one specific genre. I love writing longer work like middle grade or young adult novels and series, but I also have about 40 short stories for the very young out in the Netherlands and a Little Golden Book – Mia’s Nest – coming up, this fall. A red thread through my work, though, is adventure and if the story asks for it frightening adventure.

Another red thread is that I do open ends. When I was young, I simply hated the end of a book. Often, I would leave the last few pages unread and loved it when my mind would wander along the sheer endless possibilities of where the characters could go if the author hadn’t pinned them down. That’s the freedom I’d like to give my readers, too.

 

With the two previous posts and the next one, this blog post is part of the Writing Process Blog Tour.

Time To Say No

Posted on November 19, 2012

A big chunk of my writer friends ‘do’ NaNoWriMo again this year, National Novel Writing Month. I suspect most people are familiar with the concept: write a novel of at least 50,000 words in one month, starting November 1 and ending November 30. Some of my friends breeze through this year’s NaNoWriMo, others struggle with every word. Me? I’m skipping NaNoWriMo altogether. Not because I don’t like challenges. I LOVE a good challenge. I LOVE to win, too, and in the run-up to NaNoWriMo, I was filled with eager anticipation. Another chance to push out a novel, another chance to show that I have a writer’s stamina, an artist’s perseverance. While thinking up a plot for my next NaNoWriMo novel, I took a good look at…