To celebrate my birthday (and because the book is flying out the stores!), my wonderful editor at Ploegsma Children’s Books just let me know they started the next print run for Boreas en de zeven zeeën. So… YAY, birthday! I have also received a copy of the lesson plans that CPNB, the foundation for collective promotion of the Dutch book and organizer of the Dutch Children’s Book Week since 1954, had stellar educators make to support teachers of every elementary school in the Netherlands. Super exciting and I have designed my school visits with these plans in mind, so they seamlessly add to the wonderful work of teachers and their endeavors to promote reading and children’s books in their classrooms. Requests for school…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts tagged “Ploegsma”
Today, I visited the clipper Stad Amsterdam, a tall ship from the Netherlands which is currently moored at the San Francisco Embarcadero. Quarter Master Frank van Wamelen and Captain Andi Manser welcomed Boreas and me aboard their ship, where I presented them with copies of the three Boreas books for the ship’s library to entertain crew and guests during long ocean crossings. So, from now on, Boreas will sail the seven seas aboard the Stad Amsterdam, too! Next destination is Mexico. I am excited and so is Boreas. And the Captain and the Quarter Master? They can’t wait to start reading the books! Here are some pictures: Of course, I hurried back home to finish Boreas 4 which will come out this fall.
I love writing! Particularly in a month like this, with the Spanish translation of Mia’s Nest – El nido de Mia – coming out with Panamericana in Colombia. They delivered a truly gorgeous book with the awesome work of one of the most talented author/illustrators I know, Angela Peláez Vargas. And yesterday Boreas en de duizend eilanden – Boreas and the Thousand Islands – had its book birth, which made me super happy. Both books are on their way to San Francisco and I can’t wait to hold them in my hands, my book babies. I hate writing, too! On nights like this, when I wake up at 2:30 am with my brain reeling like a kite caught in a tailspin, because I remember something my muse must’ve whispered…
Not much brain space for anything else while doing the line edits for the second book in the Boreas series. Boreas en de duizend eilanden (Boreas and the Thousand Islands) is scheduled to come out mid-April and I am really excited about that. Working hard now to have the manuscript back on my editor’s desk by Monday morning. I’m good with deadlines, they spur me on and keep me away from procrastination. And my editor Marlous is the coolest in the world. I love shaping and polishing my books with her. Rereading the manuscript brings back many memories of good times on the water, too. Sailing, snorkeling, and in general just hanging out with people who also love the water. Like my super cool friend Kirsten…
What’s on my mind Facebook wants to know. That’s an easy one: books are what’s on my mind and one in particular. Next month my Dutch middle grade adventure novel will hit the shelves. And this is what it will look like: Action and adventure at sea! The story? 12-year-old Boreas is convinced his parents are getting divorced. They’ve been acting weird, lately. Secretive. When they, at last, tell him what’s going on it’s not a divorce but something else and it will uproot Boreas’ life just as much: the family is going on a three-year, round-the-world trip on their sailing boat. Everything’s arranged, up till the final details like enrolling Boreas into a distance learning school. At first, Boreas hates it. He misses his…
Categories: A Bit of Everything
Tagged: Adventure, boreas, middle grade, Mina Witteman, Ploegsma, refugee, seven seas, tractor race
This is one of the too cute illustrations by illustrator Linda de Haan for my short story ‘Het kaasmuisje’ (‘The Little Cheese Mouse’), which was published this week in Het grote voorleesboek voor rond de 5 jaar (The Big Read-Aloud Book for 5-year-olds). When Daan and his friends Samir and Carmen discover a teeny-weeny and very scared mouse at the After School Care, they think up a plan to keep the mouse safe from Miss Aicha – everyone knows adults don’t like mice! – but also from Meow, the fierce cat that stalks around at the care center. Will they succeed and find a way to let the mouse return to his den and his scrumptious chunks of cheese?
Categories: Books, Children's books
My most recent project was a YA thriller, a scary story set in marijuana-ridden Amsterdam. I’ve worked on the manuscript with the ultimate Master of YA lit Ellen Hopkins through the SCBWI Nevada Mentor Program. Ellen’s critiques and suggestions made a world of difference and I am very thankful I had the opportunity to work with her. These past few weeks I have done a thorough –and ‘thorough’ stands for ‘an extremely painful, soul-searching, kill-your-darlings kinda’– line edit of the manuscript and sent it out. So now I’m working on my nails, BITING MY NAILS, that is.
Since biting nails, like all girly stuff, is not my favorite pastime, I write to keep my mind away from this agonizing waiting game. Four projects are on my desk, all in neat stacks, because I am what I am, a former architect school dropout and a diehard math girl. Here goes:
- A middle grade adventure series for my Dutch publisher Ploegsma about a young boy who is forced – yes, can you believe that? The nerve! – to sail around the world with his parents.
- The English rewrite of an adult psychological thriller with a very creepy techno twist. The thriller set in the heart of the Internet where techies rule our worlds.
- A brand new and exciting but very edgy young adult thriller. Can’t tell you much about it yet, except that it will be scare as hell.
- As always, I have a few picture book manuscripts lined up, too.
Tagged: Ellen Hopkins, Ploegsma, SCBWI Nevada, writing
Mina Witteman 