Kidlit411 Giveaway and David Diaz in the Spotlight

This is a super short post to encourage you to head over to Kidlit411 and enter into our giveaway for a free picture book critique with Susanna Leonard Hill or a chance to submit a picture book, middle grade, or young adult manuscript to agent Mira Reisberg of Hummingbird Literary. The giveaway ends on Friday, March 7.

Also on Kidlit411, I've interviewed illustrator David Diaz, the 1995 Caldecott winner and the 2013 Pura Belpré winner. David is my mentor in the Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program. One my favorite books of his is the biography of Frida Kahlo, ME, FRIDA.




If you enjoyed this post, you may also like:

• Nevada SCBWI Mentor Program: An Illustrator's and Writer's Dream

New Work: Logos and Banners

I've been making logos and web banners recently. I enjoy doing these logos because it is immediately gratifying to see my work on some of my favorite kidlit websites:

Kidlit411

Elaine Kearns and I have been working on Kidlit411, a website gathering information for kid lit writers and illustrators. Here's the website banner:

© 2014 Sylvia Liu

A web badge:

© 2014 Sylvia Liu

And lots of bookmarks to pass out at conferences and other events:

The Lyrical Language Lab

Renée LaTulippe has successfully launched The Lyrical Language Lab: Punching up Prose…with Poetry, her online poetry course for children's writers. It's an amazing course (see my review as a beta tester), and I encourage any kid lit writers who want to learn more about poetic techniques to take the class. She is running a giveaway that goes until Feb. 21.

I made the logo:

© 2014 Sylvia Liu

and the banner for her email lessons:

© 2014 Sylvia Liu

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like:

• Logo Designs: Exercising Creativity Within Constraints
• Poetry Friday: A New Poetry Class for Children's Writers (my review of Renée's class)

How to Create an Active Sub Page in Blogger

Recently, a blog reader asked me how to make an active sub-page in Blogger instead of the default static page. The example she gave was my Portfolio tab (above), which links to a page that acts like a blog or website rather than a static page.

I haven't figured out a way to do it within one blog, but here's my very simple workaround.  My portfolio site is a separate Blogger blog, and my page tab in this blog links directly to the URL of that separate site.

How to Link a Page to Another Site to Create the Illusion of an Active Sub Page

Poetry Friday: Cephalopod Dactyl & A New Poetry Class for Picture Book Writers

© 2012 Sylvia Liu

My friend and children's poet Renée LaTulippe is hosting Poetry Friday today, and thanks to her, this is the first time I feel brave enough to offer my own poetry.

I have been part of a beta class for her new online class, THE LYRICAL LANGUAGE LAB. In this 4 week course, Renée teaches the basics of poetry for picture book writers, whether they plan to write in rhyme or not. The classes cover basics such as meter, rhyme, and types of poetry, as well as techniques to bring poetic and lyrical language to one's writing, both rhyming and prose. Renée will begin monthly classes in April 2014, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

The Power of the Swarm and 12x12 Picture Book Writers

© 2013  Sylvia Liu

A year ago, I wrote about the benefits of Julie Hedlund's 12x12 Picture Book Challenge (write 12 picture book manuscripts in 12 months). In December, I wrote about how my creative communities, including 12x12 and my amazing critique group, did so much to advance my writing and illustrating.

2013 New Voices Award Winner Announced!

May I share the limelight with you, Mr. Magnifico? © 2013 Sylvia Liu

Today I am beyond excited to announce that I WAS SELECTED AS THE WINNER OF THE LEE AND LOW 2013 NEW VOICES AWARD (click the link to see the announcement). So excited that fresh words fail me so I shall resort to cliches:

A to Z Cephalopods: L thru R

This is a catch up post of my December Doodle Day Cephalopods. I only got to P by the end of December, but I will slowly finish the alphabet, hopefully before the end of January. The Doodle Day prompts in January have been locations (like Bedroom, Bathroom), so I will incorporate those as well.

L for Longfin Inshore Squid

© 2013 Sylvia Liu

Neuroscientists practice on the giant axon of this squid because it behaves exactly like humans, but is many time larger and easier to manipulate. Also, long fin inshore squid do not have good malpractice lawyers.