Published Story

📢 I am happy to announce that my story, Annalee Frill, is published in the January/February issue of Chirp magazine! This is the BODY themed issue.

🎧 Also, you can hear my story, read by me, on the Owl Kids site.

My story has been beautifully illustrated by Jana Curll.

Book Cover Doppelgangers

I was wandering around the book store searching for the book "The Spy and the Traitor" by Ben Macintyre. It was to be a gift for my dad. I scanned the shelves for the cover - black, white, and red with a silhouette of a mysterious mad walking toward some Russian buildings.

Ah-ha! There it is!

Oh, wait. That's not it. I held up the picture on my phone next to it. I continued to search and finally found what I was looking for.

Here it is.

Can you see why I was confused?

Different title. Different author. Different publishers on a different date.

Both black, white and red. Both with a silhouette of a single man walking towards the same Russian buildings (one is a little closer than the other).

They were so close I took a photo of them together:

So, am I missing something or is this just a coincidence? Is there some sort of relationship between them?

I did a search but couldn't find anything about these cover, but I did find links to lists of other books that are similar. Seems to be something that happens quite often.

• Same Cover, Different Book.
• COVER CLONES!

What are your thoughts about books with similar covers?

What would you do if you found a book with a cover that was almost the same as yours?

National Science Reading Day

As part of @scilitweek, kids across Canada will spend time reading about science on Sept. 18 for #NationalScienceReadingDay. To celebrate, we're giving away $3,000 in prizes to kids and classrooms!
Find out more: https://t.co/YQXHod6zwU
Contest opens Sept. 17. @NSERC_CRSNG pic.twitter.com/UeBYOFaPma

— Owlkids Publishing (@owlkids) September 3, 2019

Chirp - Colouring Fun!

This looks like fun!

Hey parents! Did you know you can download #free colouring sheets from issues of Chirp on the Owlkids website?

Head to https://t.co/keAZmjnRL7 to get FREE colouring sheets! pic.twitter.com/2WjcbpCeyX

— Owlkids Publishing (@owlkids) August 2, 2019

My last post was a poll on about manuscript submissions, Poll - Manuscript submission. As you may have guessed, I posted this because I do have a manuscript out there and I am waiting for a response. I was curious about what other author/writers think.

The good news is I am still waiting for a response and it's past the upper limit of the usual response time. Yes, I know the response times are estimates, but no new is not a no. I'll happily and patiently wait for a response.

While I wait, I have a few other things on the go. To find out what, you'll have to wait to see. :)

Poll - Manuscript submission

Authors (and writers), when waiting for a response to a manuscript submission, do you feel that no news good news? For example, if response time is 8-12 weeks*, do you get more excited if you haven't heard anything by week 12? (assume they respond, even for rejections) *arbitrary duration

— Madeline Barr (@MadelineBarr) July 9, 2019

Digital rights management (DRM) - the dark side

Microsoft's Ebook Apocalypse Shows the Dark Side of DRM https://t.co/PKWr3xbfqe

— Madeline Barr (@MadelineBarr) July 3, 2019

Tap Dance Day!

Shuffle-Ball-Change! May 25th is Tap Dance Day!

I took tap dancing lessons when I was little and enjoyed it very much. I always felt so special in my tap shoes.


Interesting fact: 
Early tap shoes were made by hammering pennies or hobnails (a short, thick-headed nail commonly used on boot soles)  into the toe and heel of the shoe. When the performer danced the metal would create a tapping sound when their foot hit the hard ground or stage. https://ourpastimes.com/the-history-of-tap-dance-shoes-12185380.html

Question:
Have you ever tap danced? If not, what kind of dancing have you done?

Books:
Here's a list of some children's books about turtles:

Rainbow Magic Dance Fairies: Tasha the Tap Dance Fairy - By Daisy Meadows - Scholastic

How to tap dance:

Brother's Day

Love them or hate them. Today, May 24th, is Brother's Day.

I have an older brother and, yes, I do love him - but don't tell him I said that. 😜

Question: Do you have any brothers?

Books:
Here's a list of some children's books about brothers:

• The Orphan Rescue - by Anne Dublin - Second Story Press
• The Wright Brothers - by Elizabeth MacLeod and illustrated by Andrej Krystoforski - Kids Can Press
• No Room for Baby - by  Émile Jadoul and illustrated by  Émile Jadoul - Kids Can Press
• Little Brothers & Little Sisters - by Monica Arnaldo - Owlkids
• Me and My Brother - by Ruth Ohi - Annick Press

Turtle Day!

It's time to "shellebrate" because May 23rd is Turtle Day!

Interesting fact: 
A turtle's shell is part of its skeleton. More facts at https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/animals/sea-life/turtle-facts/

Question:
What is known as Turtle Island?

Books:
Here's a list of some children's books about turtles:

• Franklin the Turtle - by Paulette Bourgeois and illustrated by Brenda Clark -  Kids Can Press
• Old Turtle - by Douglas Wood and illustrated by Cheng-Khee Chee  - Scholastic
• Turtle Island: The Story of North America’s First People - by Eldon Yellowhorn and Kathy Lowinger - Annick Press
• Hatchling’s Journey - by Kristin Bieber Domm and illustrated by Jeffrey Domm - Nimbus Publishing
• Leatherback Blues - by Karen Hood-Caddy -  Dundurn
• Turtle Pond - by James Gladstone and illustrated by Karen Reczuch - Groundwood Books

Hosting a writing group

This blog post is a general post about my writing group at work. The writing group we've formed at work is going well.

In our first meeting, we wrote short paragraphs based on photo prompts. It was very interesting to see the creativity of the group and how the photographs prompted each writer in their own unique way. I don't think my paragraph will develop into a full-fledged story but I will keep it in my files. You never know when you are going to need it in another story.

At the next meeting, a co-worker and I tagged teamed hosting the meeting. In honour of poetry month, he taught the group on how to write a Haiku, and I follow-up by expanding the lesson to how to write a Tanka. The lesson was well received by the group.

I am very excited that I have been asked to host the May 28th meeting with a topic of my choice. The topic I chose is

Generating Story Ideas

Once I complete my session I will post about the topic and how the meeting went.


While you wait, feel free to share with me some the ways you come up with story ideas or what you do to help get the creative juices flowing by entering it in the comments below.

I'm also interested in any other topics I could share with my writing group or you would like me to post about.

What now? I've been busy

What am I up to now? Here are just a few things:

• Editing - I am helping out a fellow Atlassian Author with something he's working on.
• Benny and I made a student/department visitation - he loved it.
• I scored 2, yes TWO, goals in hockey in the same shift. First time I've done that!
• I joined a writing group at work.
• I'm doing the Robert Brewer's April Poem A Day (PAD) Challenge.
• Signed up for Exploring Haiku as Gratefulness Practice - sign up before April 10th.
• Went to my son's music performance where he had an alto saxophone solo - so proud.
• Used my artsy talent to create and cut window decals on my Cricut.
• Successfully completed an accelerated "The Basics of Fluid Development" and "Advanced Fluid Development" course for Oracle PeopleSoft development.

Now, I'm looking to either resurrect a manuscript and make it pretty or write something new like an article. Not sure yet.

(I also need to figure out a new exercise routine now the hockey season is finished but I don't want to write that down in case I don't do it --- oops, looks like I wrote it)

It's Been a While!

It's been a while.

Why?

Well, I took some time off from writing because I was taking courses for my day job. Now that the courses are done, I've spent significant time polishing an old manuscript. A manuscript that almost made it to publication in the past. I am thrilled with the final result!

It's been a while since I submitted a manuscript.

It's polished, printed and in an envelope with a SASE sitting by the front door. I will drop it in the mailbox tomorrow morning when I walk the dog before I go to work.

It's been a while. I'm happy to be back!

(I'm off to work on the next manuscript)

A Love of All Shapes and Sizes

I'm pleased to be a member of the Atlassian Authors group! Yay!

With Valentine's Day in mind, the prompt this month was about the app/add-on/plug-in we love.
Read my article A Love of All Shapes and Sizes - draw.io Diagrams for Confluence .

Let me know what you think.

Picture Book Templates

Some of my best picture book ideas bounce around in my head for days, even weeks. They haunt and taunt me, and do not want to come out. I think they may be stuck in my head because they're incomplete. They are bounceing around so much, there is no space to complete them. It's a real brain battle, or at least that's how it feels.

I need to stop using incomplete ideas as an excuse for not writing my stories and get my thoughts organized. So, today, I am on the hunt for picture book templates so I can put these partial ideas in a place and focus my energy on filling in the blanks.

Here are some of the places I have found picture book dummies and templates.

• Picture Book Dummy, Picture Book Construction: Know Your Layout by author Tara Lazar http://taralazar.com/tag/picture-book-template/
• Inkygirl.com Debbie Ridpath Ohi's 32-page picture book: Rough Thumbnails PDF
  http://inkygirl.com/storage/pdfs/picturebooks/ThumbnailsForSS-v9flat.pdf
  I also recommend you read her related post http://inkygirl.com/inkygirl-main/2012/5/15/writing-illustrating-a-picture-book-for-simon-schuster-books.html

Where have you been?

I wasn't far. I've been learning (and still creating but no time to blog).

For the last year, I have been taking courses, again. This time I have successfully completed the Creative, Critical & Design Thinking certificate program through the McMaster University Continuing Education program.

Now that I have completed it, I want to get back into writing and other arts.

For example, I have a children's book manuscript I am going to revisit, and possibly submit to an agent. Also, here is a watercolour painting I recently finished:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Madeline Barr (@madelinetbarr) on Jan 2, 2019 at 2:28pm PST

I will also be spending more time blogging. I'm very excited and look forward to getting back into the groove.