Reality Award – Seeing is believing

Hi Everyone

I was recently nominated for the Reality Award by Sharla from catnipoflife.wordpress.com she has an awesome blog, so check it out. I am so honoured to have received this fantastic award. This is an incredibly visual award and makes me feel proud that you see my blog as an inspiration to others, thanks very much.

As always, with any award comes rules. From my research there appears to be slight variations to the rules, so I am going to go by the rules that Sharla stated:

1) Show appreciation of the blogger who nominated you and link back to them in your post. Done.

2) Add the award logo to your blog. Done.

3) Share 7 things about yourself (See below )

4) Nominate 5 – 10 or more bloggers you admire. (Listed at the bottom of this post)

5) Contact your chosen bloggers to let them know. Will do.

I have attended a Picture Book workshop in London with Author Julie Sykes.
I attended a poetry workshop whilst I was in secondary school.
My favourite children’s authors are Roger Hargreaves who originally wrote the Mr Men and Little Miss books and is sadly no longer with us and Julia Donaldson because I adore her rhyming stories.
I used to play with snails when I was very young.
I love eating sugar free, gluten free, dairy free ice-cream, chocolate is my favourite flavour.
I have put my Christmas tree up. I usually like to do this as soon as I can at the beginning of December.
Christmas day and my birthday are my two favourite events of the year (and my guineapigs’ birthdays).

A big congratulations to all of my 6 nominees for this award, they are:

inspire1life.com

inspireyourbusiness.wordpress.com

thewhyaboutthis.com

margekatherine.com

searchingforthehappiness.wordpress.com

suewestwood.wordpress.com

Still to come in the next post, will be my thanks any nominations for another superb award, this time it will be Blog Of The Year 2012, that I am elated with. (Huge smiles.)

Thanks to everyone who stops by, comments and follows me. Your support is a rock to me and I appreciate every single one of you.

Write soon

Sandra

Quirky Shine On Award (quirkybooks.wordpress.com)
The Liebster Award – Thanks And Nominations (quirkybooks.wordpress.com)
Celebrating Two Year Blogging Anniversary (quirkybooks.wordpress.com)

I Won to Write

And The Winners Are…...

Hi Everyone

A-Z of Writing – D is coming soon.

I just had to share that I have won a prize for entering a blog competition.

Being a writer I am absolutely thrilled to win a Hamster Diaries notepad and postcards.

Now let me see, what can I write in the notepad:

Ideas for How to books
Ideas for Children’s Picture books
Things that are on my mind (This could take up the whole notepad, so maybe just write down my top 3)
Shopping lists (A bit boring but essential)
My favourite blog posts
My top 10 websites to visit
My friends birthdays and contact details
5 Positive things for that day
5 to dos for that day
3 ways to de-stress
10 Things that make me feel relaxed (This includes loud music, because of the quirky person I am, it chills me out)
5 things that make me feel good

Hummm! I am sure there are a few titles in there for future blog posts.

Whatever I write, it doesn’t matter, the fact that I am writing makes me feel good. I want you to feel good too – so get out your notepad and pen and let your imagination run wild.

What do you like to write about in your notepad?

Write soon

Sandra

How to create compelling characters for kids

Hi everyone

You may have noticed quirkybooks.net is developing.

I have taken on-board my first new illustrator and he is working on illustrations for my debut children’s picture book for 3-5 year olds.

So what makes compelling characters for kids in terms of the writer/illustrator partnership for that age group:

Character expressions mimic that of the kids’.
They behave in the same manner as a kid would.
They speak the kids’ language.
Even the more scary animals are cute, cuddly and approachable.
Each character has their own character that makes them memorable in some way.
They are colourful.
The story is told from the point of view of the main character.
The main character is likeable and approachable.
Kids can relate to the main character in some way.
Each character could have a story of their own to tell.

If you would like to keep up to date with what is happening and for news , information and inspiration . Please click on the link below and fill in your details:

http://www.quirkybooks.net

Write soon. Sandra.

Self Publishing, fantastic or frantic?

Hi Everyone.

Since making the decision to self publish my picture book. Things have been more than a little hectic.

Trawling the internet in search of the so called “perfect printer” has meant many sleepless hours.

After weeks of research, yesterday, I finally made my decision to purchase an Executive series Oki.

This decision was based on testing a similar machine in Bristol, with a sample illustration loaned to me from my illustrator.

It was fantastic to see my character come to life, my very own “baby owl.” As I smiled with pride and contentment, I held the print in my arms, knowing my dream was about to become a reality. My pleasure was abruptly interrupted by the technician, ‘helpfully’ declaring, I would need a binder and a laminator and a guillotine and………….yes, I thought to myself, not to mention, paper and card and I am sure there will be other things.

On my return home from Bristol, I have been weighing up the pros and cons to self publishing and doing more and more research, in fact, life has been so frantic, I haven’t had time to do much writing, which is my obvious goal. To be honest, there are probably more cons, mostly of the money variety, more going out than coming in. It would seem hard for me to profit from it financially. But as my illustrator reminded me, through her enthusiasm for our joint venture, at least I am “having a go”.

Although less in quantity, the pros will be life enriching, through the experience of learning new skills, the satisfaction of seeing my story in print and the smile it will bring to many faces.

Write soon.

Sandra

quirkybooks.net