Guest Blogging at Laura Sassi Tales

This week sure is busy! Virtually, you’ll find me at Laura Sassi’s writing blog “Laura Sassi Tales.” I share how I land a book contract before I write the book.

Physically, you’ll find me packing and unpacking as our family moves to a different apartment in our city in Korea. We’re moving from the 18th floor to the 21st floor of another apartment complex. And Koreans have invented handy moving machines for these high-rise apartments!

Emotionally, you’ll find me racking my brain for a new picture book idea. This month I’m participating in Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo, which is Picture Book Idea Month. I wrote about it in the previous post. Ideas don’t come easily to me. So far I have one for each day of this month. I just pay more attention to my children’s conversations.

So head on over and check Laura’s blog. She has lots of other wonderful writing advice!

Picture Book Challenges

I did it! I finished the 31 in 31 picture book challenge by Kathy Ellen. Our challenge was to read one picture book each day for October and document it on her blog. This was a wonderful challenge that pushed me to read a picture book every day, no matter what! One helpful web site is “We Give Books” which has online picture books for free. Since I’m out of country, this web site was extremely helpful. On the left is my bookshelf that lists each book. For convenience, here are the titles:

Crafty Chloe
Skippyjon Jones in Mummy Trouble
Big Red Lollipop
Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad
Extra Yarn
Boy + Bot
Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake
Little Dog Lost
If You Give a Dog a Donut
Alexander and the Terrible No Good Very Bad Day
The Gruffalo
Up and Down
Inside a House That Is Haunted
Llama Llama Misses Mama
Wink! The Ninja Who Wanted to Be Noticed
My Name Is Not Alexander
The Night Before First Grade
The Three Snow Bears
Red Truck
Children Make Terrible Pets
T if for Turkey
Bad Apple: A Tale of Friendship
Roly Poly Pangolin
The Mine-o-saur
Chico the Brave
The Bumpy Little Pumpkin
Dr. De Soto
The Gingerbread Man Loose in the School
Doug-Dennis and the Fly Away Fib
Miss Rumphius
Bunny Party

Whew! Now I’m off to my next challenge…Tara Lazar’s PiBoIdMo is in full swing, writing down one picture book idea each day in November. If you want details about joining us, click the widget on the left bar for PiBoIdMo. Another goodie for this month, which I already blogged about, is that November is Picture Book Month. Every day, read an inspiring post, from picture book creators here. As families get together, I hope you spend time reading quality books with your children!