Brianwoods

Hi. My name is Ken. I'm a member of SCBWI. I'm your tour guide into Brianwoods, a blog dedicated to my children's writing endeavors. Thanks for stopping by.

Just for a minute, close your eyes and imagine you're walking along a forest trail. Listen to the forest animals, as they call out to greet you. Welcome to Brianwoods!

This blog includes some of my other writing and details on my published materials.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Entering Children's Writing Contests and More

This February has been a very busy time for me and my online critique group. The five members have many submissions out to publishing professionals. Two members have had books published recently, have agents now and others like myself have been entering various contests.

I participated in Susanna Leonard Hill's Valentiny Contest on February 12th, the #PBPitch on X (Twitter) on February 22nd and then entered the 2024 #PBParty Contest run by Mindy Alyse Weiss that same day. One other member, our author/illustrator member entered the author/illustrator part of the #PBParty Contest. Then on March 2nd, I entered Vivian Kirkfield's  #50 Precious Words Contest.  

Our small group has had much success in the # 50 Precious Words Contest since 2021. We have had four different members place in it and a number of honorable mentions too. I was one of the winners in 2021 and received honorable mentions in 2022 and 2023.

As I wait for the results for the #PBParty and #50 Precious Words Contests, I continue to write new picture book manuscripts and tweak existing ones.


Ken

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Susanna Leonard Hill's 9th Annual Valentiny Writing Contest-February 14, 2024

After a short break from entering Susanna's holiday contests, I'm back to participating. As usual for this Valentine's Day Contest, entrants must enter a story of 214 or less words between February 12th at 12:01 am and 11:59 pm, February 14th, all EST.  The judging criteria includes things like kid-friendly, creativity showing enthusiasm, be about Valentine's Day, have at least a basic story arc, be good quality writing, have originality, and, of course, follow the guidelines. The prizes look really good too, with authors agreeing to do Zoom chats, critiques and give books out to winners.

My entry this year has a family touch to it. I intend to place an audio file of me reading my entry so that anyone can listen, rather than read it.

Good luck to all entrants and a big thank you to Susanna and all her helpers!


Ken

Monday, January 8, 2024

Committing to Writing

 

Since retiring from my environmental engineering job in 2015, I have been writing intermittently while tutoring locally for two school systems and occasionally doing private tutoring. 

Over the past year, I stopped doing tutoring entirely and have thrown myself into writing. I continue to moderate a online children's picture book critique group composed of five writers. Two of those writers now have agents and a third is close to acquiring one. The group has two recently published picture books with several others in the works. This particular group has been together for three years and our collaboration has no doubt lead to some of this success.

I am hopeful that Writers For Kids will build upon this success and that 2024 will bring the group continued success.

 

Ken