At the present time, we have five members in our small group. Three of our members have agents now and the group has published at least four picture books in the last two years. I started the group back in 2013 and we have had some changeover, where members moved on to other groups. One of our former members, Margaret Chiu Greanias, published her debut picture book, Maximillian Villainous back in 2018.
We are hopeful that 2026 brings much success to Writers for Kids (WFK)!
Ken
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
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
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
It's that time of year for Vivian Kirkfield's popular children's writing contest, # 50 Precious Words. Each entrant must write a story with a basic story arc using only 50 words or less, not an easy task. Over the past several years, my small critique group has had quite a bit of success in this contest. We have had at least one winner in each of the last three contests and two winners in 2021. This year's winner is Callie Dean, who was also a winner in Mindy Alyse Weiss's 2022 PBParty contest. I hope this trend continues!
Ken
If you are familiar with the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) organization, you know that they do many great things to help writers and illustrators of all levels with their craft. In March of this year, I applied for the NESCBWI Agent Editor Day, a mentoring/training day with writing and illustrating professionals. Because of the overwhelming interest in this event, SCBWI selects a limited number of people by random lottery. I was one of the lucky ones this year. I also applied last year, but didn't get picked. My message to all those writers interested in such an event is to keep applying each year.
The application process has you selecting a particular mentor who you would like to work with. Each mentor is assigned 6 people to work with in their group. I was fortunate to get Kate Meltzer as a mentor. She is an editor with Roaring Brook Press, a division of the Macmillan Children's Publishing Group. Before choosing Kate, I did a little research to find out more about her and the writers and books she has worked with. She has worked with Newbury Medal winner, Matt de la Pena as well as many other well published writers. Her husband, Brian Geffen is also in the publishing business. He is an editor with Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.
Being able to participate in such an event opens up doors that are normally closed for writers without agents. For instance, both Roaring Brook and Henry Holt do not presently accept unsolicited manuscripts. I recently made submissions to Kate and several other professionals as part of this SCBWI event. I'm hopeful that such participation will benefit my writing.
Ken
I again entered the #50 Precious Words contest run by Vivian Kirkfield last month. Myself and one other critique group member was fortunate to place last year. For my prize, I was able to get a critique from Vivian! This year I didn't place, but did get an honorable mention along with another group member in the contest. The great thing this year was that one of my other critique partners did place high up in the contest!
Writers For Kids, the small online critique group I run is doing quite well. One member has an agent already, two members are presently in discussions with an agent/editor on manuscripts. To add to that, one member just placed in the very competitive PB Party contest and got over ten agent /editor requests!
This year I applied to the Agent/Editor Day run by SCBWI, which uses a lottery to select attendees. I was surprised and super happy to get picked this year. I along with five other writers attended a session with mentor Kate Meltzer, an editor with Roaring Brook Press. It was conducted online using Zoom. Each writer got feedback from Kate and the other writers on one manuscript after sharing it with the group.
I'm now planning to apply for a one month mentorship through PBChat tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Ken
This year's Storystorm run by Tara Lazar just started up on January 1st, 2022! This might be the biggest event to date based on the number of comments (over 2,500) I saw on Tara's website. Tara has assembled another great list of prizes too. I already generated a number of ideas and look forward to the rest of the event and the helpful writing posts each day from authors in January! Thanks Tara and good luck to all participants!
Ken
This is my entry for this year's contest. I created a riddle in a story for my entry. The two things each reader needs to figure out are 1) What is Hank, an animal or a human? (easy) and 2) What was Hank's costume? (harder) I hope you enjoy my rhyming story!
Word Count: 100
HANK’S HALLOWEEN COSTUME
By Ken Major
Hank’s costume was bright
On Halloween night.
It glowed in the dark
And blinked with each bark.
Equipped with two wings
And hidden round things,
He traveled with speed
On sugary feed.
His tail was unique
And looked oh so sleek.
The costume below
Had places to stow
More goodies for fuel
And drinks to stay cool.
When strangers came near
Goosebumps would appear,
All over their skin
From shin to their chin.
Hank ended his night
With one unkind fright.
He spooked a black cat
Who’s name was Sedat.
A WOOF and a YAP,
Then Hank took a nap.
Back in 2010 or so when I started this blog, my family welcomed a new member, Calvin, a energetic yellow Labrador retriever. He was such a friendly, loving dog and provided us with many great memories. We said goodbye to him yesterday after eleven years.
He was a inspiration to my writing and would sit under the computer desk by my feet while I worked creating new stories and editing older ones. I even included him in some of these stories too.
In addition to running, writing has been therapeutic for me and this is one of those times when I find I need it. Maybe it's because we got him at such a young age and he was such a great dog that I find myself hurting so bad. All the things that remind me of him seem to be staring at me almost all the time when I'm home.
Calvin loved his special pillow that we saved from an old couch we replaced. He also loved his piece of garden hose that he would carry around with him outside. He was a big fan of doggy snacks and we tended to spoil him. I miss him so much. I hope they have doggy snacks, pillows and water hoses in heaven.
Ken
After years of entering children's writing contests, I finally placed in one! Yes, I placed 35th in the # 50 Precious Words Contest. Prizes will be awarded to the best 51 entries. The prizes look awesome, which include professional critiques from editors, agents or published writers, spots in a number of children's writing classes or seminars, Zoom sessions with writing professionals and author-signed books. I won't know what my prize will be until they distribute the first 34 prizes. I'm hoping for a critique from an editor or an agent.
On another writing matter, my NF story about the Mark Twain House Haunting, which I wrote for the Haunted States Writing Contest run by SCBWI (rejected by the judges back in January), was published this week in Paranormal Underground Magazine. I actually got paid for it and will receive copies of the magazine too.
Ken
I had the pleasure of participating in this year's Storystorm. I was able to generate 32 story ideas with the help of all those great author posts that Tara lined up. I have been drawing on previous Storystorm lists for quite a while now. I was even able to mash up two ideas, one from 2017 and the other from 2019! I hope everyone had a great time. Now all participants that met the challenge requirements get to play the waiting game to see if they will win one of my many prizes offered. I commented once on all posts so I should be in the running for all the prizes. My fingers are crossed. Good luck to all and many thanks to Tara and all the guest hosts that wrote inspirational posts for the month, including my former critique partner, Margaret Chiu Greanias!
Ken
I'd like to welcome two new members to Writers For Kids, an online picture book critique group I started back in 2013. With some recent changeover, two spots opened up and we are pleased to welcome Kimberly and Sophie to our small group.
Kimberly is a writer from Malaysia. She has a legal background and worked as a media lawyer. In the past, she has entered international writing and poetry contests and gained some recognition. She now does freelance content writing for local publications and other organizations. She co-authored a picture book expected to be published in 2021. This picture book is related to a Malaysian parenting website she writes for.
Sophie is an artist from Ohio that used to write a regular column in It's A Rat's World magazine and was a staff comic artist with the University of Hawaii at Manoa student newspaper, Ka Leo. She has written and illustrated some draft picture books. She has been a member of several writing groups in the past, but this is her first group specifically aimed at children's book writing.
Both Kimberly and Sophie bring some unique skills to the group. We look forward to working with them.
P.S. It has come to my attention that Kimberly has been signed by a agent. Congratulations!
I signed up to participate in the 2021 Storystorm event several days ago. I'm in the process of catching up since I was a bit late starting. This event tasks you with coming up with one story idea for each day in January. There are prizes you can win by commenting once on each daily post from guest writers.
I have yet to win a prize, but I'm going to continue to participate because it really nudges you to come up with ideas. Each idea isn't necessarily going to be great, but the process is great for the creative mind. Maybe this will be my year to win a prize.
Registration just ended about 30 minutes ago. Good luck to all participants!
Ken
Word Count: 99
HALLOWEEN MASKS
By Ken Major
“Look what I bought for my Halloween costume for tonight, Mom!”
“What is it?” asked Mom.
“It’s a nurse’s costume with a special safety mask with skeleton bones. It’s my way of thanking all frontline workers in the pandemic,” said Rachel.
“That’s a great idea!” said Mom.
“The mask says, EVERYONE PLEASE WEAR A MASK. IT SAVES LIVES!”
“I wish everyone took this to heart and did what the health experts are saying,” said Mom.
“I think it’s creepy when the president mocks people that wear masks?” said Rachel.
“I agree. Let’s all do our part to save lives.”
I recently received an email from SCBWI about a chance to get a story published in a proposed trade book about haunting issues in the USA. SCBWI members are tasked with writing a scary story associated with the state they either live in or have a connection to. The unfortunate thing is that only one story from each state/district/commonwealth will get published in the book. The fifty states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia makes 52 chances for SCBWI members to get published though!
I have been researching several haunting stories in Connecticut, trying to decide which topic to write about. The story can be up to 1300 words, must be written for middle graders, inspired by a local/regional event or myth and written by someone with a connection to that state/district/commonwealth.
I have encouraged my fellow critique partners to enter the challenge. We have writers in the group from all over the United States. I started one draft story so far, but I'm uncertain about whether or not this story will end up being my entry.
The deadline to submit your entry is December 1, 2020. You need to use an online contest form to file your entry. Good luck to all SCBWI members that enter the challenge!
Ken
