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We had a super manuscript critique telesession the other evening for the Children’s Writers Coaching Club.

What I particularly enjoy about these LIVE critique sessions is that we get to HEAR everyone’s comments and suggestions for each manuscript.

Plus, if there are any questions as to what someone’s suggestion or comment means, we can always clear that up right away, which isn’t possible with a written critique via email or regular mail.

These weekly live critique telesessions are just one of the many advantages of belonging to the Children’s Writers Coaching Club. And, for a few more days, you can join the CWCC and get your first month’s Level 1 membership FREE.

However, as with all good things, this FREE offer must come to an end soon.

Sign up now for your free month’s membership so you won’t miss this special offer. It will end on Monday, July 2nd.

Find out all about the Children’s Writers Coaching Club here.

Then click on the special link in the right sidebar of the homepage at the NWFCC to get the free month’s membership.

Every week I host a manuscript critique telesession for the Children’s Writers Coaching Club. This week’s session will be tonight at 7:00 and is open to all members of the club who have submitted a manuscript ahead of time via our listserv (so everyone can read the manuscript).

We critique some wonderful manuscripts every week. Many of them only need a few revisions before they are ready for submission.

Find out more about the Children’s Writers Coaching Club at the National Writing for Children Center.

Tonight’s the night for our special teleclass with author and educator Maureen McQuerry.

Maureen will talk to members of the Children’s Writers Coaching Club about her poetry, fiction and nonfiction, and she’ll also offer tips for other children’s writers.

If you don’t belong to the Children’s Writers Coaching Club - join now, so you won’t miss this great teleclass this evening.

Your first month’s Level 1 membership in the club is FREE (although, when you sign up it will look like you’re being billed right then, but you won’t be for 30 days).

So what are you waiting for?

As a club member, you’ll also receive a CD of this recorded event with your membership materials early next month.

To join, visit the National Writing for Children Center - and click on the link in the right sidebar of the homepage that says “Join the Children’s Writers Coaching Club - FREE for the first month.”

Tonight is our monthly meeting for the Kansas City Writers Meetup group. I have a nice presentation planned. However, I am also hosting a virtual book tour (VBT) for author Diane Eble and her book Abundant Gifts tonight.

I thought I could make it to both events. Yet, when I thought about it yesterday, I realized that I want to allow plenty of time for questions when I talk about Making the Leap: How to Jump into Freelance Writing to members of the Kansas City Meetup group.

So - I’ve decided to postpone my presentation until next month. At tonight’s Meetup, members Tim Anderson and Sylvia C. Hall will both give short presentations about our nonfiction group and our children’s writers’ group - which are both subgroups of the Kansas City Writers Meetup group.

For those of you who are curious about virtual book tours, join us tonight for our tour with author Diane Eble, and find out what virtual book tours are all about.

To register, visit www.askdianenow.com

Talk to you tonight!

Hey, Kansas City writers!

Join us tomorrow night, Tuesday, June 26th, at 7:00 at the Oak Park Library for our regularly monthly meeting. I’ll give a short presentation (with handouts) called Making the Leap: How to Jumpstart Your Freelance Writing Career.

Member Tim Anderson will give information about our Nonfiction Writers Subgroup that meets every Monday night in Brookside.

Our Children’s Writers’ Critique Group facilitator, Sylvia. C., will tell children’s writers how to join this monthly critique group.

For all the details about this meeting, visit our Meetup website. And please RSVP if you plan to attend - so I’ll have enough handouts!

As the director of the National Writing for Children Center I have such fun talking to other authors every week, either for our podcast, Book Bites for Kids, or for the monthly teleclasses.

This week, our monthly teleclass with a children’s author will feature children’s educator and author Maureen McQuerry.

McQuerry’s poetry has been published in many journals including: Smartish Pace, The Atlanta Review, Southern Review, North American Review and Nimrod. It can also be found in the anthologies Margins, Pontoon 8 and The Washington Poetry Association collection Tattoos on Cedar. Recently McQuerry won the New Eden Chapbook Competition for her collection Wingward.

In her role as a teacher, McQuerry was appointed the McAuliffe Fellow for WA State in 2000 and that fellowship gave her time to write two non-fiction books, Student Inquiry, and Nuclear Legacy. Nuclear Legacy was written with a class of 8th grade students who all became published authors. The book took McQuerry to Chernobyl, Ukraine to look at how lives were impacted by the world’s largest nuclear disaster. McQuerry’s family spent one summer working in the United Arab Emirates, and another traveling through France and England.

McQuerry’s first YA adult novel, Wolfproof, started with one of the characters in a poem she wrote. The poem “Greenman” was based on carvings of foliate heads found in old churches throughout the British Isles. Eventually the greenman character from the poem worked his way into the story Wolfproof. And if you’re wondering about the title Wolfproof, well, it came from a poem too! The sequel to WP should be out next year.

Every month, members of the Children’s Writers Coaching Club are given the opportunity to attend a LIVE teleclass like this one. Members also receive a CD of the recorded event, so they can listen and learn from that month’s featured children’s author whenever they want.

In addition, club members are invited to weekly manuscript critique telesessions, and receive a monthly membership packet with other helpful materials for children’s writers and illustrators. We also offer a live teleclass with a children’s illustrator each month - and a CD of this recorded event as well.

Best of all - the first month’s membership in the club is FREE - so anyone can try it out for a month to decide if the club is right for them.

Visit the National Writing for Children Center today and find out how you can join the club FREE for one month so you won’t miss out on this fun and informative teleclass with Maureen McQuerry.

If you’re looking for a writers’ group in your area, look online at www.meetup.com and see if there’s an existing writers’ group in your neck of the woods that you can join.

If there isn’t, why not start one?

That’s what I did last year when I noticed that writers here in Kansas City were anxious to get a group going and they just needed someone to organize it.

The Kansas City Writers Meetup now has 36 members and we have several events for writers scheduled every month.

In fact, this Tuesday night we’ll have our regular monthly meeting and I’ll be giving a short presentation called Making the Leap: How to Jump Into Freelance Writing.

Visit the Kansas City Writers Meetup homepage to find out more about our group if you live in the Kansas City area.

The Kansas chapter of the Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) will host its annual conference this weekend - June 22 & 23 - at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas.

This year’s theme is Get Your DUCKS in a Row (Dialogue & description; Unique voice, plot/ideas, illustrations; Characters & conflict; Keep at it attitude; Submission readiness).

Speakers include editors Rachel Orr of HarperCollins and Tanya Dean of Darby Creek, agent Michelle Andelman of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, authors Elaine Marie Alphin, Sue Alexander, Dan Schwabauer, and Richard W. Jennings, and illustrator Laura Huliska-Beith.

For more information about this conference, visit the Kansas SBWI website. Space for this conference is limited - but it hasn’t sold out yet - so register today!

Have you seen this new free online magazine for kids (ages 3-12)?

Stories for Children Magazine accepts submissions from both children and adults. However, the magazine is closed for submissions until September 1, 2007. But that should give writers plenty of time to become familiar with this new online publication.

The magazine is also looking for children’s authors to interview.

Visit the site for the magazine for more information.

I love talking to other authors about their books. That’s why I created a weekly podcast at the National Writing for Children Center called Book Bites for Kids.

Visit the Center today and listen to a new edition of Book Bites for Kids. Tanya Lee Stone talks to me about her newest YA Novel, A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl.

When you get to the homepage of the site, simply scroll down to today’s post to listen to the podcast.