Resources

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” —Roald Dahl

All about the picture book:

Tara Lazar: PB construction know your layout
Lisa Anchin: Illustrator Saturday
Design of the Picture Book
Is Your Book a Dummy? It Should Be!
An Illustrators guide to Creating a Picture Book
Yellapalooza

All About the Middle Grade and YA Novel:

From the Mixed Up Files…Of Middle Grade Authors
Adventures in YA Publishing
Emotion Thesaurus (The Book Shelf Muse)
The Big Ol’ Genre Glossary
Where to put paragraph, scene and chapter breaks in your work

Twitter hashtags:
#SCBWI
#WNDB
#Inktober
#pitmad
#PitchWars
#kidlit411
#MSWL
#AskAgent
#AskEditor
#TenQueries
#PBLitChat
#myWANA
#arttips
#StoryStorm
#InboxInsights
#ReFoReMo

Yearly events and challenges every writer should know about:

NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month
“A wildly ambitious writing event. . . “
Story Storm (happens each November hosted by Tara Lazar)
30 Picture book/novel ideas in one month
12×12 in ’12 (hosted by Julie Hedlund)
Write 12 PB drafts in 12 months
Picture Book Marathon (annual marathon)
NaPiBoWriWee (yearly May challenge hosted by Paula Yoo)
WriteOnCon (Annual Online Writing Conference)

(Most of these challenges have hashtags for Twitter and Facebook groups you can join)

Book review and book blogs:

Through The Looking Glass Children’s Books Reviews
Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
Picture books in elt
Reading Rumpus

Publicity and Social Media:

The Book Publicity Blog

Instagram and Pinterest are also great for Authors and Illustrators

Preparing your manuscript for submission to agents/editors/publishers:

Query Tracker (A place to track your queries and review agents)
Literary Rambles (spotlighting agents, authors, and publishing)
Agent Query
The Pitch (from Query Tracker)
Loglines: ie Hook expanded
Help! I Need a Publisher!
Your First Page
SlushPile Hell

Groups and Organizations and Critique for Writers:
SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America)

Fellowships/Residencies/Dinero/Grants:
MacDowell Colony
Trans Artists
Alliance of Artist Communities
PEN
Sustainable Arts Foundation
WNDB Walter Grant
SFF/Speculative Fiction Grants
Highlights Foundation Scholarships (for workshops)

Books/Must Reads on Writing i.e. MAPS:

Children’s Writers’s Word Book–by Alijandra Mogilner, Tayopa Mogilner
Writing Picture Books– by Ann Whitford Paul
Writing With Pictures: How to Write and Illustrate Children’s Books–by Uri Shilevitz
Kate Messner’s Book – Real Revision
DEAR GENIUS: THE LETTERS OF URSULA NORDSTROM ed. by Leonard S. Marcus
THE SPYING HEART by Katherine Paterson
THE WRITER’S GUIDE TO CRAFTING STORIES FOR CHILDREN by Nancy Lamb
Spilling Ink
Writing for Children and Teens–by Cynthea Liu
Writing Great Books for Young Adults
Other Books on Writing for Children
Woe is I– by Patricia T. O’Connor
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire: A Handbook of Grammar for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed or The Well Tempered Sentence–by Elizabeth Karen Gordon
On Writing–by Stephen King
Bird by Bird–by Anne Lamott
The Elements of Style–by E.B. White
179 Ways to Save a Novel– by Peter Selgin
Showing and Telling–by Laurie Alberts
Self Editing for Fiction Writers–by Renni Browne and Dave King
Writing Down the Bones–Natalie Goldberg
REVISION AND SELF-EDITING by James Scott Bell
WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL by Donald Maass
STORY by Robert McKee
THE SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST by David Morrell
FINDING YOUR WRITER’S VOICE by Thaisa Frank
NO PLOT? NO PROBLEM by Chris Baty
FINDING YOUR VOICE by Les Edgerton
TIME TO WRITE by Kelly L. Stone
EATS, SHOOTS & LEAVES: THE ZERO TOLERANCE APPROACH TO PUNCTUATION by Lynne Truss