Quentin Blake Podcast

Well folks today I got to do something I never really expected to ever be able to do. With me being in America and Quentin Blake being in England I was sure that there would be no chance that I would ever get to meet the guy who had made Roald Dahls books come to life for me as a child.

SCI Lesson (CHC4C) Practical Assignment

I did this a bit backwards. For those of you paying attention you will notice that this project should have come before the previous one. Well I'm sorry but I wanted to tackle the other ones first, okay? Good. Let's move on.

SCI Lesson (CHC5A)

So we are coming to the last part of the course right now and I must say I have enjoyed it a lot more than I actually thought I would. I told you guys at the very beginning about my apprehensions with doing an online course. However I decided early on that if it gave me some feedback on my work and/or some contacts then it would be worth the money.

ABC Event with Author Mary Quattlebaum, Germantown MD

I am really excited to let you know how I got on with this, my first event, as a member of SCBWI! I must be honest the whole thing almost never happened for me but it did and I am so glad that I did this.

Joined SCBWI!!

Well as you know if you have been following my blog I have been taking this whole writing books for Children thing pretty seriously and I do have the great backing of my Fiance who, although we do not have a whole great deal of spare cash, has been behind me 100% from the very beginning. It was her that encouraged me to start the course and now she has done the same with joining SCBWI. The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators.

SCI Leson (CHC3C) - Practical Assignment

Practical time! In this section I had a choice between three different options for which task to choose. I thought about one for a while before finally deciding to step out of my comfort zone and try something that I have never even given a second thought about, non fiction.

SCI Lesson (CHC3A)

Just when you think you are coasting along nicely something will always come up and bit you in the butt. Something always returns your feet to the ground and refocuses you. This exam was just such an experience.

SCI Lesson (CHC3B)

Back to SCI and yet another question and answer section. This one was actually very interesting and something I hadn't expected at the beginning of the course.

SCI Lesson (CHC2F) - Practical Assignment

Well I just got my practical project back. As you probably remember I was asked a few units ago to do an outline of a short story. This project was part two of that one in which I had to actually write the story.

The Great Flood!

My girlfriend had left for a few nights to stay with one of her friends down in Annapolis and I was left up in Pennsylvania to work my regular day job. The landlords had been informed months ago about a cracked tub in our bathroom and it was a few days ago that it was decided they would come in and replace it, hence the girlfriend going away. I bet you thought maybe I had done something wrong! I know that's what you thought, well no I didn't. This time for once I can be like the singer Shaggy and say 'It wasn't me!'

SCI Lesson (CHC2E)

Yet another Question and Answer section for me to answer. I really do understand and appreciate why these are important within the course but really my hand is itching to do something other than blackening a box next to an 'A", 'B', 'C' or even 'D'!

SCI Lesson Number (CHC2D)

Again we revert back to the question and answer part of the course. This one is going to be very tough but also extremely important to understand if I am going to go ahead and get something published.

SCI - Lesson Two, Practical

I tend to get really excited with the practical aspects of this course. Certainly reading the text book is insightful and I really do get a ton of information from it, but it's the practical exams that I live for.

This one was a really good one also and I have just got my grades back for it. In this one I had to write a concept for a story, but not the whole story.

SCI Section 2 - Questions and Answers

Well it has been a little while since I last spoke to you but now I have completed the first part of Section 2 of my 'Writing For Children' online course.
Again just like the first part of Section One, this is question and answer based. Again I had a certain section to read in the text book (already at the house) and then answer questions based on the text.

Copyrighting Your Own Stuff - For Free, well not much mullah!

OK so you have written your manuscript or have done illustrations and are looking to get them in the hands of a potential publisher. You have sent out you query letters and maybe you have a few publishers who do accept 'off the street' submissions. What can you do to protect yourself and your creation?

Well I haven't forgotten about you it is just that until today I hadn't heard anything back from SCI. However today when I arrived home from work an envelope was waiting for me. I ran inside, sat down and tore it open.

Beware The Man Cave! (Well Writing room)

So a few days ago, well a couple of weeks almost now, I had decided to enroll in the online course conducted by the Stratford Career Institute. Now I had been working on some ideas way way way before this decision and thanks to my girlfriend I had been convinced that the only way to start to be serious about the writing would be to have a serious place to go and write.

Writing Stories For Children - Stratford Career Institute

Well it is a new year and with it comes a new motivation. I have decided to start this blog and will track my progress as I start an online/correspondence course through the Stratford Career Institute (SCI). From the title of this piece you can see what the course is about and I am going into it not with the expectation of anything more than getting pointers and direction, feedback on work and possibly some contacts to boot.