September 2026 Master Class
Registration is Now Open
Closes Wed. Sept. 9 Midnight Eastern

Perseverance Leads to Creativity

Recently we had some tears in an elementary art class. The children looked at photos of chameleons and then drew them. Then we used bubble wrap to print colorful reptile skin on their chameleons. I thought I’d worked out all the bugs on this new project, but I forgot that many children would get so […]

My Favorite Self-Publishing Tools by Erin Greneaux

My favorite aspect of the self-publishing process is that I coordinate every aspect of the process from the initial idea to the printed book in my readers’ hands! And the most challenging part of self-publishing is…coordinating every aspect of the process from idea to printed book. While most authors are talented in several areas of […]

Lullaby For the King: A New Picture Book by Nikki Grimes by A Review by Carol Baldwin

The calendar tells me it’s October, but before you know it, December will be here and it’ll be time for the holidays. I’m getting ahead of the game with today’s book review. Many of you are familiar with the multi-talented award-winning children’s author Nikki Grimes. I’ve featured her books in verse for middle-grade students and young […]

The Best Novel Written by ChatGPT

The Two Lives of Ezekiel Van Cleef is the greatest novel ever written by AI. Why? Because I helped write it. While this sounds arrogant, I think any novel that has 10% of the writing done by a human is better than any novel written 100% by AI. In fact, productivity aside, I would say […]

Making the Most of Your Author Visits by Jennifer Mills Barnes

Today we welcome a new blogger to our team. Jennifer M. Barnes is a retired kindergarten and first-grade teacher and will draw from those experiences in her upcoming posts. She is thrilled to be part of our blogging team and we’re excited to have her! ****  “So, tell me about this new kid,” a kindergarten […]

Book Review: The First Unicorn by Kathleen J. Shields

“And the unicorns shall come down with them, and the bullocks with the bulls; and their land shall be soaked with blood, and their dust made fat with fatness.” (Isaiah 34:7 KJV) If you ever come across this verse in the King James Bible, it might give you some pause. Unicorns and blood? In Isaiah? […]

A Different Kind of Writing Prompt

Writing prompts are used by students and writers alike to challenge their creativity and/or to improve writing skills. They can be presented in a variety of ways – phrases, questions, topics – the sky’s the limit. Their purpose is to present you with an idea or thought that you can expand upon, allowing you to […]

So Why Isn’t War and Peace a Chapter Book?

By Guest Blogger and upcoming MC teacher, Marianne Hering Before I tell you why a fiction book with a whopping 361 chapters is not a chapter book, let me ramble about myself for a minute. Gauche, I know, but it’s part of the answer. So, I’ve written a few books in my day. I wrote […]