Julia Stilchen

6th Annual PiBoIdMo November 2014 I am very excited to be participating in this year's, Tara Lazar 's, PiBoIdMo ! Each year, I had caught it just too late. This time, I made sure to set the date on my Calendar.  PiBoIdMo, Picture Book Idea Month, is pretty much what it says. A month where writers get together for a 30-day challenge to create 30 picture book concepts in 30 days! Along the way, we get to enjoy daily blog posts by picture book professionals and enter for prizes. To learn more about the challenge, visit here . If you are a writer or illustrator or both, and love to write and learn about writing picture books, this is a great online opportunity to challenge yourself. Registration is open from Oct. 25th - Nov. 7th.  Just visit Tara's website to register.

As a writer, I know all too well experiencing the stress and worries along the path of the writer's journey. There are times that I wish I could find a shortcut or fast forward to the bits of life where I really want to be in my writing career. Yet, there is a deep knowing that, it is during the process -  in the moment of this journey that I also enjoy and end up reminding myself to just slow down and take it day by day. It is not a race. There is no deadline that I need to beat. What I really need to beat are all the invading thoughts that are not worth my time during this journey. I step back and question my motives for writing. Why do I write? Why do I put so much of my time and effort with hardly there being much reward or much to show. I have spent nearly five years of just studying the craft of writing. Taking numerous of courses, workshops, seminars, and collected many writing references along the way, I mean, it has pretty much been my personal obsession of obtaining all...