The New Jersey Children’s Writer’s Guild

Hooray for Bread!, a picture book story written by NJCWG Co-founder Sheila Wright, has been accepted to the 2010 Rutgers Council On Children’s Literature One-On-One Plus Conference.

Each year, the One-On-One Plus Conference provides professional “one-on-one” mentoring to the authors of 80 manuscripts selected from a pool of several hundred submissions. This is Sheila’s second time at the Conference, and we wish her good luck!

(for information on preparing a manuscript for submission to the Conference, visit Rutgers’ About One-On-One Plus page)

Member Bruno Grigoletti has emailed us with the news that the Midwest Book Review has finished reviewing his novel, The Soul Patrol, awarding it five stars!

(click the link to the left for Amazon’s copy of the review)

Great Job Bruno!

Long-time NJCWG member Marvin Mayer has received some news every writer hopes to hear.  In Marvin’s own words:

I have received a letter from the editor of Good Old Days and Good Old Days Looking Back magazines saying that my article/story, “The Good Humor Man,” is tentatively scheduled to be published in the July, 2010 issue of Looking Back.

Great job Marvin!  May your future submissions meet with equal success!

~ Joshua

The NJCWG is one year old!

To celebrate, we’re hosting a party at Lilly’s on the Canal in Lambertville, NJ this month. Lilly’s is a charming cafe/restaurant situated along the New Jersey Canal just before the Lambertville-New Hope Bridge. We’ll be enjoying the afternoon in Lilly’s courtyard; please note that Lilly’s is a “bring your own wine” establishment. If you haven’t yet reserved your spot and wish to attend, please contact Sheila ASAP.

We’re looking forward to seeing members from all of our critique groups. We hope to see you there!

Thanks again to Kathy Temean, Laurie Wallmark, et al. for everyone’s hard work in making this year’s conference better than ever! If you didn’t have a chance to attend this year, you missed a wonderful presentation by Richard Peck and a lot of great writers’ workshops.

Mark your calendar for next year; I hope to see you there!

Thanks to everyone who made our NJCWG December event a success this past Saturday! The Guild would like to especially thank NJCWG members Pat Koelmel and Linda Shapiro for volunteering their time to help. Our thanks also to our presenter, children’s writer and artist Dar Hosta, and to Laurie Wallmark, regional advisor for SCBWI who took the time to join us.

We appreciate the support of all our members and we want to wish everyone a wonderful holiday season and the very best in the coming new year!

~ Sheila and John Wright - NJCWG Cofounders

NJCWG is happy to announce that Guild member Marvin Mayer’s first book Sammy Squirrel and the Sunflower Seeds is now available.

Marvin is our first Guild member from Texas, and has an extensive background in banking and business.  Now retired, he is pursuing his passion for writing, and NJCWG would like to congratulate him on the publication of his work and wish him many more successes!  

To learn more about Marvin and his book, visit him at www.kidsbooksbymarvin.com

Also, don’t miss our upcoming interview with this new author in December, when Marvin is our guest on The Writer’s Journey.

~ Sheila Wright 

We’re pleased to announce that a web discussion board has been prepared for your use!  

When you log in, you will now find a “Visit Board” link under the standard options in the “Member” widget at the top of the right sidebar.  Click on that to access the board.

No additional registration is required, as the board is integrated with our main member database.

At your leisure, just click on over and enjoy a bit of chatting!

Are you ready to handle a fire emergency? NJCWG hopes that all of our readers will take the time this month to review fire safety procedures, and especially with little ones, emphasize that fire fighters who arrive at a fire scene are dressed in a way that can sometimes frighten children.

Children who might otherwise have been saved from burning buildings have sometimes hidden from fire fighters who look like “monsters.”  Children’s writer Lyn Sirota has written a wonderful article on this subject entitled “Don’t Run, Don’t Hide,” which you can download from her web site or view online this month at Stories for Children Magazine.

As we move into the holidays, the increased use of candles and electric lights makes accidental fires far more likely.  

Please don’t delay in discussing this important topic with all of the children that you know.

~ Sheila

Congratulations to Lois Castellano, a member of our Flemington NJCWG Critique Group as she enters the 4th round of the ABC Book Competition!  Out of 150 entries, Lois is now one of nine remaining writers vying for first prize - one-thousand published copies of her work, Zebra Berries for Mommy.

Lois holds a BS in chemical engineering from Cornell University, is married to husband Chris, and is the proud mom of two energetic boys, Ryan and Sean.  She has been writing short stories and poetry since high school, but her story, the only one selected from a New Jersey writer, is her first completed manuscript.

We invite all of our members to read Lois’s story, and to participate in the competition!  Voting is permitted daily.   The competition runs through October 5th; winners will be posted to the ABC Book Competition web site.

The ABC Book Competition is in its fourth year.

We wish Lois the very best!

Photo courtesy of Lois Castellano.