11.12.2013

A Visit with Dawn

On Monday, I had the pleasure of interviewing over at Dawn Malone's blog, host of Here's the Story, about the release of Story Sprouts. Dawn learned about the book after a writercize post, and was kind enough to interview my co-editor and founder of Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles, Nutschell Anne Windsor, and me.

Please take a look at the interview, which reveals the steps we took to publish as a writing group, and some insight on how other groups can do the same!

If anyone else is interested in an interview or guest post, we'll be rolling out a January blog tour, so stay tuned for details. If you already know you'd like to play host for a Story Sprouts related post, leave a comment here and we'll be sure to get you on the calendar!

11.04.2013

Story Sprouts Launch Party Photos

This past weekend, 13 newly published anthology authors and their biggest supporters gathered together at the Torrance Municipal Airport to celebrate the launch of Story Sprouts Writing Day Workshop and Anthology 2013: A Collection of Writing Exercises and the Resulting Creative Works of Fiction by the Children's Book Writers of Los Angeles.

I posted about the book Friday and have a tab on writercize with more information, so check those out to learn more about the book. 

In the meantime, here are a few photos from the launch! Thank you to Maiko and Nutschell (The Writing Nut) for the pics!

CBW-LA Board Members Angie, Lucy, Nutschell, Alana (that's me!) and Tiffani
jump for joy to celebrate a successful launch party!
The cake. Delicious!
Thanks King's Hawaiian for the yummy cake and for incorporating the book cover in the design!

Anthology Authors at the Launch Party.
What a lovely group of talented writers!

Signed books!
Thanks Keela Jacks for the beautiful cover design!

CBW-LA Board Members search for the next "great" idea.


The book was teamwork in the truest sense of the word! Our authors trusted us with a full day writing workshop, knowing that the work they produced would be edited and published in an anthology. (Can you imagine? Nineteen authors willing to workshop and write for publication in one day? Such brave individuals ... and very talented to boot! There are incredible new voices in this anthology.)

I edited the pieces for content and grammar and wrote the narrative surrounding the anthology based on a workshop presented by my co-editor, Nutschell Anne Windsor, while she handled the business side of publication, setting up a publishing wing for our non-profit group, called CBW-LA Publications, and preparing all of the minute details that go into producing a book! 

Fellow board members Angie Flores, Lucy Ravitch and Tiffani Barth secured donations for door prizes and prepared the food and decorations for both the workshop and launch party. 

Every person poured their heart and soul into making this the best anthology (slash) writing resource it could be!

As noted Friday, the book is now available on Amazon (and listed at Goodreads) and we are happy to send a review copy to book bloggers and indie reviewers. We'll also be putting together a blog tour, and would be happy to answer interview questions now or during tour dates, TBD! Send a note if you'd like to review the book or conduct an interview!

PS - Today is #StorySprouts Authors and Producers Day! Be sure to check out the link party on our Facebook page for posts from other anthology authors, CBW-LA guest speakers (hey Arlee Bird!), and the people who assisted by formatting, copy editing and designing our book!

Thank you Keela Jacks of Garrigues Graphics, Rachel Morgan of Morgan Media and Erin Elizabeth Long of Biblio/Tech for all that you did for this book!