BOO’S BAD DAY
By: Penny Lockwood
Picture book for children aged 18 months to 6 years
Published by 4RV Publishing
ISBN# 13: 978-0-9852661-5-8
Buy from 4RV $8.99 includes s/h
Look inside at Amazon $7.32 prime
Melanie, thanks for hosting me. At the end of the tour, I will pick out one commenter’s name and send an autographed copy of Boo’s Bad Day to a United States address only. If the name I pick is someone who lives outside the U.S., I will send a PDF copy of the book. So remember, readers, be sure to leave contact information when you comment!
If your readers missed yesterday’s post, they can catch up at http://renajones.blogspot.com/. Tomorrow, I’ll be visiting with http://childrensandteensbookconnection.wordpress.com/.
Boo’s Bad Day is the first picture book I’ve ever written. I’ve read plenty of them to my children and now my grandchildren, but I never seriously considered writing one, mostly because I had heard how difficult they are to write.
Generally, I tend to write for older teens and adults in the genres of science fiction, fantasy, and romance, although I do have two middle grade novels under contract with 4RV Publishing: Ghost for Rent and Ghost for Lunch.
I’ve read quite a few articles and books about writing for children. In fact, when I first got serious about publishing my stories, I took a class through the Institute of Children’s Literature and focused on writing for younger children. Unfortunately, I found it difficult to find markets for those stories and soon learned I had a better chance of getting published when I aimed at an older age group.
Still, writing for young children intrigued me. After all, I was a mother and loved watching my children learn to read and enjoyed reading to them. Over the years, while I continued to have success writing for older children, I harbored a desire to write for young children.
When a call came out from a small publisher for volunteers to read submissions, I applied and became an acquisitions intern. One of my primary duties was reading and deciding on picture books for publication. I quickly learned what made a good story and what didn’t as well as the things a picture book publisher looks for.
Writing a picture book isn’t as easy as people might think. While it’s not as long as a novel, it takes a lot of work. The writer needs to use language that’s easily understood by a child. Words that make sounds like crunch, blare, pop, etc. are interesting to kids. They like to hear them said out loud. In addition, the writer needs to be sure there is a plot, even though the book is only 32 pages and less than a thousand words. The main character must also overcome obstacles in that short space.
The other difficult thing is for the writer not to add to much description to the story. The illustrator must be able to create her own images and not try to paint the picture the writer has spelled out.
After learning about writing picture books, I realized I was ready to create one of my own. My grandchildren were the right age to enjoy picture books. It seemed like time to try writing one of my own. Using my newly acquired skills, I worked on creating Boo’s Bad Day. I decided to write about Boo because we had a cat, also named Boo, who was stranded outdoors in a huge fir tree during an ice storm for several days. My 21-month-old grandson loves kitties, and I thought he would like to hear Boo’s story. Boo’s Bad Day is based loosely on our own Boo’s adventure. I get a kick out of having him ask for “the kitty” book.
I would have to say I wrote Boo’s Bad Day for my own grandchildren, but it’s a thrill for me to know that other little people are enjoying it as well.
About the author:Penny Lockwood has published more than 100 articles, 75 stories, a chapbook, and her stories have been included in two anthologies. She writes for both adults and children. Her fiction has appeared in numerous genre and children’s publications, and non fiction work has appeared in a variety of writing, parenting, and young adult print magazines and on line publications. She edits for MuseItUp Publishing.
She has recently released Boo’s Bad Day with 4RV Publishing and has three other children’s books under contract with them: Ghost for Rent, Ghost for Lunch, and Many Colored Coats. She has three romances published by MuseItUp Publishing: Love Delivery, Lady in Waiting, and Mirror, Mirror. Her short story collection, A Past and A Future, is available through Sam’s Dot Publishing and Smashwords.
You can follow Penny at:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/penny.ehrenkranz
Twitter: @PennyEhrenkranz
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/pennyehrenkranz
Website: http://pennylockwoodehrenkranz.yolasite.com
Blog: http://pennylockwoodehrenkanz.blogspot.com
“Janice has made it her business to get stuck into the whole self-publishing malarkey. Savvy enough to realise it’s not enough to simply write, she’s studied social media marketing until it could be her specialist subject on Mastermind. She can plan a book launch, maximise publicity, keep the momentum going after the first initial flush, and perhaps most of all, she knows how to make the whole thing fun, which is no mean feat”. DG Life Magazine.
Janice Horton escaped a city-chic lifestyle and a career in corporate brand placement to live in a remote cottage on the side of a hillside in Scotland. Previously traditionally published and now writing as an Indie, Janice writes fiction with humour, heart, and a hint of tartan. When not writing novels, Janice writes lifestyle articles and has had work published in national and international magazines. She has also been involved in BBC Scotland’s ‘Write Here Write Now’ incentive. Janice is a regular 
Lin Treadgold was born in Yorkshire and attended private education. After travelling the world and visiting over thirty countries, she took the opportunity to become a writer and
Safkhet Publishing
