Sometimes when I’m supposed to be writing something important or creative my brain just shuts down and then I sit and wait. And wait. And wait. Every author has a different routine to overcome writers block. Some just give up for the day because it can be a challenge. Some writers go for a walk or listen to music. Caffeine can change the game for others. There are a million ways to cope with this syndrome, in fact there are more articles on how to overcome writers block than how to be a great writer! For me, I love to do short poems. I find something unique or delicious, beautiful or funny, even scorpions have made the poem list. I do...

  Recently my nieces gave me a bag full of presents! Who doesn’t like that? Everything in the bag was part of a theme – cactus. They know how much I like cactus, especially the saguaro. One of the gifts was a pencil holder. A saguaro pencil holder. A saguaro pencil holder wearing sunglasses. At first this was a grand novelty. I joyously put him on my desk and stuffed his head with pencils and pens, scissors, highlighters and what-not. It didn’t take too long, however, before the pencil holder began to judge me and hold me accountable whenever I was clearly wasting time and not writing. On Facebook? Wasting time. Pinterest? Wasting time. Taking vocabulary quizzes? Really wasting time. Looking...

  There’s a myth out there is that writing children’s books should be easy. They are, after all, aimed at the very young. What most people don’t realize, is that children’s books are often much more difficult to write than books for those older than 15 years of age. The reasons are long and involved.  For me, being able to absorb the information and then translate it into a child’s level of understanding and vocabulary was the most difficult.  As an example, let’s take the book X-Ray Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Creatures. As the title states there are ‘other’ prehistoric creatures. The very first thing I learned upon gathering my research is that pterosaurs (the ones that fly), and plesiosaurs...