March Marketing – Start a Blog to Increase Your SEO

I am an artist and a writer, and I could not begin to tell you how Google and SEO work, but I am certain that having an active blog helps you become more visible on Google. Fortunately, I began blogging at least 10 years ago. After years of scribing info into the wind, Google seems…

Chrysanthemum – A Picture Book by Kevin Henkes – An Anthem Against Bullying

Chrysanthemum Kevin Henkes 1988 – Green Willow Books Chrysanthemum is one of my all-time favorite picture book characters. Her life was perfect until the other kids at school told her that she had a terrible name. Chrysanthemum sack puppet Designed and Created by Jacki Kellum Chrysanthemum thought her name was absolutely perfect. And then she…

How Many Pages in a Picture Book? Which Page is Page One?

While most picture books have 32 pages, that is not an absolute rule. In this post, I’ll show you several picture books, and I’l show you that page one of a picture book really isn’t page one. I’ll begin with my own picture book The Donkey’s Song. The Donkey’s Song Jacki Kellum Illustrated by Sydney…

Write The First Draft of Your Picture Book – Write First, Edit Later

Write the First Draft of Your Picture Book. Don’t Title Your Story Until You Have Finished Writing It. Write the book in your natural voice–pretend that you are simply talking. Write the First Draft of Your Picture Book In A Stream of Consciousness.  Don’t stop writing to edit or to check your spelling. Just Write…

How My Intuition Wrote My Picture Book The Donkey’s Song

When I am painting and when I am writing, I consider it a great day when something within myself takes over and essentially completes my project for me. This gentle urging is intuition. It is the spark that helped Michelangelo release his sculptures from a piece of rock. Janis Joplin – Jacki Kellum Watercolor My…