Perhaps it’s my bucket list, but I have recently jumped into a flurry of production that I only wish I had jumped into 50 years ago. But at that time, I was marrying the wrong person, trying to be a decent single parent, trying to survive doing anything I thought might earn a dime. I…
Category: Jacki Kellum Picture Books
Jacki Kellum Talks about the Light, about Her Paintings, and about Her Picture Book The Donkey’s Song
Note: This is a presentation that I did for a groups of kids at a church’s Bible School Art Camp: Today, I’m going to talk to you about the importance of light. I’ll tell you about how I rely on light in my art and writing, but first, I simply want to talk about light….
Squirrels at Harvest Time
Many people view harvest time as the weeks during which Starbucks serves Pumpkin Spice Latte, or as the time when the craft stores line their shelves with fake pumpkins, orange garlands, and scarecrows that are not scary at all. The funny thing about craft stores, however, is that if you move a couple of rows…
Harvest Your Past Challenge – 31 Days of Free Writing Prompts to Help You Write Your Own Memoir
Some people know me as the author of the picture book The Donkey’s Song, The Donkey’s Song – A Picture Book Written by Jacki Kellum Illustrated by Sydney Hanson Published by Doubleday for Young Readers at Penguin Random House And some people know me as an artist, but a few people also know that I…
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…
Picture Writing – How Jacki Kellum Wrote Her Debut Picture Book The Donkey’s Song
I am a painter, as well as a writer, and perhaps that is why I mentally “see” what I am writing before I begin to write. For years I have heard that children are either visual learners or verbal learners. I am both, but I am probably more visual than I am verbal. I Call…
#14DayPBChallenge – Day 1- February 2023 – Start Planning Your Picture Book
Today’s Priorities: Learn How to Plan Your Picture Book Writing Project Understand the Importance of Reading Picture Books Written by Other Authors Learn to Use the Ideas Sheet [After you begin a regular writing routine, you will be flooded with tons of new ideas] Learn to Use the Reading Log A List of Books We’ll…
Take the #14DayPBChallenge – Write, Revise, & Submit Your Picture Book for Publication
Let’s Get Ready for my new #14DayPBChallenge. During the next 2 weeks, I plan to complete at least one new picture book manuscript, and I am also challenging myself to begin my search for an agent. I plan to do the process publicly–here on my blog. Join Me: Take the 2023 #14DayPBChallenge. It’s Free. Every…
Should Picture Book Writers Write Memoirs? YES!
Every Writer Should Write Memoirs. News Flash: The Donkey’s Song stemmed from my memoir writing. That Donkey is me! Yesterday, I asked my Memoir Mondays people to draw a map of their childhood neighborhoods. If you study my map closely, you can see that my childhood home was within walking distance of the foundation blocks of…
What Do Amazon Best Seller Ratings Mean? – Understanding the Business Side of Making a Picture Book
For the past several days, my debut picture book The Donkey’s Song has been at the top of one of Amazon’s Best Seller Lists. I have wanted to post something about Amazon’s ratings for a while, and I decided that this might be a good time to tell you what I know about this Amazon…