Darlings!

In case you haven’t noticed, it is only one week and one day until the most important day so far this year…

GROUNDHOG DAY!

Poor  Phyllis has been laying low.  She took it pretty hard when Holiday House put her out to pasture.  I told her it was nothing personal.  She had a good 10 year run, which is more than a lot of books have.  She sallied forth into the Scholastic Book Clubs and was eagerly snatched up by loads of happy campers.  She was produced in French for Scholastic Canada – Debout, Marmotte! (though for some inexplicable reason they changed her name to Charlotte – maybe they thought it went better with marmotte?) –

and she has been read aloud on cassette and CD.  She even has legions of devoted followers who have helped her celebrate her favorite day year after year.

Still… she has not taken kindly to obscurity.  She’s just not that kind of hog.

Last March, both PUNXSUTAWNEY PHYLLIS and APRIL FOOL PHYLLIS became available on Kindle.  That appeased her a little…

But now, hopefully, paws crossed!!! both of Phyllis’s books will soon be available through Amazon for POD (print-on-demand)!  They’re supposed to be up already (er, they’re not…) but hopefully they’ll appear any day.  And when they do, Phyllis feels strongly that there should be some form of celebration.  Likely it will involve feasting and a book giveaway, so stay tuned 🙂

Anyway….

The first order of business today is to announce the winner of the November/December Pitch Pick.

Drum roll, please….!

And the winner is Nadine with her delightful pitch for Armadillo Pillow Fight!  Congratulations, Nadine!  Your pitch is already in editor Erin Molta’s inbox awaiting her words of wisdom!  I’m sure you’ll hear from her at her earliest convenience.

And to all our other pitchers, hurray for you!  You all did a tremendous job!  You wrote a pitch, bravely put it out in the world for constructive feedback, took that feedback and used it to improve your pitch, and submitted it again for the judgment of your peers – no easy task!  Even though you won’t get thoughts from Erin, I hope the experience was positive and educational, and you’ve come away from it feeling like you have a better handle on this pitch in particular and pitching in general!  And thanks as always to all the wonderful readers who take the time to read and evaluate the pitches each Wednesday and provide their helpful thoughts.  We seriously couldn’t do this without you!

I think all this writerly camaraderie calls for a celebration in the form of Something Chocolate, don’t you?  And boy to I have a treat for you today!  Check THIS out:

Chocolate Cream Pie Bites!!!

Careful!  You’re drooling on your keyboard!  🙂

But really!  YUM!!!  I feel an honest-to-goodness chocolate swoon!

The great thing about virtual chocolate is that we can all have 14 of them without guilt and we never run out! 🙂

Now then, onto today’s pitch which comes to us from Costantia.  Costantia has been gathering the knowledge and courage required to enter the world of children’s writing and illustrating after 15 years of teaching, a lifetime in academia and two young children. She is just beginning to tentatively dip a toe, her big toe… Or maybe a whole foot into what appears to be a huge pond of existing talent, and she is petrified! Could there be space out there for a new author/illustrator who wants to help guide children through new experiences and social processes that they don’t yet understand?

Find her on the web at:
Twitter: @Costantia
Facebook: @costantiamanolirumfitt 

Here is her pitch:

Working Title: George

Age/Genre: Picture Book (ages 2+)

The Pitch: George has ASD. This means that he has some rather unusual behaviors – but what do the other children make of this? This is a simple story told in rhyming couplets about showing love and understanding for those who work in a different way.

So what do you think?  Would You Read It?  YES, MAYBE or NO?