Outta’ this world blog

June 4, 2025 — I’m not sure who is more relieved between John and me. Last week, John finished the illustrations for Into the Thicket. An advantage of self publishing is that the author and illustrator are able to collaborate. I’ve heard that is not the case with traditional publishing and there are sometimes (often?) discrepancies between the words and the pictures, to the dismay of the writer. I remember reading that sometimes the author wonders whether or not the illustrator even read the book. This was a while ago, so don’t take my word for it. I may be starting a rumor! Maybe (I hope) that has improved somehow.

John was great, running pictures past me and asking for my feedback. A dream collab! As I’ve written previously,

April 8, 2025 — My brother Ken was the first-born child in our family of four children. Two more boys followed, spaced about two years apart, Derek and David (Davey). “The little girl” (that’s me) arrived on the scene some four years later. My Mom called me “the pleasant surprise.”

That’s a short introduction to my nuclear birth family, but this post is about the paintings by Kenneth Wolfe Rodman. I always thought his middle name was exceptionally cool. Ken was always artistic and creative. I recall the comics he drew when he was young, featuring three delinquent friends, who always found trouble. I believe the comic was called “Punky and his Pals.” They’re probably in the boxes stacked in our son’s former bedroom. I came from a family who s

February 11, 2025 — I recently watched an online workshop on launching a new book, presented by Bryan Cohen of Best Page Forward. For those of you new(er) authors, like me, who may have a book launch approaching sooner or later, or maybe you’re just interested, I’ll outline some main takeaways in this post.

Being my second book launch, I’m looking forward to using the knowledge I gained last time, which will be a nice time-saver and guide. Build on your previous launch, Bryan said. Along these lines, some of the resources I have in my quiver are:

• List of bookstores who are carrying (or have carried my book)
• Local and regional publications and associations (for press releases)
• Author

January 14, 2025 — I was invited to present my book at Literacy Night at the St. Fabian Catholic School, Farmington Hills, which was today. If it wasn’t for Tim, my honorary agent, I wouldn’t be able to do events this far from home because of my driving limitations. I’m so appreciative of his support. I began this morning with a stiff neck, who knows why, but I’d made a commitment to them, so I pushed myself to get through it. Thankfully, the weather alert for snow and slippery roads wasn’t too bad. 

I met Nancie Jahshan, the assistant principal, who contacted me about Lit Night at the Northville book event I took part in last year. The contacts and networking at these events is great and it’s evident how they build on each other. An author, Suzann

December 17, 2024 — This post is slightly off topic, but since I write for children, I thought it’s not too far a stretch to share something about exceptionally small children that warms my heart. 

A few weeks ago, while volunteering with my husband at the University of Michigan NICU, I received a call on our volunteer phone, “Do you have time to hold a cute baby?” the nurse asked. What? “Yes, of course!” This is music to the ears of NICU volunteers.  

I’ll call the baby W. W likes a lot of attention. I’m thinking — SMART guy. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Much better to be held in someone’s arms whenever possible than to lie in the crib. 

He was a little fussy and the nurse stopped back in and let me know

September 24, 2024 — Last Thursday, I took part in a local author book sale and signing at Adventure, Ink, Milan as part of their final Third Thursday celebration for the summer. I shared the evening with Don Hicks, coauthor of Frankenwalnut, with his son, Alex. A good book for this spooky Halloween season. Laura Harvey of Adventure, Ink, billed our evening as featuring something scary and something sweet, a great combination. 

Similar to my previous event in Ypsilanti, I sold all of one book BUT I don’t sweat the numbers. Like life, these events are more about the whole experience than about a certain outcome (such as selling stacks of books!) I got to see the very cool owner of the indie bookshop, Laura, again. That’s always a p

Sept. 17, 2024 — I set up an author table for the Rumble of the Bumble in Ypsilanti, Saturday, Sept 7.  I was pleasantly surprised to see my friend, Peggy Brody, and her cavapoo puppy, Astro, waiting for us. They hung out at my table with me the entire three hours, aside from the time they took to pick up her lunch and coffees for us. Astro has his own little stroller. He’s a really sweet little guy, he’s black and white, and gives smooches freely.

August 20, 2024

Reels
One of the sessions I watched at the recent virtual conference I attended was about creating reels on Instagram to help market our books. How to Strategically Craft Reels to Promote Your Book was presented by Erin Lee, an elementary school teacher whose fun reels have gone viral. There was too much information to take in within the span of the presentation but we can watch sessions again through Sept. 10, 2024. If you’re interested, you have until Aug. 31 to sign up on the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators website to watch any/all of the presentations in that same timeframe (for a fee). There’s a plethora of really helpful, interesting, great information and insigh

August 6, 2024 — Last Friday, I attended a Northville event called Buy Michigan Now where many different Michigan-based vendors sold local goods. 

I’m a member of a great international/national organization called the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and participated as part of their Michigan group. Five authors shared the SCBWI-Michigan table. The event ran for three days and different authors signed up each day. I was there with Cathy Collison, Shutta Crum, Suzanne Jacobs Lipshaw and Heidi Woodward Sheffield. It was a special treat for me to hear some behind the scenes stories abo

July 17, 2024 — Recently, I thought I’d like to help promote fellow self-published authors in my blog and I reached out on social media to ask them to contact me if interested. Admittedly, it’s a win-win situation, providing me with more quality content for my blog. I’ve received a few inquiries so far and one of them was from today’s blog interviewee, Piriam Maharaj. Her recently released first picture book is Stormy Weather - Tilly Learns About Anger. A sweet, rhyming story about Tilly, a little girl whose plan to visit the playground on opening day are ruined by the weather. In the story, Tilly learns ways

July 10, 2024 — I donated a couple copies of my book to the University of Michigan Mott Children’s Hospital Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) book shelf for parents and other caregivers to read to the babies. Families can borrow the books and select two to take home with them, if they wish. One of the volunteer coordinators was excited and interested to learn about my book and mentioned that they have an annual reading event and would I be willing to donate 60 books for their Babies With Books Read-A-Thon? Sixty is the number of babies in a full UM NICU.

June 11, 2024 — In previous posts, I wrote about the relationship between childhood interests and careers, a topic I find intriguing. My interest in writing started from a very young age. And my writer parents were early role models. My father even “published” my first little picture book before I’d even started kindergarten. He titled it A Jack-O. He cut out parts of pictures and some words I’d drawn in crayon, added to it a bit, and turned them into a little book in a binder. As I’ve blogged before, I still remember the thrill that gave me and clearly, I’ve cherished it, as I still have the booklet to this day. 

I have a folder full of other very early writings, many from the first grade (ages

May 14, 2024 — On a hot summer afternoon, our sons were playing football in the backyard, just like so many other days. Davey threw one over Trevor’s head. Trev ran to get the ball and noticed something unusual near the ball in the grass. Turns out it was an injured baby rabbit. We took the rabbit to wildlife rehab to try to save it. Nearly 20 years ago (the boys were about 11 and 8 years old), this real life story inspired me to write a picture book manuscript, dubbed Into the Thicket. In the manuscript, after the boy finds the rabbit, the rest of the story is highly fictionalized. The rabbit rehab info, however, is true. 

Because the book was written so long ago, this year I consulted with a wildlife rehabber to ensure the book w

April 30, 2024 — As I was turning into the Brick Elementary School parking lot, I heard a loud rumbling nearby. I looked around but didn’t see a truck or anything that could be making the noise. Then I saw the helicopter hovering overhead getting ready to land in Brick’s field. I thought, this is a pretty big deal. There was someone standing in the lot directing traffic and many, many cars. Brick goes all out for its students. 

Surprisingly (or not in Michigan) April 24 dawned cold and windy with a little drizzle. Happy spring :) Perhaps I’d overlooked something, but I hadn’t realized the event was taking place OUTDOORS! I was dressed for a quick trip from my car to the indoors. Luckily, we don’t live too far away and I have a supportive husband. He

April 16, 2024 — I was nervous and excited about my first in-person author events at a school last month, Literacy Night at Brick Elementary School. I’m what I call a friendly introvert. I’m naturally friendly but I need my quiet time to recharge my batteries. I was a painfully shy child and that shyness is still within me in certain situations. Being introverted, I have to push myself to do certain events (or even get on a phone or a video call). Once I get to places, I tend to relax and do pretty well. It seems that “getting there” is the hard part sometimes. Can anyone else relate? Everything went smoothly at Brick’s Literacy Night and I thoroughly enjoyed the time connecting with children through my first picture book. I have such a love and respect for children a

February 13, 2024 — I admit I haven’t had any kind of routine around my writing or book associated activity since I retired. Come to think of it, maybe not ever. We all know how life is — full, busy, unpredictable. Maybe we have to get children ready for school, get to work, come home and make dinner. Our children need something, maybe simply our time and attention, and that’s a priority. Even without all of that, some days we have this or that appointment, dishes, seeing friends and family, exercise, meditation and errands to fit into the day. Ad infinitum. 

When I took part in the book fair for the Troy Public Library, a young student asked me a series of questions for a class assignment. I was happy to help him. Wh