Outta’ this world blog

May 13, 2025 — Have you heard of the Michigan BookHop? It’s a game where book lovers visit indie bookstores that are participating across the mitten state to win prizes. For 2025, it began April 26 and runs through May 26. 

Today, as part of the BookHop and Milan in Full Bloom, the owner of Adventure, Ink invited me to host an author table from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. I wasn’t planning on any further book events until our new picture book is published (more on that in a minute), but this sounded like fun and a good opportunity to keep my feet wet in the author event realm. Besides, their book store is very cool and worth a visit to check out their selection of books and

March 11, 2025 — A memory my Mom loved to recount from when I was a little girl: one day she told me she had an “enjoyable story” to share with me. After at least several days had passed (and, apparently, no story), I asked “when are you going to tell me the enjoyable story?” And then, she’d laugh. I guess I was very young, and because I’d remembered and used the same words she did, she was impressed and amused. 

I think it’s in our nature to love stories: to listen to, to tell, to read, to write stories down, to watch them on television and at the movies, to hear stories on the radio … in just about any way, shape or form. I was reminded of this while on vacation with friends (five other couples) recently in Sarasota, Fla. We decided we’re not

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

November 19, 2024 — November is National Picture Book Month! How did I not know this? Anyway, I recently realized that I’ve been blogging for a year. My first post was on Halloween 2023. I’m thinking about blogging less and creating more reels. I started making short reels on Instagram for my picture book this summer. I’d like to focus more on that for now and so I’m considering blogging about once a month. Previously, I aimed for three posts monthly. 

My website doesn’t allow for “likes” or comments on my blog so I don’t receive feedback most of the time. If you’d be so kind, I’d appreciate any comments, input, about my blog post(s) that you care to giv

November 5, 2024 — Happy November (already)! This past Saturday was my first time participating in the A2 Community Bookfest. It was a seven-hour event with about 100 authors and other vendors set up on the first floor of the Ann Arbor District Library’s downtown branch. It was formerly called the Kerrytown Bookfest and took place where the farmer’s markets are held. I heard I just missed the “excitement” when the library’s power went out during setup! 

I’d missed the deadline last year and so, this year, I was glad when the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Michigan sent out an email for author members to sign up for the event. 

I shared a table with Heather Shumaker, autho

October 29, 2024 — I asked our son, Trevor, some questions about his favorite childhood books and this exchange is the crux of this week’s blog post. 

October 15, 2024 — I love spooky season! The colors have really started to pop around the Ann Arbor area. We bought small pumpkins to place around our patio wall last weekend and even had our coffee out back with our fire pit lit one morning. So cozy. I haven’t blogged for a couple of weeks — we were on vacation in Italy. Seems a bit unreal now — we had a beautiful time. 

For some of you who have asked where you can purchase my book, aside from being available online through Amazon and Bookshop.org, How Happy Is a Lark has joyfully winged its way into several

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 27, 2024 — My partner in crime drove me to Grosse Pointe Park. As we approached the front door to the charming Coreander’s Children’s Bookshoppe, I saw a flyer for my reading posted on their door with “SOLD OUT” written across it. Their theater is on the small side so they sell out often, but still, it was a great feeling! 

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 13, 2024 — I cried at my recent cardiology follow up — from relief and happiness. The news was all good. Such a difference from three years ago, when I first heard about the possibility of needing surgery, and two years ago when my surgery was quickly approaching. Last week: Vitals, good. On my newer medication, my cholesterol total is half of what it was. My bad cholesterol is about one-third of what it was. My better numbers significantly lower my risk of a cardiac event. 

My new valve is well acclimated within my heart. We know this partly from what’s called ejection fraction of the heart. It’s how much blood is pumped out of the heart when it squeezes with each beat. Nobody’s EF is 100 percent, some blood na

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 24, 2024 — For our upcoming book, Into the Thicket, the illustrator and I decided that we’d like to print in hardcover. Our book’s page count isn’t high enough to qualify us for hardcover printing through Amazon so I started to Google research (these two words are synonymous nowadays, right?) other alternatives. 

A highly-rated service that got my attention and would allow for hardcover printing is called BookBaby. They offer a wide range of services from editing and design (interior and cover) to printing and marketing. 

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 25, 2024 — It’s been HOT HOT HOT (at the time of this writing, now we’re getting a little reprieve, at least in Michigan). The Reading in the Park event for Brick Elementary School students was moved into the gym at the Lincoln Middle School due to the heat. The temperatures were still in the 90s (or felt like it due to humidity) when the event began at 6 p.m. So that was a good call. 

I left my house early to arrive early, or at least, on time. We have some major construction (who doesn’t?) blocking the main intersection by our home. But, actually, I was going the other direction. The problem was that I didn’t read the email carefully enough (can you relate?) And I’m not familiar enough with what I now realize

June 4, 2024 — After my first interview with Jenny Kalejs, illustrator of How Happy Is a Lark?, of course I thought of more questions. As mentioned in the first interview blog post, here’s part two with more of her endearing and enlightening answers.

1. What was your illustration style for How Happy Is a Lark? What influenced your decision on a style to use (if relevant)?

For the Lark art, I would generally sketch something in pencil, paint in watercolor over it (I use a really simple little portable kit), and then create bold outlines and details using black pen (Staedtler “pigment liner” of various sizes, to be exact). At heart I’m an illustrator more than a painter, so the hybrid style of drawing + filling in with paint allowed me th

May 21, 2024 —Last week, my son’s coworker, Monica, showed him a photo of her grandchildren, Thomas and Olivia. Olivia, smiling broadly (and beautifully), is holding a copy of How Happy Is a Lark? They think my son is a celebrity because “Davey the Dolphin” (in the book on the happy clam page) is named for him. How adorable is that?! For those of you who know us, can you find other family names in the book? (Hint: you can.)

When I posted about our new book release, Into the Thicket, scheduled for this fall on Facebook, my son commented about the above and added, “You’re their favorite author!” (Me, thinking: WAIT! WHAT? WOW, how sweet. I can’t believe it.) He continued, “But everyone around Olivia is t

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

April 9, 2024 — Jenny Kalejs is an exceptionally cool human who I had the good fortune to meet at my previous job. We were both communicators working in different, but related, areas. Jenny was with the University of Michigan Biological Station. I worked in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Prior to 2019, we worked in separate buildings but with our move into the new Biological Sciences Building, our cubicles shared a (tall) wall. I knew Jenny was an artist as I’d seen some of her creative drawings for the Biological Station and if we sat together in a seminar, I’d notice her amazing doodle notes. But what I didn’t know at the time was that she was a children’s book artist. 

After looking around on the internet and social medi

March 26, 2024 — I was so happy to receive a “real” email through the contact link on my author website. It was from Michelle Cox, a Title I teacher at Brick Elementary School, inviting me to participate in their Literacy Night. We emailed back and forth several times, figuring out details. Her enthusiasm radiated off the computer screen and it was contagious. We were both excited to be in touch and that I was able to attend. 

We decided that I would read my book, How Happy Is a Lark, twice over the course of the evening, which ran from 5 - 6:30 p.m. And that I’d lead the activity from the back of my book with the children. Initially, I was in a small classroom just inside the main school entrance. I had a number of parents, grandparents and st