PUBLISHING UPDATES ETC.

Wow! Sometimes my intention to take a short hiatus from blogging stretches a lot longer than anticipated. So, just a brief recap of what's happening in my writing world:

1) My picture book story "Lion Dancer" has still not found a publishing home. Grr...It has, however, been revised again for the umpteenth time. It's had one professional edit and has been submitted for another. In the meantime, my agent has submitted it to Charlesbridge Publishing and Scholastic but we have not heard back from either. Publishing can be such an excruciatingly slow process.

2) Speaking of excruciatingly slow processes, a picture book manuscript I wrote about 12 years ago, "The Rock Maiden", has just received an offer from Wisdom Tales Press. It's a re-envisioning of an old Chinese folk tale from Hong Kong, and over the years, I've been told that folk tales are a hard sell, editors are only interested in them for anthologies etc., etc. Sometimes, one has to wait for the right publisher to appear. I found Wisdom Tales Press through the Multicultural Children's Book Day website which I had participated in for the last two years and Wisdom Tales was a sponsor. Exploring their website, I discovered they focused on world cultures and published mainly multicultural stories. It was a perfect fit! They had an online submission process so on a whim, I submitted "The Rock Maiden" and didn't hear back from anyone for almost a year! Imagine my surprise when the President of the publishing house contacted me. The moral of the story is: Never Leave Any Rock (no pun intended) Unturned.

3) I am teaching a basic Scrivener workshop on June 6 for the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) at the Book Passage in Corte Madera, CA. from 1 - 3 pm. The workshop has sold out! I love this program so am looking forward to introducing other writers to it. Even if you're not registered for the workshop but want to come by for a chat or get a book signed, I'll be hanging out on the patio outside of the cafe from 3 - 4 pm.



4)  I attended the SCBWI Novel Intensive on May 16. Very informative and enjoyed the sessions on dialogue and voice, although I found the dialogue session with author Bill Konigsberg more helpful and better structured with participant involvement. In addition to learning about the craft of writing, these workshops also give me the opportunity to study other writers' presentation styles and consider what works well and what doesn't so I can incorporate new approaches to my own presentations and workshops.

If you're a writer of children's books and haven't joined the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, do so now! You will get support, resources, craft-based workshops, retreats, not to mention camaraderie with your fellow writers. Check out some of their upcoming events in your area here.

JOIN THE DISCUSSION ON DIVERSITY!

   Not sure if I can go to this yet, but it looks like a great event!

 

Register for the Event

 

STORY TIME WITH ERIN

   Thank you Erin, for sharing Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas!

CANADIAN STORY TIME AND A FIRECRACKER CRAFT

   It's always such a lovely surprise to stumble upon someone else reading my book. Here is Roxanne Grumbach, the librarian at Fox Creek Municipal Library in Alberta, Canada, reading Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas. She follows the story with a easy-to-make firecracker craft.

5 REASONS WHY EVERY WRITER SHOULD GO ON A WRITING RETREAT

    Two writing retreats in a row! That's what I call bliss. Much as I love my family, it can be a real challenge finding writing time with a day job and three kids (4 if you count my husband). So, it's important to feed your muse once in awhile. 

    Last week, I was at a SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) writing retreat at Green Gulch Farm in Muir Beach, California. It's a lovely Zen Buddhist meditation and conference center surrounded by groves of Eucalyptus trees. The rooms are basic (bed, chair, desk, lamp) but very clean and comfortable with floor to ceiling glass sliders that open out onto the lush grounds. Once in awhile, a deer might wander by. The Green Gulch Farm retreats occur about twice a year and ever since I discovered it 5 or 6 years ago, I've been coming  to every one. It's a magical environment for writing and delicious vegetarian food, much of it grown on site, is prepared and served in a community dining room. It's a great place to write and commiserate with fellow writers. In the evenings, we can share our writing in informal critique groups if we wish.

The octagonal-shaped guest house
at Green Gulch Farm

The atrium/living room with wood
fireplace where writers gather
for social exchanges (and a break
from writing)

The writing desk

Writing area in bedroom with glass sliders
that provide ample light and open out
onto the lush grounds

Simple but comfortable

   This week, a few writing friends and I have rented a small cabin in Gualala on the beautiful Mendocino County coast, right on the bluff of the Pacific Ocean. If this view doesn't inspire one to write, I don't know what will!

The deck of Serenisea, Cabin 5, our little writing cabin

   At Green Gulch, I was able to dive into revisions on a picture book project and plug away at my middle grade novel. This weekend, I hope to make more progress on the same.

   Here are five reasons why every writer should go on the occasional writing retreat:

1) It's amazing how a chunk of uninterrupted time can spur your productiveness
2) Only other writers truly understand what you're going through (Truly. The angst, the self-doubts, the disheartening rejections, the feeling of beating your head against a metaphorical brick wall), so it's nice to have like-minded souls to commiserate with.
3) Most writing retreats offer informal critique groups or, at the very least, an opportunity to get feedback on your work from fellow writers, whether in a group setting or merely exchanging comments and notes with another writer with whom you've connected.
4) Writers, in general, tend to be a very supportive, encouraging group. Unless you're very lucky, we've all started at zero, submitting, facing rejections, re-submitting and hoping that our little manuscript will claw its way out of the rubble and find the light of publication. I was almost ready to give up on my middle-grade novel, or at least abandon it temporarily, but with the encouragement of my fellow writers at Green Gulch, I got re-inspired and have broken through the writer's block and begun to work on this novel again (at least for the time being.)
5) Sometimes, there's nothing like being in a different surrounding to inspire your muse, especially if that surrounding is as serene as Green Gulch or as bucolic as the Pacific Ocean.

  Here are a few good places to look for writing retreats:
1) Retreats for Writers
2) The Writer's Retreat
3) The Elizabeth Ayers' Center for Creative Writing
4) The 12 Best Writing Fellowships and Retreats in the US
5) Green Gulch retreat for children's writers - check back here in July for registration for the September Green Gulch retreat.

   Happy Writing, everyone!

CHINESE NEW YEAR BOOK GIVEAWAY ANNOUNCED!

Congratulations to Karen Mikusak of Detroit, Michigan for winning the Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas Chinese New Year Goodreads giveaway! Your book will be on its way to you soon.

A TASTE OF CHINESE NEW YEAR

   For Chinese New Year, I made pot stickers, turnip cakes, fried noodles with Chinese sausages and rice. Yum!

Turnip cake batter ready for steaming

After steaming, the turnip cakes are sliced into squares and fried up nice and crunchy

Fried noodles with chinese sausages

These homemade turnip cakes are so much more flavorful than the ones in restaurants or the store-bought variety. If you'd like to try making these yourselves and have a copy of Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas on hand, there is a recipe at the back of the book. If you don't, I originally got his recipe from Kirk at this website, who graciously gave me permission to modify it and use it in my book.

Chinese New Year is a 15-day celebration, so it's not too late to try making these at home and welcoming in the new year. Kung Hei Fat Choi!

KUNG HEI FAT CHOI! GOLDY LUCK IS ON READING RAINBOW!

  Kung Hei Fat Choi! Happy Chinese New Year! It's the Year of the Goat (or you may hear it referred to as the Year of the Ram or the Year of the Sheep). If you were born in this year, you are "creative, intelligent, dependable, and calm. You're comfortable being alone. Goats enjoy being part of a group, but prefer the sidelines rather than the center. Their nurturing personalities make Goats excellent care-givers. They're quiet and reserved because they spend much time absorbed in their thoughts. For more information on a Goat's personalty, click here.  
   I was thrilled to discover that Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas is featured on Reading Rainbow and read by LaVar Burton. Check it out!




   I am also participating in Skype in the Classroom's literacy campaign and World Read Aloud Day. So, If you are a teacher and are interested in a free Skype visit, please visit Skype in the Classroom for more information on requesting guest speakers for your classroom.

5 REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD WRITE FOR CHILDREN'S MAGAZINES

 

   My copies of Faces magazine came in this week with my article, "The Boat Dwellers of Aberdeen Harbor". It's about the boat-dwelling Tanka people in Hong Kong, whose once thriving community of close to 200,000 people on Aberdeen Harbor have dwindled. 

   Apart from the thrill of seeing your byline attached to an article in a print magazine, here are 5 reasons why you should consider writing for children's magazines:

1) They're published more frequently so there's a...
2) Need for more content
3) Nonfiction exercises a different part of your brain than fiction, and it's a great mental  workout, kind of like stretching or weight-training before a big race, plus...
4) You learn A LOT of interesting stuff. Nonfiction research takes you down paths you might not have meandered down if you weren't looking specifically for information related to your topic.
5) You get to see your work in print a lot faster than with books (generally. My article for Highlights for Children took 5 years to appear in the magazine—but that's another story).


   In addition to Highlights, my articles have appeared in Appleseeds ("Horses Helping Others", May 2011); and Faces ("The Elephant Queen", January 2012,  a Letter of Merit recipient in the 2013 SCBWI Magazine Merit awards; "The Boat Dwellers of Aberdeen Harbor", February 2015). These magazines are part of the Cobblestone Publishing group which also publishes the magazines Cricket, LadyBug, Cobblestone, Spider, Dig, among others. There are many other children's magazines looking for content, and you can find them in a great resource called Magazine Markets for Children's Writers. The Cobblestone group of magazines publish fiction too, but I enjoy the nonfiction ones because they're themed, and I can always find themes that arouse my curiosity and interest. 
 

 Even though the recent Faces issue about Hong Kong inspired me because I lived in Hong Kong as a teen and have some personal connection to the country, you don't need to have experience and knowledge to query a topic. And you never know where your research will lead. For Faces' Thailand issue, I thought I might write an article about the mahout (elephant trainers) training camps where one can learn to be a mahout. They even have brief camps for tourists to learn how to handle an elephant! But during the course of that research, I stumbled upon the story of Lek Chailert who, along with her husband, established Elephant Nature Park an elephant sanctuary to rescue injured and abused Asian elephants and return them to the wild. That article became "The Elephant Queen". I had no prior knowledge of this topic but loved learning about Lek's background and how she came to fall in love with elephants, her tireless conservation efforts, and the horrors behind what elephants have gone through to be "trained" as beasts of burden.
   If you're interested in querying for these magazines, here are some tips I've learned along the way:

1) Specific angles will probably be more successful than general ones. For example, a magazine had an issue on Explorers of the West including Lewis and Clark. I queried about writing an article of Sacajawea's life and her presence on Lewis' and Clark's journey. I did not get the assignment even though I wrote Sacajawea of the Shoshone, a children's biography of Sacajawea. Looking back, I thought my query might have been too broad. I might have had better luck if I had queried on the two versions of Sacajawea's death.
2) If you get an assignment, the turnaround time can be pretty tight (most often a month). That means you have to get your research, any needed subject interviews, and the writing and revising done by then. Sometimes, problems can arise in the research or the writing that might impact your ability to get your article in by the deadline. This happened to me while writing "The Elephant Queen". I could not reach my subject Lek Chailert for an interview because she was out in the jungle saving elephants! The important thing here is keep in touch with your editor. I wrote to let my editor know that I was having a hard time connecting with Lek and asked if I could have an extension of my deadline and if I could not get a personal interview, if I could use quotes from other interviews she had given. The editor was very willing to work with me. I got the okay on both, but in the end, was able to interview Lek via email (due to the time difference) and get my article in by the original deadline. Editors are very flexible people and since you are supplying content for their magazine, they're invested in making sure that happens, but they don't like nasty surprises, and they have a deadline to meet too, so communicate any snafus you run into.
3) If you don't get an assignment, don't take it personally. Just try again. Magazines may publish more content because they have several issues a year, but they only publish a limited number of articles in each issue, and they probably get hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions. And somebody else may have submitted a query that is more appropriate for the theme, or more interesting, or unique.I had several queries that were not successful between the Faces 2012 and the Faces 2015 articles. 
3) Be professional. Publishing can be a surprisingly small world. Editors move to different houses or magazines so if your query or article isn't free of grammatical and spelling errors, or you miss your deadline or misspell the editor's name (yes, I've been told this matters) or write rude letters when you don't get your assignment, you'll earn a black mark against your name. And getting published is hard enough even with an impeccable record.

If you've written for other children's magazines, I'd love to know what these are and what your experience is, and any tips and advice you have for submitting to that market.

Happy Writing! I hope the next article I read in a children's magazine is yours!

MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY - PART 2

    Carly Seifert of the Africa to America blog wrote a lovely review of Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas for Multicultural Book Day. Check out what Carly had to say about the book, and her brilliant book-related crafts here. 

CELEBRATE MULTICULTURAL CHILDREN'S BOOK DAY - PART 1

It's Multicultural Picture Book Day! Check out blogger Sue Ready's review of Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas and her Chinese New Year craft idea:

Kindergarten student absorbed in reading
the book

Blogger Sue Ready reading Goldy Luck and the
Three Pandas to a kindergarten class

Ever Ready: Multicultural Children's Book Day: Introduction to Multicultural Children's Day-January 27. 2015  The mission of this event is to not only raise awareness for childr...

THE BEST BOOK REVIEWS

   We all love good reviews — but there is no better review than the ones that come from kids -- the target audience of children's authors. Here are two adorable reviews I received from students of my friend and fellow writer Carolyn Grigsby who's a teacher in Hayward, CA.

MAKE A WRITER'S DAY

   Want to know what makes a writer's day? Getting Tweets like this: 

@natashayim My son LOVES Goldy Luck! He's requested it at least 6x since he got it Tue & is saying "Goldy Luck, Goldy Luck" in his crib now!
— Melissa Thomson (@melissathomson) January 23, 2015

   My daughter is an avid reader, and I tell her this all the time, "If you like the book, go to the writer's website and tell him/her how much you loved the book. The writer will truly appreciate it."

Authors/writers love to know their stories have made an impact on their target audience. So, go on...Make a writer's day!

A NEW YEAR OF WRITING POSSIBILITIES

   The thing I love about the New Year is that, as far as writing goes, it presents another year of possibilities. The possibility that the writing we submit will find a home - somewhere. The slate is clean. No rejection letters have begun to pile up. Yes, HOPE--it's what keep us writers going. That, and passion for our craft. So, keep writing, producing, promoting, commiserating fellow writers. And may 2015 bring you success!

   Speaking of beginning a new year, I'd like to mention a few upcoming literary events:

Jan. 27 — Multicultural Children's Book Day. Check out the website for reviews, reading recommendations, and activity ideas for multicultural literature. http://multiculturalchildrensbookday.com/

Feb. 8 - Join me for a Chinese New Year celebration with a reading of Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas and a Chinese New Year craft at the Book Passage in Corte Madera, 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera, CA., 1:00 pm.

READING DAY AT MARY COLLINS AT CHERRY VALLEY SCHOOL, PETALUMA

  Thanks to Jeanne Jusaitis of the Redwood Writer's Club, I participated in Reading Day at Mary Collins at Cherry Valley Charter School in Petaluma on Sept. 3. I presented Sacajawea of the Shoshone in Mrs. Pellkofer's and Mr. Ruddell's 4th & 5th grade classes and Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas in Mrs. Damico's K/1 class. 
   I love connecting with kids at school visits and inspiring their love of reading and stories, and they always have such great questions. Thank you, Mrs. Pellkofer for your amazing testimonial: 

"Natasha Yim was amazing!  She visited our 4th and 5th grade students at Mary Collins Cherry Valley Charter School and wowed us with an in-depth, super interesting digital presentation about her book, Sacajawea of the Shoshone, her writing process, her personal story and more.  It was like watching a personal "TED" talk of the importance of Sacajawea in our North American history, while still being completely age-appropriate and totally engaging!  I had to purchase the book for my class as I wanted to learn more!"

and Thank You to Mrs. Damico's students for the adorable, colorful and very large Thank You card you sent me:




















   Blankets were laid out on the green grass under the canopy of trees where parents and kids shared books together. Authors were also invited to a lovely lunch of pesto pasta and a delicious salad made from vegetables from the school garden. 
   It always warms my heart to see a school devote a day to encourage literacy, reading, and to acknowledge authors as an important part of that process. All in all, it was well worth the drive to Petaluma.
   

AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER SHIRIN YIM BRIDGES TALKS ABOUT LAUNCHING GOOSEBOTTOM BOOKS AND GOSLING PRESS, AVOIDING SUBMISSION MISTAKES AND MAKING YOUR SUBMISSIONS STAND OUT

   Today, I'd like to welcome author and publisher, Shirin Yim Bridges, to the KidLit Rambles blog. Shirin is an award-winning children's author (Ruby's Wish, Chronicle Books, 2002; The Umbrella Queen, Greenwillow Books, 2008; Mary Wrightly, So Politely, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013) publisher of Goosebottom Books, and one of the judges of the 2014 Redwood Writers Club's Writing Young Adult and Middle Grade Fiction contest. In this interview, Shirin shares the pros and cons of being a small, independent press, the motivation behind her leap of faith from author to publisher, common manuscript submission mistakes to avoid, and her tips for marketing and promotion.

You began your publishing career as an author. How did you decide to take on the challenges of becoming a publisher?

It all began with my nieces, who’d disappeared into a pink fog of Disney princesses. I wanted them to know that there were real princesses who didn’t sit around waiting for a prince. So I started to write a series of nonfiction books—which I ended up calling The Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Real Princesses—and I sent the first manuscript in to Samantha McFerrin, who was the editorial assistant on Ruby’s Wish, and at that time my

editor on Mary Wrightly So Politely over at Harcourt, and who is now, ironically, the Executive Editor of Disney. But the more I thought about it, the more control I wanted over these books. You normally get next to zero control over design and art direction as a picture book writer, and I was used to controlling the last detail as a creative director. Plus, I was looking for a career change. The tipping point came when I spoke to Amy Novesky, my editor on Ruby’s Wish, who had left Chronicle and gone to set up on her own. I said, “I’m thinking of becoming a publisher,” and instead of saying “you’re crazy,” she said, “I’ll help.”

Tell us a little bit about Goosebottom Books.

Goosebottom Books is dedicated to fun nonfiction—or with our latest series, fiction that has a nonfiction soul. We started with the Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Real Princesses, which won an IPPY medal, and then brought out the Thinking Girl’s Treasury of Dastardly Dames, which was named a Top 10 Nonfiction Series for Youth by Booklist and the American Library Association. We also published the first book in the U.S. to use mobile augmented reality, Horrible Hauntings. Basically, you download a free app and when you look at the illustrations in our book, you see 3D ghosts appear. The amazing thing is that they’re interactive. You really have to see it to believe it. That book picked up a few awards and made the coveted Children’s Choices list.

All those books are solidly nonfiction. But this fall, we’re launching A Treasury of Glorious Goddesses which are written as faux autobiographies. So that’s definitely fiction. However, the books, Call Me Isis, Call Me Athena, and Call Me Ixchel, all have nonfiction hearts, because they are based on established mythology. We also provide a nonfiction back section, to furnish cultural, geographical, and historical context. 

What inspired you to start your new fiction imprint, Gosling Press?

Over the last few years I’ve been seeing too much great fiction to not want to publish some of it. So, I’ve set up a new imprint, Gosling Press, to handle fiction without diluting Goosebottom Books’ clarity of purpose. Gosling will be launching its first title in Spring 2015, a very special book called Beautiful Hands by Kathryn Otoshi of One and Zero fame, and co-author Bret Baumgarten. We’ve already received our first backorder!

What is the hardest thing and the most rewarding about being a small, independent press?

The most difficult thing, quite frankly, is to make any money. In addition to writing and publishing, I teach. Whenever I show my students where the money in the price of a book goes, everybody descends into a stunned and depressed silence. Nearly none of the sales price comes to the author or publisher. It’s a very tough game. 

For me, the most rewarding thing about being a publisher is how creative it is. I brought these books into the world—they were conceived and executed to my vision. To pull it off, I had to wear a hundred hats, including the janitor’s hat, and the sheltered workshop hat, licking envelopes and assembling hundreds of mailing packages. I love that! I love the variety, and the challenge, and the hard work. I love the very fuzzy boundary between my job and my life. In fact, it doesn’t feel like a job. It just feels like who I am.

When you receive manuscript submissions from other writers, do you tend to read them with your author eye or your publisher eye?

I read them with a publisher’s eye—which is an editor’s eye plus a marketing eye at once. The annoying thing is that when I read for pleasure now, I seem not to be able to turn off that filter. I’m forever being distracted by typos.

What are some of the common mistakes you see writers make in their submissions?

They don’t know whom they’re submitting to. They send me manuscripts that are so far from what we publish—I got a memoir about pole dancing once! One glance at our website should have told you that pole dancing wouldn’t work for us.

The other mistake is that some authors get rude and impatient for an answer. This despite us sending receipt confirmations for all submissions we get, saying that their submission will be filed and we will be in touch if an opportunity arises. This means, in the nicest way, don’t call us; we’ll call you. But I still get angry emails from writers saying I submitted a month ago and it would only take you ten minutes to respond. Those writers, a) can’t do math and figure out that ten minutes per submission would sink my day; b) don’t understand independent publishing and how many other things I could put those ten minutes to better use for—weeding negative people out of my writers files, for example.

What advice would you give writers on making their submissions stand out?

Be professional. Be someone who understands my business, who understands what I might want that you can provide. As they used to say in advertising, identify the need, the pain point. Become the solution. 

And then, write well. Independent publishers are all in this because we love books and writing. We are easily seduced by great words.

Nowadays, authors have to do a lot of promotion and marketing themselves. What
marketing/promotion tips can you give authors?

My advice is going to sound awfully zen. Everything there is to say about building an author’s platform, etc., etc., has already been said. You can find how-to tips galore on the internet. My advice is whatever you do, don’t forget to enjoy it. Don’t turn the privilege of being an author into a marketing chore. 

For example, I know authors who pack their calendars with school events and then don’t enjoy them because they’re over-stressed and over-tired. All that time spent not enjoying something? That’s life slipping away.

You also teach creative writing. Tell us about your current or upcoming writing classes.

I am leading a middle grade workshop through summer, and teaching a five-week picture book writing course for the Writing Salon that starts this Sunday, Aug. 24.  On September 27, I’m giving a one-day intensive on Digital First, a new phenomenon in publishing, at Stanford University. Then in October, I’ll start a 9-week middle grade and young adult course, again at the Writing Salon.

Where can people find out more about the classes you offer?

Follow my blog! It’s goosetracks.me. I regularly post musings on the writing and publishing life, and an updated list of my teaching and speaking engagements.


Thank you, Shirin, for your helpful insights into the writing and publishing life from an author's and a publisher's perspective.

If you live in Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, Marin, Humboldt, Solano, and Napa Counties, you can enter the Redwood Writers Club's Writing Young Adult and Middle Grade Fiction contest here.

What are your experiences and tips for submitting to publishers?

JK ROWLING AND HER AMAZING JOURNEY AS A WRITER

   Interesting documentary on JK Rowling that covers her final touches on the Deathly Hallows, the crazy frenzy the launch of the book created, and a bit about her life and childhood before she became famous. I've always thought she has had such an amazing writing journey.

TWO UPCOMING EVENTS IN WILLITS, CALIFORNIA

  If you're in and around Willits this weekend, stop on by the library for a reading of Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas and a fun panda craft! Saturday, Aug. 2, 11:00 am. Also, come check out Scripted: An Evening of Short Plays at the Willits Community Theatre. My ten-minute play, "Offing the Witness" is receiving its Mendocino County premiere! Performances are Friday, Aug. 1, 8 pm., Saturday, Aug. 2, 8 pm., and Sunday, Aug. 3, 2 pm.

HOT SUMMER NIGHTS AT COPPERFIELD'S BOOKS - AN EVENING WITH CHILDREN'S AUTHORS

   For the second year, the Redwood Writers Club has collaborated with Copperfield's Books in Montgomery Village Santa Rosa, to host an evening of readings by local authors through the month of July. This Tuesday, July 22, 6:30 pm. will be Hot Summer Nights — Children's and Young Adult Authors. Redwood Writers Club members Charles Markee will read from his middle grade novel, Otherworld Tales 2: Demon Invasion, Jeanne Jusaitis will present Lilah Dill and the Magic Kit, Sandy Baker unveils Howie's Hungabird Dilemma, and I, of course, will read Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas. Readings will be followed by a Q and A with the authors, so come on down to Copperfield's Books, enjoy some story time and refreshments, and participate in a lively discussion on what it takes to publish a children's book!
   I'm also offering a "Bring a Friend, Tell a Friend" special: bring a friend to the event or tell a friend who comes to the event, and get a 10% discount off Goldy Luck and the Three Pandas! See the coupon below. If you want to print it and bring it to the event, right-click (Windows) or control-click (Mac) and select "Save to Downloads", then print from there.
   Hope to see you at Copperfield's Books!