Thursday's thing to love...other children's writers!

Although children's writing is my first love, I do quite a bit of non-children's writing. First, it's easier to find non-children's writing jobs, and second, they tend to pay a bit better. (Yes, even artists need to eat--or, at least, their families need to eat :).) But I don't write for grownups simply as a matter of necessity. Grownups are (usually) the ones who discover and invent interesting things, like computers that can talk directly to your brain and duck-billed dinosaurs with teeth. I have fun writing almost everything, even when the writing is for an adult audience.

But I have to love children's writers. In my experience, they're seldom writing for fame or money or ego--or even because they're among the blessed or cursed who can't help but write. Children's writers tend to write because they believe in something with a passion. Take my latest project: I had the opportunity to work with author Linda Hannah Young, a writer who has used her experience as a music teacher to write A Note for Children, a book that teaches musical notation to kids (available through http://www.lulu.com/.) This book is clearly a project from the heart--and those are the best kind.

Now, if only her book, A Note for Children, had been around when my own boys were learning to read music....

:) Cheryl