Heartland Writers for Kids and Teens» Members of Heartland Writers for Kids and Teens

Viles, Maggie

Tessa Elwood — Sat, 15 May 2010 21:47:21 +0000

Maggie Viles’ current projects include a chapter book and two picture books. Post from: HWKTViles, Maggie

Rodesky, Angie

Tessa Elwood — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:21:55 +0000

Angie Rodesky is new to the world of writting and is currently enrolled with the Institute of Children’s Literature. She has enjoyed making up stories for her children for many years and decided to putting pen to paper, so to speak. She has written a few stories that have sparked some local interest and desires to become a published author.

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Rodesky, Angie

Underwood, Marilyn

Tessa Elwood — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:18:57 +0000

Marilyn Underwood has written three picture books and is currently working on a middle grade novel. She has had one short story published in Once Upon a Christmas, the Midwest Children’s Authors Guild Christmas Anthology 2009. Post from: HWKTUnderwood, Marilyn

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Underwood, Marilyn

Ford, Sue

Tessa Elwood — Sun, 02 May 2010 23:38:56 +0000

Sue Ford has sold over 130 magazine pieces for children and adults. Sue writes for children under her maiden name, Susan Uhlig. She has been an active member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators for 18 years. She also is an instructor for the Institute of Children’s Literature. Sue’s website susanuhlig.com has writing resources and recommendations of children’s books.

She is currently marketing a tween novel.

Books

Things Little Kids Need to Know
This is the story of what a young boy plans to teach his new sister when she arrives from across the world. Includes advice such as “Dogs like their tummies scritched. But cats scratch back.” and “Never ever pick the neighbor’s flowers.”

This picture book about international adoption was chosen as a 2000 Read, America! Collection Selection.

Stories, poems, & articles

Cliff Diver, an article Sue sold to Child Life, is being used by Kansas in their reading assessment test. She has written short stories and articles for a variety of children’s and adult magazines–secular and Christian, print and online–including Highlights for Children, Cricket, Jack and Jill, and Children’s Writer. She currently has some articles on the Institute of Children’s Literature website in their Rx for Writers section.

Author Visits

Presentations:
WRITING PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS
Sue shares some published works, where ideas come from, and how books, stories and articles are marketed. She also does writing exercises with kids on “showing versus telling,” using specific nouns, adjectives that count, dialogue and more. (Trained in Six Writing Traits.)

WRITING WORKSHOPS FOR ADULTS
Mind Your C’s and Q’s
focuses on Query and Cover letters, inQuiry letters—including requests for guidelines and catalogs as well as manuscript status, plus a brief discussion on Contracts.

The Nuts and Bolts of Writing for Children
includes goals, planning, getting to work, how to “show don’t tell,” dialogue tips, rewriting and marketing.

Swift Fiction – the Short Story in Focus
discusses the elements of short story writing with a focus on the storyline, theme, and main character.

Writing for Children’s Magazines
covers the ups and downs of Writing for Children’s Magazines, what sells, how to write for children’s magazines: including: study, research, and staying organized, how to sell to magazines, keeping track of submissions, magazine rights and what they mean, and more.

STORYTELLING and STORYTELLING WORKSHOPS
See Sue’s website for more details

Availability: Daytime, evenings and Saturdays. Contact Sue at sue-at-susanuhlig.com for specific availability.
Audience: children and adults

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Ford, Sue

Gorman, Marilyn

Colleen Ryckert Cook — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 01:06:55 +0000

First published as a freshman in high school, when I submitted a response to Reader’s Digest at the urging of my English teacher. Really, it wasn’t that big of a deal; I probably shouldn’t even mention it.

Wrote a few freelance cards for Hallmark, so few that I probably shouldn’t even be mentioning that either.

Wrote and directed a few years of the “Haunted Forest” for the City of Lee’s Summit. They gave me an award for it, then decided to hire me as part of their staff – definitely worth mentioning.

Wrote performance material for the Lee’s Summit Community Theatre as well as their newsletter.

Currently I’m working on two children’s plays, a children’s picture book, a couple of plays for adults, and a grocery list, that I have absolutely no intention of pursuing.

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Gorman, Marilyn

Whitehead, Jenny

Colleen Ryckert Cook — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 03:21:10 +0000

Jenny Whitehead is the author/illustrator of Lunch Box Mail (2001—a collection of poems from a child’s point of view), Holiday Stew (2007—poems based on holidays and seasons) and illustrator of Punctuation Celebration (2009—poems about punctuation marks written by Elsa Knight Bruno). She enjoys writing poetry, stories, and young adult fiction. Her artwork style involves painting and collage, layering cut paper and tissue paper. Her website is www.jennywhitehead.com.

Jenny studied art at Miami University in Ohio (beginning with a portfolio of doodles!). She designed wallpaper for a year and then was hired by Hallmark Cards to be an art director, working there for seven years. She loves to visit schools and talk to kids about creativity, art and writing poetry. Jenny’s husband, Pete, is a humorous illustrator at Hallmark. Her kids Bailey (14) and Chelsea (9) also love to paint and draw.

Side note: Jenny also goes by the name WasherWoman on Etsy and at art fairs where she sells designed washer pendants.

Books

Buy Jenny’s books at Amazon or Indiebound.

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Whitehead, Jenny

Brown, Jennifer

Laura Manivong — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 15:50:14 +0000

Author, columnist, All Around Good Guy…Jenifer Brown has been writing since, well, forever.

Two-time winner of the Erma Bombeck Global Humor Award (2005 & 2006), humor columnist for The Kansas City Star (winning the Missouri Writer’s Guild 2008 Conference Award for Best Newspaper Column), and Saturday Featured Blogger for Mom2Mom KC, Jennifer has been out to prove since childhood that being a smart-ass can, indeed, be considered “making a living.”

When not rolling her eyes and thinking up news ways to incorporate the words, “Ch-yeah,” “Puh-lease,” and “Hell-o!” into her writing, Jennifer is hard at work on her young adult fiction. Her debut novel, Hate List (Little, Brown), was released September 2009. Jennifer writes and lives in the Kansas City, Missouri area, with her three wonderful kids, adorable hubby, two cats, a boxer pup, and the best basset hound baby anyone could ever ask for.

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Brown, Jennifer

Huliska-Beith, Laura

Laura Manivong — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:48:54 +0000

Laura Huliska-Beith grew up in Omaha Nebraska, the oldest of five children. Her siblings and husband were the inspiration behind her first picture book, The Book of Bad Ideas (although she takes full credit for Bad Idea #143). Her parents, both avid readers (her mother, a teacher) were generous providers of paper, crayons, encouragement, support, and every craft media the 1970s offered.

After graduating from the Kansas City Art Institute, Laura went on to work as an artist at Hallmark Cards Inc. for several years before finally pursuing her dream of illustrating children’s books. Her love of visual story-telling has led her to illustrate many books including Violet’s Music by Angela Johnson, The Recess Queen by Alexis O’Neill and most recently The Worst Best Friend, also by Alexis O’Neill.

She lives in Kansas City Missouri with her husband Jeff, and their three dogs.

Buy Laura’s books at Amazon or Indiebound!

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Huliska-Beith, Laura

Moore, Laura

Colleen Ryckert Cook — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:11:48 +0000

Laura earned both her bachelor’s degree in Theater and her masters in Public Administration from UMKC. Her resume includes actress, bartender, dental assistant, Mrs. Field’s Cookies store manager, MS Society Director of Special Events, Red Cross CPR instructor, full time mom, and currently, Librarian’s Assistant. And she writes fantasy/adventure YA novels. In 2007 she “publishedâ€ her first one, Coven, on the website fanfiction.net. She describes the fan fiction experience as “writing with training wheels…world wide readers, immediate feedback, and fans. How could a writing exercise be more fun than that?â€ Laura is currently revising her first original YA novel (with the help of the Wednesday critique group).

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Moore, Laura

Kasten, Jeanne

Laura Manivong — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:35:19 +0000

Current projects include: learning to write a short story, writing a journal of letters for my granddaughter, and other short creative writing projects for practice. Post from: HWKTKasten, Jeanne

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Kasten, Jeanne