Newsletter – September 25, 2026
I submitted the files for my book of children’s poetry last Friday and I wanted to share another short poem preview with you (above). The book also has longer poems but this made for an easy newsletter screenshot.
Aren’t Andrea Benko’s illustrations perfect? I have to draw your attention to the scale at the top of the illustration: it’s in the shape of a caret (or insertion). It’s a brilliant take on the poem that I just love.
You’re seeing purple lines around the border because those are the boundaries on the template for printing purposes. BookBaby provided us with a template and Andrea loaded it into Canva for—dare I say it—coloring within the lines.
I was so nervous about having sent the right files for the various formats that I composed an email to my contact at BookBaby and asked him to tell me if anything was the wrong format or the wrong color palette. I saved everything that Andrea sent me so I can produce a different version any time.
Yes, I’m dropping names right and left, and I have to compliment them all:
Andrea Benko – a delightful illustrator and work partner
Canva – an app that had far more capabilities than I imagined
BookBaby – these folk did such a nice job with my novel that I trusted them to handle this book as well—no complaints
I’ll let you know when I set a release date, but it should be ready in time for the holidays.
TTFN
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I thought I’d share another caption I created for The New Yorker’s weekly caption contest. I didn’t win, but the three top captions were very amusing so I’m not bummed. I enjoy the challenge.
Oh, King must really like you. He usually insists on playing white.
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My middle grade novel, The Most Amazing Museum of Los Angeles is available through The BookBaby Bookshop at https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-most-amazing-museum-of-los-angeles
🙂🙂🙂🙂
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