After reading an article on NPR about a new book vending machine concept, I went to that company’s website, and found a familiar name front and center on their page— @helenzax.bsky.social . I ❤️ having writing friends. #kidlit #picturebooks

Congrats, Helen!

It's LITTLE WITCH'S TO-DO LIST's book birthday. So grateful to my wonderful editor Meredith Mundy, to my talented illustrator Kiersten Eagan, to my relentless agent Steven Chudney, and to the entire Abrams team. #kidlitmeagfeed #kidlit #poet #writingcommunity

The charming art and upbeat text is full of surprises from feeding her pet phoenix to baking a toadstool cake. Kiddos will also adore the twist at the end! LITTLE WITCH’S TO-DO LIST by @helenzax.bsky.social and Kiersten Eve Eagan is a magical story that little ones will ask to read again and again!

LITTLE WITCH'S TO-DO LIST received an exciting review from Publisher's Weekly: "Sorcery joyously infuses a child’s day in Zax’s pleasant rhyming take on one witch’s accounting of tasks." Eagan makes "this enchanted 'to-do list' feel as much like play as work." On my to-do list: feeling grateful.

Thrilled that SLJ has included LITTLE WITCH'S TO-DO LIST in this season's list: 35 Picture Book Fiction Series Perfect for Comfort and Discovery. #kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet

Excited to have our first, lovely review of LITTLE WITCH'S TO-DO LIST from the School Library Journal: "A welcome addition for all those who hold spookiness in their heart all year round . . . . VERDICT A fun supernatural read." #kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet

Grateful to have two poems in Mel Woodend's new anthology POEMS FOR HEARING DOGS, in support of hearing dogs for deaf people.

"History will remember this day— when an American President and Vice President abandoned all we stand for."

Announcement! All the practical stuff in #kidlit publishing, coming up 3/16 + 3/18! Join me for a jam-packed 2-night course covering everything from book types to contracts and the publishing process—plus a chance to ask your pressing questions! More details: tinyurl.com/mtadfe5u Please repost.

Excited to share the cover of LITTLE BUNNY'S TO-DO LIST. This time the EASTER BUNNY has lots to get done! Thanks to Kiersten Eagan, Meredith Mundy, and the Abrams team. #kidlit #kidlitmegafeed Available for pre-order here: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-bun... www.abramsbooks.com?s=Little+Bun...

LITTLE WITCH'S TO-DO LIST with lots more of Kiersten Eagan's adorable illustrations is available for preorder at B&N for 25% off TODAY! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/little-wit... #AbramsKids #kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet #writingcommunity

What fun to find LITTLE WITCH'S TO-DO LIST in Publishers Weekly's Children's Books for Spring! LITTLE WITCH is available for pre-order at www.amazon.com/Little-Witch... www.barnesandnoble.com/.../little...... Please share some witchy magic with a child you love! #AbramsKids #kidlitmeagfeed

Bidding ends Jan.26! KidLit For Los Angeles auction aka @kidlitforla.bsky.social raises funds for wildfire relief efforts. Items incl advice from #KidLit editors, agents, ADs, creators. I'm offering KidLit portfolio critique and an AMA (Ask Me Anything). Art: Sydney Hanson. #KidLitForLosAngeles

MAMIACHI & ME has been out in the world for nearly a week! Have you had a chance to read and review it yet? Links for places to leave reviews follow: Amazon: www.amazon.com/Mamiachi-Me-... Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/20... Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mamiachi-m... 🙏

Rebecca’s book is pure inspiration for young writers!

Check out MAMIACHI & ME, the new big-hearted #picturebook by @writerjolene.bsky.social, Dakota Gutiérrez & @msmirelle.bsky.social! #kidlit #EduSky #BookReview #librarians

Did your child lose their book collection in the Los Angeles fires? Are you a teacher at a school that lost its library or your classroom library? Whether you need one book or a whole library, we can replace your books. 📚 Everyone else, please boost this post so we can connect with those in need. 🙏

One of the very best days! #kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet

Let's go back one step. How do they freeze people? When they thaw them out, don't they wake up dead? Nope. Combination of 30 days of restricted fluid intake and a biochemical "anti-freeze" derived from the blood of the Canadian wood frog. #sciencefiction #scifi #action www.romesrevolution.com

The first few clinical trials were brutal. They used terminally ill volunteers to test the freezing protocol. Needless to say, it did not go well the first few tries. But eventually, they got it perfect. Mostly. #sciencefiction #scifi #action #adventure #romance www.romesrevolution.com

So what was the purpose behind the Ark program in the first place? In the year 2065 AD, everyone knew the Earth was in a death spiral. New diseases (like nano-plastic cancer) were springing up; we now had Cat 7 hurricanes. The wealth gap was growing wider. Nobody was happy. www.romesrevolution.com

The Ark program was conceived in 2040 AD, completely by accident. The designer fell asleep on his keyboard. When he woke up, on his screen was a bunch of random images. He was able to see the whole program laid out. 25 years later, Ark I launched. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution.com

There were four known Arks and one "stealth" Ark. Ark I target: Alpha Centauri. Ark II target: Tau Ceti. Ark III target: Beta Hydri. Ark IV target: Nu2 Lupi. Ark V, the "stealth Ark" was supposed to loop around Chara, come back to Earth and conquer it. #sciencefiction #science www.thearklords.com

Unfortunately, the money required to build the Ark fleet required participation of the US Armed Forces. So a section of the passengers aboard were armed service personnel. This led to conflicts when the settlers arrived at their new home world. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution.com

The Ark was designed to use aerobraking to enter a planet's atmosphere. Its triple-hull underside made of martensite, was meant to be ablative. If all else failed, The Ark would just crash at terminal velocity. The sarcophagi would survive such a crash. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution.com

Ever write a fight scene? It was by far the most challenging scene I’ve ever written!

Why martensite? It is a magnetic version of stainless steel. The mission specialists could walk using magnetic boots. The top 2/3 of the Ark were made of pig iron so they could cannibalize their ship to make iron or steel before they got their mining operations up to speed. #sciencefiction #scifi

Wishing this community of book readers and friends a merry Christmas.

The sarcophagi for the three-man command crew were designed to let them breath under weightless conditions. Once resuscitated, they flew the crew compartment down to the surface before returning to space to retrieve the cargo compartment. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution3455ad.com

Ark II, destination Tau Ceti. Success or failure? Rei Bierak and Rome towed it from Tabit. Rei's atmospheric punch through took it to the surface. Everybody survived. So I guess it would be deemed a success even though the landing was unconventional. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution.com

Ark III, destination 82 G. Eridani. Success or failure? There were no habitable planets there. It looped around and ended up crash landing on Deucado. But some of the people, called the Deucadons, survived so I guess it would be deemed a success. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution3455ad.com

Ark IV, destination Nu2 Lupi. Success or failure? There were supposed to be TWO habitable planets there but they only found one. And it was cold! But they landed properly and survived. Barely. Until Aason Bierak came along. It would be deemed a success. #sciencefiction #scifi www.the-milkrun.com

Ark V (the "stealth Ark") was filled with evil people from The Darwin Project. Nominal destination Chara but really designed to loop back and return to Earth 600 years later. It landed properly but these "Ark Lords" tried to take over the Earth and failed. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

A properly constructed villain thinks they are doing the right thing according to their worldview. We only see them as evil because their interests are not aligned with ours. Over the next few days, I'll tell you about the "evil" Darwin Project. #sciencefiction #scifi www.romesrevolution3455ad.com

The Darwin Project, first begun in 2035 AD, was a multi-pronged plan to essentially "reboot" the Earth and have a military junta rule over the survivors until they could reconstruct the Earth in what was called the "America Image". Tomorrow: the Lupine Flu #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

The Darwin Project was designed to "reboot" the Earth and reform into what they called the American Image. To test disease vectors, they created an artificial virus called the Lupine Flu (aka Darwin Strain 3) which killed over 10 million people in 2061 AD. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

There were many vectors (spokes?) to the Darwin plan. Sea, land and space. After all the various elements were implemented, they released the Darwin Virus Strain 4 in 2081 AD which killed over 9 BILLION people. I'll list the various parts starting tomorrow. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

Part 1 of the Darwin Project was to establish "Land Arks" (huge sealed caves outside of Denver) where people would live, isolated from the Strain 4 virus, for 100 years until it was safe to come out. Nobody knows what happened but none of them survived. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

Part 2 of the Darwin Project was the Ark Program. 4 known, 1 secret Ark. 80% of the people in the Arks were to colonize new worlds but 20% were secretly Darwin. Their instructions were to build starships and return to Earth to conquer it. None of the first 4 succeeded. #scifi www.thearklords.com

Part 3 of the Darwin Program was launching Ark V aka the Stealth Ark. Its target was the star Chara. But they had no intention of staying there. Instead, loop around and return to Earth 600 years later. This Ark was 100% armed personnel. A conquering army. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

3/3 After I wrote The Ark Lords, I had to add the phrase "and women were taken" to Book 1. The Ark Lords were cruel and almost succeeded. A resistance arose and eventually defeated them in a guerilla war by using their own lethal weapons against them. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

2/3 80% of the passengers aboard Ark V were men. The plan was, if and when they returned to Earth, they would capture and enslave native women to build up their numbers. 106 mating couples was cutting it too close. They needed more so they kidnapped them. #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

1/3 To guarantee enough genetic diversity on a new world, you need at least 100 mating pairs. Arks I through IV had 250 mating couples plus a few extra “spare” colonists. However, Ark V, the Stealth Ark, had just 106 women. Too few. They needed more! #sciencefiction #scifi www.thearklords.com

Discover the Rome's Revolution universe. Hard science fiction with action, adventure, romance and a hint of humor. All take place in the 35th century. These stories are true, they just haven't happened yet.

Happy holidays to all! Wishing you all a white, merry, joyous day! Here's my latest poem on the wonderful The Dirigible Balloon website. Jonathan Humble, thank you! #kidlitmegafeed #poet

Here is my second Honorable Mention poem in the Lyrical Language Lab's First Annual Rhyming Poetry Contest. Thank you, judges— Renée M. LaTulippe, Suzy Levinson, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes, and Lou Piccolo And thank you, Renée M. LaTulippe, for this beautiful graphic.#kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet

The first of my two Honorable Mention poems in the First Annual Lyrical Language Lab Rhyming Poetry Contest. Thank you, Renee LaTulippe, for the lovely graphic. #kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet #writingcommunity

Excited to have two poems shortlisted in the Lyrical Language Lab 1st Annual Rhyming Contest. What an honor to have my work acknowledged by such talented poets! #kidlitmegafeed #kidlit #poet #writingcommunity

go.bsky.app/SerEDfN Here’s my first starter pack to share with the #kidlit community…picture book people with new books coming in 2025!