#MG #NF THE GIANT BOOK OF SMALL THINGS...kids' parents, grandparents and ancestors may have owned or used. **Proposal and sample section's text completed.** #W Photographing objects, some against my handmade paper. Victorian scraps to cut and paste...hard for a child/anyone! #QuestPit

#MG #NF THE GIANT BOOK OF SMALL THINGS...kids' parents, grandparents and ancestors may have owned or used. **Proposal and sample section's text completed.** #W Photographing objects, some against my handmade paper. Right: The world's smallest banknotes. #QuestPit

If an agent asks for 'a selection of both stories & jpegs': How many would you send? What res? What max size of all files? Is 5, 150 dpi, 20x30cms with 2 or 3 images on each & a short description sensible? I illustrate #n-f, borders, calligraphy #LiteraryAgent #amquerying #SCBWI #WritingCommunity

I use traditional media, hoping to inspire children (and adults) to experiment and be creative. ...I'd love to work on a devotional or book of verse. www.writing-for-children.com/gallery Also #amquerying. My last agent for 10 years has retired. #KidLitArtPostcard

#KidLitArtPostcard Dummy in progress... My first self-illustrated picture book? #amquerying (my agent for 10 yrs has retired). My non-traditional art: writing-for-children.com/gallery/ mainly calligraphy, technical, borders, capitals, lettering and more to encourage children to be creative.

Hello Writing Community! We are delighted to announce our Second Official Bluesky *** #MSWL Day *** February 26, 2026. 🎉🎉🎉 Agents + editors can post what they ✨wish✨ they had in their inboxes; writers can find their next best fit for querying. Learn more: manuscriptwishlist.com/2025/01/the-...

This sandstone boulder was in a landscaping heap delivered to my home in Brisbane, Australia. The paddle-like flippers look to have been covered in tiny scales, so I presume it was an aquatic reptile. It's worthless to the museum without knowing the original location. #fossilfriday

Can I say I'm a children's book author/illustrator when I only illustrate my own non-fiction and how-to books, not #PB stories? I do write MG and PBs. Do #LiteraryAgents for author/illustrators only ever want artists for PB stories? What else should I call myself? #KidLitArt #AskAgent #LitAgent

This New Year card in my grandmother's scrapbook album was probably printed in about 1900. They had a strange taste in humour back then! Hopefully it will be included in the 'Book of Small Things' I'm compiling. Wishing you a more normal 2026, with lots to enjoy. #NewYear

Show me what you can do with just a pen...

The dark shading is the previous interpretation of the coast, with China extending below the equator, inhabited by Seres people. The paler shading shows the new revised coastline with a little of Australia. I wonder who surveyed this #map, when (early 1700's?) and if anyone used it. Any ideas?

I hike for longer when boots are comfortable. I can't get into a library book I've borrowed that has 16 words per line, tightly packed lines of small type, narrow margins, 42 lines per page, 20 line paragraphs... and it's on the History of the Book. You'd think they'd have learned from history.

It's time to query a picture book. Does anyone else buy hand-puppets of the characters before the book deal? It may never become a book. Hmm, I think kids need to make up their own key to the map, based on the illustrated the scenery in the story. #PB #AmQuerying

Who broke Mrs. Moody's eggs? She’s so cross & cranky, the foxes are frightened & can only say ‘Yelp, yelp!’. She’s so angry & agitated, the pigs are petrified... I only created these pictures for fun, but a publisher has requested a dummy. Maybe, with help? Wish I'd practiced sketching animals.

Yes, you can read the whole 1873 newspaper if you have good eyesight or a hand lens. Was it meant to be read, or was it just an advert for Dallastype printing process, patented by Duncan C. Dallas? For my proposed Book of Small Things for kids 11+ #Vintage #Typography #Typesetting #Kidlit

Hoping that children will be encouraged to experiment and have fun with letters. #WorldCalligraphyDay

In WWII, my uncle helped pay for a temple elephant to take part in a parade in Arokonam #Arakkonam in India on August 5, 1944. I wonder if the parade is still held... #WorldElephantDay

Love this - thanks for posting Victoria!

Traditionally created art that's different, plus self-illustration with photography My agent for 10 years has retired...seeking a new one. #BP, #MG & #YA author + how-to for adults. #kidlitpostcard #kidlitartpostcardday #kidlitartpostcard #calligraphy

Going through my grandmother's #scrapbook album from about 1885. Not what we would send as a New Year card... #Vintage #Antique #Victoriana #AmQuerying my idea and sample sections for a Giant Book of Small Things children's parents, grandparents and ancestors may have owned or used.

Working on THE GIANT BOOK OF SMALL THINGS: a self-illustrated #MG #YA compendium of tiny objects kids' parents, grandparents or ancestors may have owned or used, including world record holders for the smallest of their kind. #KidLit #NF #AmQuerying #Vintage Sample chapters & proposal completed.

In about 1980, I was given these prints—taken off the original #ThomasBewick woodblocks. Can anyone please tell me if they were printed in a book, or books, and which one/ones (not Select Fables or History of Quadrupeds, I believe)? Thank you! #Illustration @sandbish.bsky.social

Recorded family history is valued. Love my G-grandfather's diary of his wedding. Recorded anecdotes can later be used in stories, too. My favorite activity for #schoolVisits: Describe something funny a neighbor has done an add it inside a folding card of their house. We create a story streetscape.

The #vintage Marigold Painting Book by #KateGreenaway gives very sophisticated instructions for adding colour to the outlines provided. #Illustration. ...cold colours which are to serve as shadows to warmer colours should be laid on first. How many kids are taught that today in colouring books?

From my British grandmother's #vintage #Antique #scrapbook album (1880/90s I think). At least the top half of the scrap matches #KateGreenaway's 'Under the Window' cover picture. Did she design and sell the scraps herself or through her publisher, or...?

Hablot Knight Browne, Phiz, provided #illustration for several authors, usually did three watercolours a day & etched 1,603 plates for #Dickens. Some wore out and he redid them: spot the differences. As a commission he also painted watercolours of all the etchings for the Dickens' works.

Love this, and how his trees seem to take an active part in the story. I believe it would have been printed on a three colour press, and he developed and limited his watercolour palette to suit.

Help, please! When did adding a type letter & painting over it stop? Is it 1470s Nicolas Jenson type as ascenders of 'd' extend below the baseline—how long was his type used after he died? Johann Amerbach is supposed to have printed the first Roman face—whose type? Thanks! #typography #typesetting

Not sure of the age of these leaves I own - about 1600? How did they manage to cut the punches so small...and the paper is incredibly thin! #Typography #Typesetting

Can't wait. This artwork and that on Greer's website is amazing!

Encouraging children and adults to read, write, and be creative. Seeking commissions and a new agent - my last one for 10 years has retired. Please investigate my www.writing-for-children.com website! #kidLitARTpostcard #illustration

TIP from my potential book on improving handwriting: Sit on a wedge-shaped cushion, or raise the chair's rear legs to spread your weight over your thighs. It's no longer on the base of your spine—far more comfortable ...for drawing and typing, too. And a sloping board helps. #writing #amquerying

Banknotes are easily hidden in a wallet, and potential subjects for my proposed GIANT BOOK OF SMALL THINGS. Does anyone else have few trillion dollars in their wallet?. (From Zimbabwe, 2007-8) #KidLit #MG #AmQuerying

I write & illustrate non-fiction how-to (pub'd), & write picture book texts (pub'd). I don't illustrate PBs the traditional way...though I would like to calligraphically illustrate an alphabet book. I wonder, can I query agents who want author-illustrators? #kidlit #amquerying #illustration

These are brilliant! Can we have / do we have something similar for the boxes sold in Australia with 21x11.5cm tops? Of all the National Geographic magazines I seen and read, the most memorable is the one that covered Mt St Helens.

Who is celebrating Walpurgis Night on April 30th - halfway to Halloween? The top four notes are 1920s German notgeld 'emergency money' vouchers. I'd love to discover more about the painting used for the postcard.

I wonder what feature of current #boardgames will be unacceptable in the future. From about 1953.

I'm long retired. At the start of every (science) lesson, I slowly drew a letter in calligraphy on the corner of the board. Bored kids or those who finished a set task early could try it if they wanted. 40 years later I've had thanks from former students who are complimented on their writing skills.

I wonder, will this seed & elephant carving make it into my potential 'GIANT BOOK OF SMALL THINGS' for ages 11+? My uncle brought it home from India after WWII. Some seeds had 100 elephants...sadly, carved by children, whose eyesight was ruined. One secret wish per elephant... #kidlit #AmQuerying

I volunteered at a museum, too—later, offered the 'natural history curator' position for a year. Sad it wasn't permanent! Vinnies. Over the years, committees of: SCBWI; the Childen's Book Council of Australia; Calligraphy, Naturalists', Photography & Science Societies; walking holidays for kids.

In my book history presentations, kids most want to read a diary from 1860s, NY in 1690s, explore artists books & books with designer covers, even in foreign languages. Bring them up to love ALL book & word experiences, over just stories...plays, poetry, paint stories, make books, write as art...

#Birds in my back yard. This is actual speed! Yep, Australian swallows are fast—like those elsewhere. I'm not sure what's in the air today for them, but we seem to be a favoured spot. Umm...the walls of our house really are vertical!

Hi, it's me again. THIS IS A COUP. AN ACTUAL COUP. Not a drill, not a test, just a COUP. We are experiencing a coup in the United States, and the fact that we're not acting like that's an emergency is a problem. IT IS DAY 38 OF THIS COUP.

This rock with a fossil '??reptile' with flat paddles arrived at my home with landscaping boulders...of no interest to our Queensland Museum, Australia, without provenance. Too hard for an artist to imagine what the creature looked like? #Art #Illustration #STEAM

My new brushes...not Kolinsky sable standard, but only US9c —$9/100: eyeliner brushes (eBay). I'll use them to teach illumination to beginners. Good for kids, but tape the thin short handle to a pencil or stick it in bamboo with 2 opposite flat sides. #art #artwork #illustration #traditionalart

Most people include 'circular' in a definition of a medal...but this one won at the Paris 1900 Olympic Games obviously doesn't fit. Image courtesy of EF Auctions. A possible subject for my 'Giant Book of Small Things'...teens' parents, grandparents and ancestors may have owned or used. #amquerying

This picture reminds me of the painting used for the 1922 German notgeld emergency money note and postcard. Does anyone know who the artist was? Owls were supposed to be witches' messengers.

A magical cat is swept into a hidden world of secret agents, underground cities, and strange allies, only to realize she must reclaim her power or watch her ruthless mentor destroy everything she loves. ✨🐈✨ #QuestPit #Q #MG #F #amquerying #writingcommunity

Introducing the three POV & the lovely Widow for my novel Threads of Aerythel: Dragonfly - a dark epic fantasy. Check out all my questpit posts for a full picture! #questpit #A #Q #DF #LGBT Post 2/4