Category Archives: School Visits

The Amazing Things You Could Do – If you Really Wanted To!

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My cat, Mittens, is – how can I describe it?  Let’s just say he doesn’t have a lot of personality.  It’s not his fault that he was born with no street-smarts or even house-smarts, and sleeps 23-1/2 hours a day.  He’s also terribly timid and runs away meowing if he even sees an ant.  The most dangerous thing he’s ever attacked is a Starbucks straw.  So imagine my shock and amazement when Mittens recently caught a mouse in our living room!  I’ve seen similar things happen in my own life and in the lives of others.  People who “couldn’t write” became writers, while others who “couldn’t do math” became mathematicians.  Someone may think he or she knows what you can – or can not do. But the truth is no one really knows.  My friend, author Joyce McDonald, was told by a high school counselor that she wasn’t “college material”.  Now she holds Ph.D. in English literature, has been a college professor and is the … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

What Happens When You Get Stuck?

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When I visit schools, kids (and often teachers and librarians, too) ask me what’s it’s like to be a published author.  Do I ever get stuck?  Do I ever feel frustrated with my writing?  I’ve thought about this a lot, and this post is an answer to that question!  I hope it will help all the kids out there who wonder if we authors ever get stuck and if so, what do we do about it?  I’ll begin with a story. Recently, I started writing Little Elfie One, a Christmas sequel to my Halloween picture book Little Goblins Ten (Harper 2011.) I was thrilled about the new book.  Jane Manning, who illustrated Goblins would be illustrating the sequel too, and I think we make a great writing and illustrating team. Although the manuscript (writing) for Elfie wasn’t due for several months, I sat right down to write a first draft.  This was going to be so much fun!  But after several hours of writing random rhymes, I started … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

Just the Words

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   We’re proud of the books we write, but at a recent school visit, I discovered that maybe it’s not that impressive a thing after all.  After all, it’s just words. My Power Point slide show was over.  The lights in the school auditorium came back on.   The kids stretched their legs.  I turned off the projector, and glanced at the clock.  It had been only been a half hour but I was still under the spell of the past evoked by my slides – the ballet doll my Aunt Ruth sent me for Christmas that inspired my first children’s book, the farm house in Bucks County where I began to write it, the beautiful cover of Noelle of the Nutcracker.  It was time for questions and answers.  “Does your hand get tired when you color?” asked a little girl in blue leggings sitting in the front row.  “Well, actually I don’t draw the pictures for my books,” said, with a … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.

School Visits

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School visits can be many things – exhilarating and inspiring come to mind.  But they are, above all, just plain fun.  It’s not only that you, the author, get the opportunity to share so much of your life and creative process with your readers, but that they share so much with you – their projects, dreams, plans, hopes and disappointments.  Even, as in the case of a recent visit to Don Gill Elementary School in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania – a cake for one of your characters, Winky Blue, the lovable but mischievous parakeet in my six-book series published by Mondo Publishing. I hope to write many more books about the adventures of Rosie and her parakeet, Winky Blue.  And I hope to have many more school visits to share with the students my books and stories (but not too much more cake.)To read all about my Winky Blue books, visit my website. … Read on

Pamela Jane is the author of over thirty books from board books to memoir. She is also a writing coach, freelance writer, and public speaker. Learn more about her by booking a school visit, perusing her blog, or reading her memoir, An Incredible Talent for Existing: A Writer's Story.