A couple of my favorite posts include this one,  Is it censorship?  and this one Daring to dream which seems like a wonderful way to end the year.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your visits to 31 blogs this month. The yellow icon will reside in the sidebar of my blog so you can dip back into them in the future.

Some people can make you laugh one moment and catch your breath at the beauty in a photograph in the next. That’s the way it is with author L.K. Madigan. She has a fun feature called authorial intrusions which are "not your typical author interviews" but some of my favorite posts are the ones where she has Tim Gunn (from Project Runway) in her head while she is trying to write.

Check out this one and this one too!

And since today is Monday, you might want to try stretching yourself while you’re there.

When I want to feel like I’ve been hugged, this is one of the blogs I head for, Here in the Bonny Glen. Author Melissa Wiley has created a warm and friendly place in the blogosphere that is about writing and raising kids and homeschooling and living green and being real, right here, right now. I’ll warn you, a lot of her posts will move you to tears, but they never leave me feeling sad. Often they leave me wishing I was a part of what sounds like a wonderful family.

The Boy with the Perfect Heart is a great example of a perfectly told tear-inducing story and this one which talks about how some of us have a tendency to have more "tearing up moments" than others.

I’m a writer and a poet so I am naturally drawn to blogs that connect to my writing life so well. One of my favorites belongs to Lisa Schroeder.

She takes you into the life of a writer/poet and shows you the good, the bad, and the "this will probably make you cry" kind of stuff. This month she’s been running some reruns from her favorite posts from the past and I’ve loved reading all over again about the way her career has evolved.

A couple of favorites of mine are I’m not the only one where she compares American Idol to the writing business and this one where she talks about getting an agent at last.

 

Do you know Vivian of Hip Writer Mama and ReaderGirlz fame? If not, you should. Why? 

Because most of us writers have to balance our writing with a whole lot of other non-writing things, like raising kids and washing windows, and such. And sometimes it seems like there is never enough time to do what we want to do most of all – write! A visit with Hip Writer Mama reminds me that all things require balance and that some days we all have trouble balancing and that’s okay.

Right now Hip Writer Mama is closing in on the home stretch of her personal writing challenge to write every day for 30 days.

How’s she doing with that? You can read all the challenge posts here or a few of my favorites like  and Day 23: Mapping Out Writing Time: The Double-Edged Sword and Day 22: Mapping Out Writing Time: Do the UNEXPECTED .

For a bonus, there are writing prompts at the end of each post.

 

Today I’d like to introduce you to scientist and children’s author Loree Griffin Burns.

She’s managed to combine two of my most favorite things, nature and writing, into wonderful books for children.

Trips to her blog are like little nature field trips. A couple of my favorites posts are Monarchs in Space and Seeing the Chrysalis, Finding the Spine.

Enjoy!

For today’s visit on 31 Blogs you might not know I want to point you to Shen’s Books. Shen’s publishes beautiful books and has a blog/website full of multicultural book related info.

Recently, publisher Renee Ting started a new feature called the Multicultural Minute – short 1 minute videos connected to the multicultural kidlit world.

A couple of my favorites are Multicultural Minute on Food and The Multicultural Minute on Biracial Picture Books

Lee Wind has created a wonderful resource for gay teen books, gay culture, gay politics and more!

Lee’s taking a couple of weeks off for the holidays but there are plenty of juicy posts over there for you to enjoy until he comes back in January. A couple of my favorites are The GLBTQ Middle Grade Bookshelf! and The Power Of A Ten Year Old: A GSA Monday Inspiration

A Year of Reading is a blog written by, in their own words, "two teachers who read. A lot."

I always feel like I am in the back of their classroom listening in as they turn kids on to reading and writing and poetry. So many of the lessons they share with their young students are just as important to this old student.

This blog is also the home of the great list, 100 Cool Teachers in Children’s Literature (they’re actually up to 128 now.)

A couple of my favorite posts are the current oneUnit of Study on THEME (beginnings) and THEME (middle, part 2)

A couple of my favorite posts are this one about a Documentary about ASL Poetry, "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox"
and this interview with deaf playwrightWilly Conley.

Today I want to introduce you to author/poet Liz Garton Scanlon. Her book All the World was just named the year’s best picture book by the L.A.Times and a Best Kids’s Book of the Year by The Washington Post. Reading her blog is like sitting across the table from her chatting, one-on-one, about life and family and writing and poetry and so much more. I read Liz’s blog for the beauty of the language she uses and I read it because she is always so darn grateful for her life that I can’t help but walk away from her blog feeling better than I did when I first started to read.

Liz is also one of the Seven Poetry Princesses responsible for encouraging them to write their Thanksgiving Villanelles.

A couple of my favorite posts of hers are Thanksgiving in the Backcountry and Humility and Audacity.

Don’t rush your visit with Liz. Sit with her a while. You’ll be glad you did.

Today’s stop on 31 Blogs (you might not know) is The Idea Garage Sale , the virtual home of author Peni Griffin. I love Peni’s mind, the way it tunnels through things the rest of us might not notice and comes out the other side with a story, such as her latest book, 11,000 Years Lost which is in the Pleistocene age. Cool, huh?

Peni believes ideas are all around us, we just need to become more aware of them. She believes this so much that she is giving ideas away to all comers. Go on now, pick one up for yourself.

A couple of my favorite posts are Coolest Thing I Learned All Year and Projects.

Since Peni is a new blogger I hope some of you will head on over to say hello.

If you love blogs about the writing process and writers who think deep thoughts and aren’t afraid to talk about, then you might want to check out Jenn Hubbard’s blog. Jenn’s first young adult novel, THE SECRET YEAR is coming out next month and I can’t wait.

A couple of my favorite posts are the ones Jenn did on writing the synopsis, in three different flavors and Revision in Action.

Give her a wave from me when you stop by.

Three Silly Chicks (aka Julia Durango, Andrea Beaty and Carolyn Crimi) are all about going for the laugh. They read, write, and review funny books on their blog and on occasion they’ve been known to drag authors and illustrators of funny books into the coop for some interviews.

A couple of my favorite interviews are In the Coop With Tammi Sauer and In the Coop with Aaron Reynolds and Neil Numberman!

Great blog for busting stress and getting that laugh just when you need it the most.

(Yesterday I goofed and had the wrong title with the wrong post. Apologies to both Don and Laura.)

Laura encourages everyone to get into the poetry habit with her weekly (every Thursday) photo poetry prompt for 15 Words or Less Poems.

Tell Laura I said hello when you stop by.