[Participants, please note: Please comment on the book giveaway post that matches the day. However, you are welcome to comment late just to answer the questions, if you like.]
I met Katie Davis when she was kind enough to participate in an article I was writing for Writer’s Digest magazine called, “Elements of a Successful Fiction Platform.” Cindy Hudson referred Katie to me for the article. And I’m happy to announce that Cindy will also be a part of the giveaway later this month.
So, thanks to Cindy, and I guess thanks to me too, here’s Katie. Please help me make her feel welcome.
About Katie Davis
Children’s author/illustrator Katie Davis has published ten books, nine of them for children and one for adults, an eBook, How to Promote Your Children’s Book: Tips, Tricks, and Secrets to Create a Bestseller. She appears monthly on the ABC affiliate show, Good Morning CT, recommending great books for kids. Katie produces a podcast, Brain Burps About Books; she writes a blog and monthly newsletter; and has designed and hosted webinars, all in an effort to “spread the gospel of kidlit.”
About Little Chicken’s Big Day
“I hear you cluckin’, Big Chicken!” That’s the simple refrain that Little Chicken repeats to his mama throughout a typical day. But Little Chicken can be distractable . . . and when he wanders off and gets lost, the day becomes anything but typical. With subtlety and humor, this sweet little story sweeps through a wide range emotions using the simplest of language.
The Very Short Interview
This year’s author interview theme? The story of Katie’s writing career in miniature! Here’s what I asked Katie:
When did you know for sure that you were a writer and that writing would be a major energy focus in your life?
When I was a kid and knew it was my only hope of raising my grade that math had dragged down to a disgrace. I wrote my first picture book when I was 15, in college I majored in photo-journalism and when I got out, worked at any job where I could write, not realizing that picture book writer was a career option. It took a long time to get there!
Who has always been behind your writing career and who helped pull you up the ladder of success?
My husband has been my biggest cheerleader (even though the uniform really isn’t *him*). He’s the one who encouraged me to go to the SCBWI 25th anniversary conference which started it all for me. He’s also gives a very good critique.
What is the most frequent comment you hear about your book (or books) from readers? Tell us a little story about the response to your work.
I love when I hear that my books have made a reader laugh or that a child learned to read because they loved my book. I get those a lot but never often enough!
Extra Bonus!
This book has 30 chapters, 217 pages, each with homework to help you get motivated and started on your path to promote your book, and build your career. Over 60 authors, illustrators, and librarians contributed countless (I tried but lost track) pieces of advice to promote your book and support your career. There are resources, links, and videos.
And Now, Your Turn
Now it’s your turn. You remember how this works right?
I ask you a question. You answer in the comments for your chance to win a book each day.
Please just respond once, even if you make a typo. 
Answer in the comments in 50-200 words (no less and no more to qualify to win one of today’s books). Please read the complete rules at least once!
Thanks for participating in the Writer Mama Every-Day-In-May Book Giveaway! I hope to see you here every day this month. Bring your friends!
Q: What is your proudest writing accomplishment? You will need to be fairly explicit to make this 50-200 words. So tell us, why this one? Why not something else you wrote?
Ready, set, comment!
Comments on this entry are closed.
My proudest writing accomplishment is my article “Admitting Mistakes to Teens: Why it’s Hard and How to Do It” because it reflects my mission of applying research in psychology to people’s every day parenting and life challenges. This article combines advice from big-name mainstream psychologists and practitioners in a way that is eye-opening and compelling, and it’s my all-time best seller in the regional parenting market. Since it first appeared I have made more than $1 a word on this piece — those of you who know the regional parenting markets know that is a major “win”.
Just the fact that I finish anything is an accomplishment,
so how can I pick? J Seriously, I queried a national magazine with a
story idea. They assigned. I wrote. They changed editors. New editor calls and
asks if I could make following changes. “You want an entirely different story,”
I said. “Yes, I suppose I do,” she responds. I send old story to another
magazine. I start fresh. She asks for additions. I add. She asks for changes. I
change. What ends up published does not reflect assignment. It does not even
reflect the title. It is not something I would have written. In fact, it embarrasses
me. But I hung in there and now they think I’m easy to work with. Bonus:
original story sold to another national. I think I’m outta words. J
My proudest writing accomplishment so far was writing my dissertation for a PhD in psychology. It required a lot of research and a lot of time and a whole new way of expressing myself. It taught me a lot about myself that I could apply to other writing – the ability to stick with a writing project even when it seems to be going nowhere, the ability to do research that informs my writing and the ability to make abstract ideas concrete and meaningful.
I would have to say my most recent published story on olive oil for foodservice professionals. California olive oil has been a passion of mine for some time and I’ve really come to adore the people in the industry as well as the product. The opportunity to attend a seminar at the CIA in Napa, CA came up and I soaked up so much amazing information on the truth behind this scandalous world of olive oil. My article exposes the truths and dispels the myths for those working with olive oil. When it was published a couple days ago, I reached out to all my contacts to alert them and the response was what made the story so worthwhile. I feel like the article is well written and can actually make a difference. I love that!
My proudest writing accomplishment is a personal essay I recently completed on my son’s hearing loss. I am proud of it because I have been working on the piece for about two years (off and on). Initially I tried to pack so much into the essay – from diagnosis, to where he is now three years later. However, I finally managed to work only a slice of the story into this version and I love the simplicity of it. Next step is to find somewhere to publish it!
My proudest writing accomplishment was in junior high school. I had always dreamed of having a writing career and wrote poems and shorts stories on every scrap of paper I could get my hands on. But I was very shy and never, ever showed anyone anything I wrote! In eigth grade we were given a writing assigment which of course everyone grumbled about. Me…I was secretly thrilled! I wrote a poem describing snow flakes playfully chasing each other as they fell from the sky. A few weeks later, my teacher made an annoucement in class that she had entered my poem in a writing contest and it had won and been published! Definitely my proudest writing memory!
My proudest writing moment was writing and micro-publishing my e-guide, What To Expect From Your Adopted Tween, last summer. My moment continues with international sales and using the book to teach off of, as a curriculum with my clients (pre- and adoptive parents). At this point in time I am reformatting the guide into a spiral bound book, adding additional material, and reducing its physical size.
My proudest writing accomplishment is actually a children’s picture book I wrote with my daughter, that has not been published… yet! I am proud because the idea for the book came from her, when she was 3 yrs old. She is now 8. We have no doubt that it will be picked up. It is that Faith that I am most proud of.
My proudest writing moment was when I gave my Dad a signed copy of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul: Thanks Dad” book in which my story about him was published. He had no idea I wrote the story let alone had it published so when I told him I had something to personally deliver for his Father’s day gift he was definitely intrigued. I flew from Michigan to Florida on Father’s Day weekend that year to give my dad my most heartfelt gift ever. It was a moment neither of us will ever forget.
My greatest writing accomplishment to date is not an
actual piece of writing at all, but the fact that I took my dream of becoming a
writer, and translated it into a reality. There was a certain serendipity
involved in my decision—the right writing group opened up at the right time in
my life—but nonetheless, I was able to overcome my fear of making a fool of
myself in front of others, to finally try my hand at something I’ve always wanted
to do. And my life is richer now, for having taken that first step!
I am most proud of a story I wrote in high school. It was published in a state literary journal, as well as in a local newspaper when I participated in a “gifted & talented” writing workshop. Both times, adults in the community approached me to have it included in the publications. Oddly, while the story deals with childhood abuse, no adult ever inquired as to the source of my ideas. I’ve been thinking about expanding that piece, 20 years later, now that I’ve returned to writing, but so far, I find I can not read beyond the first sentence.
My proudest writing moment dates back to an assignment I had in college, where we had to write about a topic or a person we didn’t understand. Throughout my late teens, I had a hard time coping with my father’s OCPD, along with the fact that he disappeared out of my life without thinking he really did anything wrong. I took on this project and turned into a journal about his life, from his perspective–the perspective of someone with severe OCPD. Not only did it help me cope, but the journal turned out beautifully.
I think my proudest writing accomplishment was my first clip in a regional parenting magazine. It was about tutoring for teenagers and I was really proud to be officially published. I had two articles published in a national coaching journal that I interned at, but they didn’t have my bylineThis was the first time I had my name attached to my writing in a glossy print magazi9ne.
My proudest writing accomplishment, to date, is a children’s book that has been floating around in my head for years. I finally put it to paper and am starting to submit it to literary agents this Spring. Stork’s Favorite Cookies is a story that I love because even though I wrote it I am always left with happy tears at the sweet message of family and acceptance that accidentally became of a funny little idea. I am so glad I sat down and fleshed out that funny little idea.
My proudest writing moment happened when I was in elementary school. I just felt like being outside and writing one day after school so that is what I did. I wrote a poem for my mom. That night at the dinner table she read the poem to my family and I was so proud. The poem stayed posted on the refrigerator for a long time. At one point I was required to write a poem for school and I used this poem. The teacher read my poem outloud to the class as a good example. Again, I was thrilled. These small successes just increased my desire to write and are really the first times my writing was read to an audience. I still have the poem memorized to this day.
I feel super lucky to be having a hard time picking just the one proudest moment. I think winning first place in the country (for my paper’s division) for most humorous column was an unexpected and extremely proud moment. And then I went back to stuffing and folding diapers 🙂
My proudest writing accomplishment is a children’s book, “Ryan is Moving Away” that was self-published two years ago. When I previously sold real estate, I tried to find books to give to client’s children that were having a difficult time with the move. I couldn’t find any I liked, hence the vow to write one. The writing of the book was a lot of fun. The marketing has not been as much fun. Boy, could I use some tips.
My proudest writing accomplishment is the fact that I am actually still writing and haven’t given up on my dreams of being published. I started writing around six years ago. I’ve had many articles and some poems published, but still am waiting for one of my children’s manuscripts to be picked up and published.
My proudest writing accomplishment is certainly not about my best writing. I was taking one of Christina’s classes a few years ago, and because of the encouragement from her and my classmates I worked up the nerve to submit an article to a regional magazine. There was no pay for that story, but seeing my article and byline in a nice glossy magazine was priceless. So my first is my proudest, because I stepped out of the comfort zone and tried.
Getting a letter to the editor of The Christian Century, a liberal think tank weekly magazine whose primary audience is theologians and ministers, was probably my proudest. In the September 9-16, 1992 issue, a minister in the same geographical jurisdiction as the church I belonged to, had a lead cover article published called “Not Global Villagers, But Global Voyeurs.” I took his thinking one step further and, in the days of snail mail, fired off a response in which I said in part, “…I suggest that we begin to see ourselves not as global voyeurs but as global voyageurs with our fellow planet dwellers.” My letter was published as the lead letter in the November 11, 1992 issue.
That’s easy. In 2007 I entered my essay “Got Milk” in Christina’s Writer Mama contest sponsored by Writer’s Digest. It took second place. That was the first and last time I entered a creative writing contest. Why mess with success?
In a different way, I’m proud of the first technical article I wrote in 1989 for Computer Technology Review on a revolutionary new design for hard disk drives. I interviewed the inventor – a senior design engineer who looked like Albert Einstein and was just as brilliant. Thankfully I recorded the interview because I didn’t understand a word he was saying. When I transcribed the tape I had to look up almost every other word and look up words in the definition, too. It took lots of tears and more than 20 hours to write a 2,000-word article, for which I got paid for eight. But the money wasn’t important. I accomplished something well beyond what I thought I could do. That technical article launched my career. In the following years when I was faced with a difficult project, I’d remind myself that if I could conquer that writing assignment, I could do anything.
My proudest writing accomplishment was in October 2010 when I
wrote an article about a local car club. My father is a member as are two of my
uncles, and many of my parent’s friends. At the time, the car club was 58 years
old. I was writing a historical piece about their origin and the historical
timeline of the club. It was so important to me to get everything correct. I
put in ten hours of interviews for a 900 word article. I wanted the voice of
the club and their history to be 100% authentic and accurate. I wanted every
word to honor & respect them; this club is a true example of loyalty and
long lasting friendships.
At the weekly car club meeting, following my article’s publication
in the local newspaper, many of the men showed up with extra copies of my
article to pass around because they were so impressed with the article…when
my dad told me that, it was the proudest moment in my writing career…these
men hold their history and stories very dear to their heart, that they shared
them with me and let me publish them was such an honor.
Guess what, Deb? You win!
I win? I’m a winner? Doing the happy dance!
Way to go Deb!