The project is a fundraiser for the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction

LACONIA—The Janice Beetle Books Challenge Team is inviting children in the Lakes Region to submit stories or artwork to be published in an anthology that will be sold to raise money for the Greater Lakes Region Children’s Auction.

Children from preschool through grade 12 can take part. Details are as follows:

What to submit: We are seeking typed short stories, poems, reflections, or other pieces of writing, such as an excerpt from a script or play. Also welcome are drawings, illustrations, or sketches by children. 

How to submit: 

• Pieces of writing should be sent as a Word document, and artwork as PNG or JPG files. 
• Attach the stories and artwork to an email sent to janice@beetlepress.com. 
• If you do not have access to email, handwritten stories or original artwork can be mailed to Janice Beetle at 108 Hickory Stick Lane, Laconia, NH 03246, or dropped off there as well. Please note that materials will not be returned. 
• Please indicate the name of your child, age, and city/town or residence, along with the school or organization your child attends.

Entry fee: There is a $5 submission fee per piece of writing or art and a cap of up to four submissions per child. Fees can be paid:

• Directly to the fundraiser on Give Gab at www.givegab.com/p2p/2022-challenge/janice-beetle.
• Mailed or dropped off at the above address. Cash or checks welcome. 

“We want access for all,” Beetle said. “If the fee or any of the guidelines present a hardship for a child or family, please email me at janice@beetlepress.com to discuss.”

All stories and artwork must be submitted by Wednesday, Aug. 31. 

All stories and art will be compiled in an anthology that will be sold for $25 to raise additional funds for the Children’s Auction. Books will be available by late fall (and they’d make a great Christmas present!)

For more information, email Janice@beetlepress.com. 

The post The Janice Beetle Books 2022 Challenge Team Seeks Children’s Stories and Artwork for a Published Collection of Work appeared first on Beetle Press.

I’ve always been a big believer in the idea that things happen for a reason. And if we are tapped into our hearts and paying attention, we can pair what we’re noticing with our own intuition and take new steps—or big leaps.

I’ve reinvented myself many times in this way—sometimes, accidentally; other times, intentionally.

Here’s the most recent set of events that is accidentally leading me somewhere super cool.

My daughter Sally gave birth 12 weeks premature to my first granddaughter, Phoibe, who weighed in at just over a pound when she was born—and is now four pounds and going strong! 

Because of the coronavirus, I can’t visit Phoibe. I can only watch her on a webcam I call Phoibe TV.

I recalled that Jacques’ two sons were also born premature. He’d once told me he read to them in utero. The first time Jacques visited the NICU, he heard his children wailing as he walked down the hall. When he entered the room, he said, “Hi boys,” and they stopped crying.

The recollection gave me the idea to record myself reading to Phoibe. I wanted her to begin to connect with me, get to know my voice, too.

I started reading every picture book I owned, taping myself with the VoiceMemos app on my phone. Books by Dr. Seuss. Books about Little Critter and Amelia Bedelia. Frog and Toad. I read one each morning and sent it in a group text to Sally, my daughter Molly—who has also been reading to Phoibe daily—my grandson Eli (who has not been listening because he’s almost 12, and he’s too cool), and my son-in-law Tommy. Sally and Tommy alternate daily visits to Phoibe, and they play Molly’s and my recordings.

When the stay-at-home order was extended by the Massachusetts governor about a month ago, and it was determined there would be no more school until the end of the year, and no more day care until the end of June, I got to wondering how I might help parents at home by providing some relief with their children. I thought, “Oh! I’ll upload all those recordings to my website, so any child who wants to can listen.” Thankfully, I remembered there is such a thing as copyright laws. 

“So, what can I do?” I wondered again. 

Then, I remembered all the little poems I wrote when Sally and Molly were growing up. Fancying myself a bit of a Shel Silverstein, I wrote all kinds of ditties as birthday and holiday gifts. I crashed around the house, opening closets and drawers, finding a few but not all of them. My sister-in-law, who lives in the same neighborhood in New Hampshire where Jacques and I own a home, walked over and peeked in the totes in our attic, finding them. 

My long-ago intern, Shannon Grossman, who has worked with me ever since she graduated from Westfield State, drove to retrieve them and type them, and she emailed them to me.

While I waited for Shannon to get the bulk of the work to me, I tested out the poems I had in hand by sending them to the tweenage Eli for his feedback. His rulings:

Yes, I would listen to these. I would listen to all of them, except for “Cluck, Cluck.” That one gets weird at the end. I liked how they were not too short and not too long, and how they were funny. I think you should talk a little more about your writing background. I think having an activity gives kids something fun and constructive to do.

Beautiful. I was impressed by how thorough he was—and I should admit here that I paid him for this task and told him I wouldn’t fork out the money if he was not thorough and honest.

I sent the same poems—sans “Cluck, Cluck”—to Eli’s brother, my stepson, Darrian, who is a talented artist. I asked Darrian to illustrate the poems, and he came back with the most adorable drawings.

During summer vacation, I will upload my poems on my site, one a day; I’m not sure yet how many days’ worth I will have; I just got them yesterday morning from Shannon and have some work to do! 

I will read the poems and offer an activity to go with each one. I’m calling them Poem Pods, and I’m pretty excited about them! They’ll be posted on JaniceBeetleBooks.

I’m also compiling my favorites into a children’s book, which Darrian will illustrate.

Please stay tuned. I’d love it if you started to spread the word. Consider sharing this blog and the links to the pods when I post them. 

Help me entertain little children in this time when I am so worried about them!

The post How I Accidentally Found a Way to Help Parents and Children appeared first on Beetle Press.

Joan spent much of her childhood reading and making up stories for her dog. As she got older, she became unhappy and introverted. In high school, she discovered the world of journalism.  “It changed my life,” she says. “Instead of looking into myself, I looked outside of myself and focused on other people. I got a front seat view of life. Journalism saved me.”

Over the past 30 years, Joan has contributed much to journalism. She has been telling stories about others in newsprint and also in her own books, many of them dedicated to children.

At Beetle Press, Janice has many connections to Joan. For many years, when Janice critiqued children’s books for the Daily Hampshire Gazette, Janice had the pleasure of interviewing Joan and reading and reviewing her books.

Most recently, the interview tables were turned; Joan got to question Janice for a piece Joan is writing about business networking and development for the Boston Globe. (We’ll let you know when that is published.)

Joan recommends that all writers find themselves a community. Also, she says, “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Instead of obsessing about one thing, I have different projects to work on. I look at my writing as a stove. I always have two things on the front burners and two things on the back burners, simmering.”

While a stint as editor for her high school paper got Joan interested in journalism, she majored in history at Boston University instead. “Journalism is modern history,” she says. “I’m a geek for history.”

After graduating in 1980, Joan took a freelance writing class that took her back into the journalism realm. While working at a community newspaper, she met her soul sister, Ann Malaspina, and they both became freelancers for The Boston Globe in 1982. Over the years since, Joan has freelanced on and off for the Globe, writing for a variety of different sections.

Joan married a fellow writer, Fred Contrada, a longtime reporter for The Springfield Republican, and the couple had two children. As Joan read to them, she became fascinated with children’s literature. She began writing books for kids, with a focus on reluctant readers and those with reading disabilities.

“I was a very slow reader and still am,” she says. “I loved reading, but I couldn’t read too much without getting a headache. So, I feel like I can relate to that kind of audience. I think my style of writing is natural for their needs and mine as a writer. It’s been a good fit.”

In recent years, Joan earned a master’s in fine arts from Vermont College of Fine Arts in July 2015. While there, she worked on a draft for a picture book about Sylvester Graham who invented the graham cracker. (It’s the same Sylvester Graham that the restaurant in Northampton, Massachusetts, Sylvester’s, is named for. The book release party, to be announced at a later date, will be held there and copies will be sold at the restaurant.)

Joan is currently working on an essay for the March issue of a monthly magazine called The Writer. The essay is titled “Do Writer’s Need Thicker Skins?”

Joan has also helped coordinate The Write Angles Conference for writers off and on for over 20 years, and she will gear up soon for next year’s event, the date for which will be posted soon on http://writeanglesconference.com.

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