Welcome KATIE DAVIS, our guest author/illustrator for 2011 NaPiBoWriWee Day Three!

Children’s author/illustrator Katie Davis has published nine books and appears monthly on the ABC affiliate show, Good Morning Connecticut, recommending great books for kids. She produces Brain Burps About Books, a podcast about kidlit, a blog and monthly newsletter. Katie has volunteered in a maximum security prison teaching Writing for Children and over the last dozen years has presented at schools and writing conferences internationally. She’s a 2010 Cybils judge and has also judged the Golden Kite, smartwriters.com, and Frontiers in Writing awards. Recently Katie was selected to be on the Advisory Board for the Brooke Jackman Foundation, a literacy-based charity. Katie’s acclaimed books include the middle grade novel The Curse of Addy McMahon, and picture books Kindergarten Rocks!, Mabel the Tooth Fairy and How She Got Her Job, Party Animals, Scared Stiff, Who Hoots?, I Hate To Go To Bed!, and Who Hops? Her latest book is LITTLE CHICKEN’S BIG DAY with Jerry Davis (McElderry, Spring 2011). It received a starred review from Booklist, who wrote:  “With minimal text, simple lines and shapings, and just the right amount of emotional heft, this book is perfect for the age group (and parents will love it, too). Though not a lot goes on, every bit of it is relevant to a child’s day, and it’s especially engaging when the activities are done by such appealing characters set against expanses of white and saturated pages of blue or green. Utterly simple and utterly adorable.” For more information on Katie, please visit her website here: http://www.katiedavis.com

Katie graciously agreed to autographed a copy of Little Chicken’s Big Day for this year’s prize giveaway. Thank you, Katie!

(Keep reading for the rest of our Q&A with Katie Davis after the jump…)

Q&A WITH KATIE DAVIS

— If you weren’t a writer/artist, what would you be?

I would be a gospel singer. I can’t sing so it would be a very hard job.

— Tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know.

I was named after a six-toed woman.

— What was the most unusual job you ever had?

I’ve had a lot of unusual jobs so I’ve got to go with the grossest. This would be when I was a janitor in a disco the morning after. Do you have any idea how disgusting a job that is? Worst part was picking cigarette butts out of the urinals with …. wait for it … a fork. And it wasn’t a specially designated fork either.

— LOL! I’ll never look at a fork the same way again! 🙂 If you could give one piece of writing advice for our NaPiBoWriWee participants, what would it be?

Be proud that you are taking this challenge! You are writing a book. Whether or not it gets published, whether or not it’s even any good. What you accomplishing is hard. Repeat after me: YAY, YOU! No, seriously. Say it right now. Out loud.

And no rolling of the eyes allowed.

And remember to be kind to yourself. Don’t judge your work until the end of the month. Get it done, and then turn your critical eye to the writing. And don’t translate “critical” into, “This sucks!” And if you do think that, don’t toss it. Put it away and look at it fresh in a month or two or six.

— That’s really inspirational. Thanks Katie! So… I’ve asked this question before because it’s a big deal right now in the news. Given the changing book industry with the advent of e-books and the rollercoaster economy, do you still think picture books have a place for tomorrow’s children? Will people still be reading traditional picture books in the future?

I was going to say “of course people will still be reading real picture books, because no one wants to cuddle up with a machine!” but things are changing so fast, who knows? One thing I am absolutely positive about is that storytelling is as old as mankind so regardless of how the stories are told, we will always need good ones.

So get back to work.

— Yes ma’am! 🙂 Speaking of work, when you write and illustrate your own picture book, do you write the story first or do you come up with a certain image first? I’m curious to hear this process.

I’d never had an image before a word prior to my book Mabel the Tooth Fairy and How She Got Her Job but then I got a vision of Mabel and I heard how her voice sounded and worked from there. However, usually as I write, images are hitting me with every word, so it’s simultaneous.

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Thank you so much Katie for your generosity in answering our questions. For NaPiBoWriWee participants, you might win an autographed copy of Katie’s Little Chicken’s Big Day at this year’s drawing, too! We look forward to your comments on Katie. Until then… Happy Writing! WRITE LIKE YOU MEAN IT!