Projects

I am working on three different picture book projects, and can't wait to get in on a few group projects before long! Once again, these ideas are my intellectual property. Please no stealing! However, if these ideas inspire you, feel free to run with it!

1. The Toad That Glowed- an unexpected adventure, following a toad who swallows a firefly and is exposed to all sorts of predators and perils during his nocturnal wanderings, thanks to her glowing bum inside his belly

2. The Woman Who Lived in a Shoe- a poem about how Eve came to live in a shoe, and where all those children came from!

3. Penelope and her Perfect Parachute- An alphabet adventure, wherein Penelope travels around the world alphabetically and by parachute, encountering creatures and activities that are alliterative with the place she lands.

Advice from 12x12 in 2012 Tara Lazar

 So I’m going to tell you three things about endings that I wish I knew back then.

1. Wrap presents—not endings—with neat little bows.
   When in life is any solution so tidy? Crossing all your i’s and dotting all your t’s—strike that, reverse it—tends to feel unsatisfying because it’s too easy, too clean. It’s not honest. So be careful about making everything scream “happily ever after.” Leave a little opening for your readers to crawl through and explore what happens next. Let their imagination tie up the loose ends.
2.  The circular ending can be clever and fun.
   As you approach the conclusion of your story, re-read the beginning. Is there any way to echo the opening, to bring the characters back to where they started, but have them arrive as changed beings? They’ve taken an emotional journey and they’re not the same characters they were a few hundred words ago, so what about the beginning has changed at the end? In my picture book THE MONSTORE, one of the final lines is the same as the opening line, with just a few key word changes that make it totally different. And the reader can imagine another story jumping off from this old-but-new sentence.
3. The twist extends the story beyond the story.
   Bringing a twist to the end means you’re adding something unexpected that leaves room for more story to happen once the book is closed. Remember point #1 above? The twist tangles the loose ends. Think of CLICK, CLACK, MOO. Was the story over when the cows and chickens got their electric blankets? Nooooo. The clever duck never brought the typewriter back! And the flock demanded a diving board! Hilarious! So think about what little twist you can tack onto your story to give a final guffaw. A story that ends on a smile guarantees it will be read again and again.