Courtney Dawson
26 Days of Facing the Chicken Exit: DAYS 8-10
Today, we continue the countdown to the release of my upcoming picture book, BRAVER THAN BRAVE, illustrated by Eunji Jung, and published by Capstone Editions, a Capstone Imprint. I present Days 8-10 of 26 Days of Facing the Chicken Exit!
DAY 8: Picture Book Character
Diante in BRAVE IN THE WATER does (spoiler alert!) finally put his face in the water instead of running away.
~by Stephanie Wildman, illustrated by Jenni Feidler Aguilar
DAY 9: Casey Lyall, author of A SPOONFUL OF FROGS
“My chicken exit story is that I was in a haunted house with three of my friends and we were all hanging onto each other so tight none of us could even make it to escape through the chicken exit. So I guess sometimes you need your friends to help you be brave. 😄”
DAY 10: Picture Book Character
Shailey, from HELP WANTED: MUST LOVE BOOKS, faced down her chicken exit by standing up for herself to find a new bedtime storyteller. ~by Janet Sumner Johnson & illustrated by Courtney Dawson
There we have Days 8-10! In celebration of the upcoming release of BRAVER THAN BRAVE, I’ve got two giveaways going on right now. One on Twitter, which you can enter HERE. And one on Instagram, which you can enter HERE. They both open through July 23rd, and they are both open to wherever Book Depository delivers. Good luck!
Check out other days of Facing the Chicken Exit:
DAY 1: The Legend of the Chicken Exit
Speak up:
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Brave in the Water, Braver than Brave, Casey Lyall, Chicken Exit, Courtney Dawson, Jenni Feidler-Aguilar, release day countdown, Stephanie WildmanLost Resume #5
Welcome to the final day of my special series of Lost Resumes!
To celebrate the release of my picture book, HELP WANTED, MUST LOVE BOOKS (illustrated by Courtney Dawson), on Monday, March 2nd (just 3 days from now!), I’m sharing 5 Lost Resumes from characters who both did and didn’t make it into my story.
I hope you enjoyed the other Lost Resumes. But if you missed, I’ve included a link to all of the resumes at the bottom, so be sure to check them out.
Drum roll, please, for the final addition! Today, I present you Lost Resume #5: Rumpelstiltskin
I confess, this one makes me giggle-laugh so hard. I know! I totally crack me up. It is so different than all the other resumes, but Rumpelstiltskin is quite the character, and he likes to do things his own way. This is the only version of his that made sense. And secret? Underneath that big black rectangle is his actual name. Yep. I wanted it to be authentic.
Another secret? I had to give Shailey a last name when I created this resume. She didn’t have one before that. I know, I know, characterization and all that. But it was a corner I felt okay with cutting.
The only hard part about this particular resume, was not using the Shrek version of Rumpelstiltskin (either of them . . . you know he’s featured twice, right? Feel free to watch them all again. In fact, I just might do that myself).
Once again, while I don’t know why my publisher didn’t choose this resume, I have my guesses. Rumpelstiltskin is right up there with Grandma Sweets. It’s a bit dark to be thinking about a goblin stealing away a newborn baby, and since HELP WANTED is a book for young children, they probably don’t even want to be thinking about their future children at all! I get that. I do.
But in the mean time, I’m just over here chuckling away.
Now, there are two final notes I need to make:
First, I dressed up these Lost Resumes for this series, but when I sent them to my publisher, they were nothing more than words in a Word document. Just in case you were wondering. 😊
Second, there is the little matter of the replaced characters. For those who have been dying to find out all week, here you go:
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves replaced the Farmer in the Dell. He was my absolute favorite, and I’m so sad he didn’t make the cut. But let’s just say that the stinky old cheese was a big problem for Shailey.
Captain Hook replaced the Pied Piper. Since the Pied Piper stems from a true story, he was deemed too creepy. But he made things a little too lively for Shailey’s liking, anyway. 😳
I hope you enjoyed this series! If you want to see more resumes, you can find FOUR more as the backmatter in HELP WANTED, MUST LOVE BOOKS. The perfect ones to match the rest of the book.
Don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a copy of my book, and a copy of a book by one of my fellow Debut Crew members! You have until Saturday, February 28th, at midnight EST.
And if you want to check out the other resumes, follow the links:
Lost Resume #3
Lost Resume #4
Have a great day!
~~~
You can purchase HELP WANTED, MUST LOVE BOOKS on bookshop.org, which helps support local indie bookstores. Or if you don’t have a local indie, you can always find it on Amazon or B&N.
Speak up:
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behind-the-scenes, Contract, Courtney Dawson, Help wanted must love books, Lost Resume, RumpelstiltskinLost Resume #4
Welcome back to my special series of Lost Resumes!
To celebrate the release of my picture book, HELP WANTED, MUST LOVE BOOKS (illustrated by Courtney Dawson), on Monday, March 2nd (next week!), I’m sharing 5 Lost Resumes from characters who both did and didn’t make it into my story.
I hope you enjoyed the first three Lost Resumes. But if you missed, I’ve included a link to all of the resumes at the bottom, so be sure to check them out.
Today we are moving on to Lost Resume #4: King Midas!
I had to do a bit of research for this one. I mean, who didn’t grow up hearing the story of King Midas? But turns out, I was pretty clueless. I’m certain I must have learned his story came from the Greek Myths at some point. But adult me had completely forgotten that tidbit.
When I mentioned this at the dinner table, my kids (ages 16, 13, and 10) went off on a deep discussion of a plethora of minor gods, comparing the Roman versions to the Greek, and I clearly need to start reading more Rick Riordan. My husband and I just sat there with mouths hanging open. Okay, not really, because we were eating dinner, but mentally, our mouths were definitely hanging open.
As I keep saying, I don’t actually know why my publisher did or didn’t choose each resume. But I feel fairly confident that King Midas didn’t make it in because he is from the Greek Myths, and not from the fairy and folk tales they were going for. And I suppose it’s also possible that this resume isn’t as funny as the others. Maybe. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Be sure to come back tomorrow when I share Lost Resume #5! The final one. In the meantime, don’t forget to enter my giveaway for a chance to win a copy of my book, and a copy of a book by one of my fellow Debut Crew members! And if you want to check out the other resumes, follow the links:
Lost Resume #5
Have a great day!
~~~
You can purchase HELP WANTED, MUST LOVE BOOKS on bookshop.org, which helps support local indie bookstores. Or if you don’t have a local indie, you can always find it on Amazon or B&N.
Speak up:
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behind-the-scenes, Courtney Dawson, Help wanted must love books, King Midas, Lost Resume, Rick Riordan, The Midas Touch, writingCover Reveal!!! – HELP WANTED: MUST LOVE BOOKS
Today is my picture book cover reveal!!!
I feel like I say this a lot, but being an author is like constantly riding a rollercoaster, full of ups and downs. There is a ton of rejection, but there are also moments that make your heart flutter. Seeing your cover for the first time is one of those.
With my middle grade cover, I knew that the cover was the only image I was going to get for my book. But with a picture book, the cover is a hint at all the lovely things to come! Thirty-two pages of beautiful, glorious pictures that represent someone’s vision of this world I created.
My debut picture book, HELP WANTED: MUST LOVE BOOKS, will be released into the world on March 1, 2020! I can’t wait for you all to see the whole thing (I just love it!), but in the meantime, here is a hint of things to come. The promise of a story that makes my heart happy. I hope it will make yours happy, too.
The illustrator is the amazing Courtney Dawson. You should follow that link to see her amazing art work! She’s so talented!
So without further ado . . .
just
follow
the
little
dots
and
ta da!!!
…
…
…
…
my cover!!!
I hope you love it as much as I do! Shailey turned out so perfect, and I love, love, love that you can read the titles on a bunch of those books on the bookshelf. The colors are so fun, and that title font (!!!). *happy sigh*
Thanks for stopping by, and I’d love to hear about what grabs your attention when looking at covers.
Where to Find it:
Help Wanted: Must Love Books is up on Goodreads, so feel free to add it to your “Want to Read” list!
And holy cow! Just this second I discovered that it’s also live on Amazon, which means you can now pre-order it!! (no cover there yet, but AAAAHHHH!) [And just so you know, this would be another one of those exciting moments I was talking about at the beginning that makes your heart flutter.]