Picture books are a misunderstood art and I want to take you behind the scenes to demystify the process by taking you from idea to print. When you're the creator, writer, and producer of an illustrated book some people think that you can sit down write, draw, revise, and poof! out comes a finished product in a few days or weeks. That's not so, the creative process for picture books and the work involved is substantial, and considerably different from traditional, non-illustrated books. To see exactly how, let's look at the creative process for one of my recent picture books: Pirates Stole My Booty.
Recently by William Stanek
I've been a writer in my heart since I was old enough to hold a pencil and a professional writer for nearly 20 years (writing as William Stanek and Robert Stanek). Over the years many would-be writers have asked...
Borders and Barnes & Noble used to be great. The #1 and #2 booksellers in the U.S., building out new superstores like they were going to grow forever. Three years ago, a new Borders was built in Olympia. It's...
Apple officially unveiled the iPad 2 today, and I did pretty good on my feature/change predictions. The iPad 2 is indeed thinner (by 33%) and lighter (by 15%) than the iPad 1 with a depth of .34" and weight...
Last year I blogged quite a bit about Apple's iPad. I introduced iPad, explored it's features, and examined a networking problem iPad users were experiencing. Though it was a tongue-in-cheek title of the blog exploring iPad's features, I didn't...
Ever had a problem with an app run via a browser window? You're not alone. In this entry, I share troubleshooting techniques. The Sirius XM media player app, for example, runs via your web browsers and relies on Windows Media Player. On my computer, running Windows 7 64-bit, the app made various calls that Internet Explorer 8 just did not like.
I write as William Stanek and Robert Stanek. My story may help you understand writers and independents a little better. As a technology journalist, I've written for PC Magazine, Dr. Dobbs, TechNet Magazine and a variety of other leading magazines....
I wrote the Bugville Critters stories as bedtime stories for my own children. The books are about life, family, friends, and our world and they're meant to instruct and entertain. My children enjoyed the stories so much they urged me...
Let's embark on what I'd like to call "Adventures in Printer, Scanner, and Fax Installation." Last Thanksgiving, I did something I rarely do: I went shopping on Black Friday. Picked up some great buys on USB flash drives, SDHC cards and a fantastic deal on a HP Officejet All-in-one. By now installing new devices, hardware and even entire systems is old hat around my house.
(pdf download) Know the classic rock song that says "I did a bad, bad thing, a real bad thing"? Well, Tunnel Vision is a bad, bad thing, and this article hopefully will help you avoid it when you deploy and...
