This episode features founder of 12 x 12 Picture Book Writing Challenge, Julie Hedlund. Julie is an award-winning children’s book author and a regular speaker at SCBWI and other industry events. Her latest book, MY LOVE FOR YOU IS THE SUN (Little Bahalia Publishing, 2014) has been hailed as belonging on the shelf “between Guess How Much I Love You and Goodnight Moon.” Her book A TROOP IS A GROUP OF MONKEYS (Little Bahalia, 2013) was also published as an interactive storybook app and received the 2014 Independent Book Publisher’s Association Benjamin Franklin Digital Gold Award. When she is not acting like a monkey while spending time with her two children, Julie is busy writing more books and visiting with the kids who read them at schools, bookstores and libraries.
We discuss the ins and outs of 12 x 12, which is now going on it’s 7th year. Julie originally wanted members to, “Get those ideas down on paper so you have something to work with,” but over the years, 12 x 12, “Grew into more than a challenge. It became a community and now a family.” We even hear a bit of Julie’s personal journey. Did Julie choose the literary life? Or did it choose her?