Ahoy, me hearties! Carter Humbolt in the house, coming to you from sunny St. Augustine, Florida. Because of my pirate obsession, all my friends usually refer to me as Captain Carter. But on December 3rd, with the publication of a book about the amazing treasure hunting adventures that my friends and I (barely) survived, the world will come to know me as… wait for it… LACKBEARD. Seeing as how we’ve still got a few months before Common Deer Press drops Lackbeard on society, I thought I’d take a moment to properly introduce myself and my crew of rogues and scallywags. For all you salty dog statisticians, I’m 12 years old, stand two stacked powder kegs high, weigh roughly seven stones, and I’m w

Happy Friday, everyone! Since we’re entering the last weekend before Halloween, I hope you’re all getting the finishing touches on costumes and enjoying some spooky entertainment. I know I’m hoping to fit in some pumpkin carving between literary events and other commitments. If you can tear yourself away from horror movies and costume prep, check out what we found around the web this week! On Writing about Childhood Fans of kid lit might be interested in Nicole Rivas’s Lit Hub piece on writing about childhood. Rivas discusses her own writing before turning to other authors who’ve drawn on childhood for artistic content. How Fiction Gets Murderers Wrong Global News recently spoke with ex-cop-

SERGEANT MEGATRON 5000: TODAY I AM INVESTIGATING THE PERSONALITY OF DETHBERT'S GREAT AUNT GRUMBELOID. THANK YOU FOR JOINING ME, GREAT AUNT GRUMBELOID. GREAT AUNT GRUMBELOID: No worries. There wasn't much on the telly box this evening. SERGEANT MEGATRON 5000: MY NAME IS 22 CHARACTERS LONG— INCLUDING SPACES—SO SOME PEOPLE CALL ME "SARGE" FOR SHORT. ARE YOU KNOWN BY ANY OTHER NAME? GREAT AUNT GRUMBELOID: My name is only 21 characters long—including spaces—so I've never felt the need to shorten it, no. SERGEANT MEGATRON 5000: PITY. MOVING SWIFTLY ON, MY FAVOURITE DESSERT IS RASPBERRY PI. WHAT IS YOURS? GREAT AUNT GRUMBELOID: I love crustard tarts—they're so crumbly and sweet. Plus, they're nice

Way back on August 27th, I promised you that I would write a post with tips for a memorable launch party. I also promised you a summary graphic that captures the key points in a checklist from our four-part series "How to Successfully Launch a Book." This post fulfills both of those commitments! You can download your infographic, so you'll have it to refer to whenever you like. And now, on to planning a memorable and successful launch party. Two to Three Months in Advance: 1. Choose date and time of launch party When doing this consider the audience for the book. For instance, launching a children’s book might mean scheduling your launch on a weekend day so that kids, parents and grandpar

Welcome back to Around the Web, wherein I share what I, and the other CDP folks, have been reading online this week. I hope you’ve had a fantastic week and that you’re ready for some weekend reading! Forest of Reading Our publicity assistant Siobhan offered a wonderful list of spooky reads for Halloween, but if you or someone you know is looking for some more kid lit reading recommendations, then I suggest checking out the Forest of Reading nominees. There’s lots of cool books for all different ages and interests, so you’re sure to find something that fits your needs. Reflecting on Literature’s #MeToo Problem The #MeToo movement has resulted in a great deal of conversation and debate across

As Fall arrives, and the leaves turn colours, Halloween is quickly approaching. We at Common Deer Press love this time of year. And to celebrate it, we've gathered up the 25 Best Kids' Books for Halloween. Prepare to hide under the covers and keep the lights on with these spooky reads! The Boatman by Kat Hawthorne To cope with the death of a family member, Isabel (Izzy) Wixon retreats into a fantasy world where she meets ghosts and a talkative ventriloquist’s dummy and befriends a gentlemanly spider. But a terrifying foe arrives. The Boatman lures children and traps them in a sleep illness that never lets them wake. It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown by Charles M. Schulz Charlie Brown and

In earlier articles, I have talked about the importance of defining a niche and setting up a blog with its own domain name. In this article, I will focus on three key factors for storytelling or blogging success, namely Content, Consistency, and Community. First, I want to enter the world of social media, as we haven’t touched much upon this very essential area yet. To be or not to be on social media Well, that is the question. Being on social media is not a requirement, however, I think it is very difficult to not be present on at least one or two social media channels if you want to blog successfully. Being seen and read today is very much connected with being part of social media communit

A.T. Balsara's young adult novel The Great & the Small continues to gain recognition. The Great & the Small has already been included in the Spring Issue of Best Books for Kids & Teens, been a finalist in the 12th Annual National Indie Excellence Awards, and earned 2nd Place in the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards (Sci-Fi & Fantasy category, and YA category). Now, Balsara's novel about rats and rebellion has won a silver medal in the Moonbeam Awards! The Moonbeam Awards "are intended to bring increased recognition to exemplary children’s books and their creators, and to celebrate children’s books and life-long reading." Be sure to check out the full list of award winners. And congratulations to

Hello everyone and happy Friday! Today, as usual, I’ve got some interesting links for you to check out! If you're interested in language, law, and books, read on. Voldemorting You’ve heard of search engine optimisation, right? Well, Voldemorting might be its opposite. Voldemorting—which comes from Harry Potter’s dark lord—is a phenomenon in which writers avoid names or terms by using an alternative. If you like word play (or just want to know what people are talking about on social media), check out linguist Gretchen McCulloch’s explanation of Voldemorting on Wired. Copyright Law Myths This might be dry for some of you, but if you’re a creator you might be interested in some copyright inform

In my last article, I gave a brief presentation of myself, how I was born and raised in Sweden and from there ended up in Florence, and how I started to write about wine. Today, I will delve more deeply into how I got started with my blog and the mistakes that I learned from. It is all a learning curve when you start out, nobody has the answers from the beginning. However, I think that it is crucial to ask yourself the right questions and be curious. This helps you try new things and find out what you like, how you want to structure your blogging, and build your personal brand. Finding a niche or the niche finding you Today’s world of blogging, content writing, and social media is very noisy

Hello, everyone! And happy Friday! Once again I’m back to share what I’ve been reading Around the Web lately. I hope you find these links interesting, fun, helpful, or a combination of all three. A Writing Resource Hey, writers! You know how important editors are, right? Well do you also know that many editors are online sharing their expertise? Louise Harnby is one such editor and she has all kinds of posts on writing, editing, and publishing. Her website is one I have bookmarked because there are always new things to learn there. African Sci-Fi Writer Tade Thompson addresses discussions of African science fiction on Lit Hub. Thompson talks about how movies like Black Panther have propelled

Let me present myself; my name is Katarina Andersson. I am originally from Ystad in Sweden, but I live in Florence, Italy, and have for almost 20 years. Today I am writing, live streaming, and in general talking about wine. However, I did not originally go to Florence to write about wine. Now you might wonder how I ended up in Florence. Well, it all started on a dark and stormy night…. Joking! It really all started thanks to my passion for history and my curiosity to try and do something different. In the coming articles, I will talk about questions related to wine blogging, how to get started, my experiences, how social media fits into it all, the building of a personal brand, and much more