A "Beary" Funny Story...Interview with Sharon Giltrow and Book Giveaway-First of the Month Book Release

By Janie Reinart

Sharon's Little Bear reading his Daddy Bear a story.

This is a "beary" funny story. A real life incident sent our guest author Sharon Giltrow, an early childhood teacher, on the exciting path of writing a special how-to picture book story.

By Sharon Giltrow
EKBooks Australia
Booktopia Australia's Local Bookstore
Amazon USA

One night, Daddy Bear (Sharon's husband) was putting their son to bed. Daddy Bear belly-flopped into their son's bed and said, "Tonight you are putting me to bed." And the rest is bedtime history.

Art by Katrin Dreiling

Welcome, Sharon we are thrilled to have you here to share your story. Congratulations on your debut picture book. Let's snuggle in and start the interview.

1. Who is your agent? 

     

 No-one yet.

 2. What is your favorite part of the story?

  My favorite part of the story is when Daddy Bear interrupts Little Bear and asks,  

    

  'Why don't ducks have arms?'

                 and 

  ‘Do sharks sneeze?’ 

   Such good questions and very typical of small children’s inquisitive minds.  

   

Art by Katrin Dreiling

3. How long did it take to write? Get to a publisher?

I wrote the first draft in June 2017. Revised it for four months. Then submitted it 
November 2017, which was too soon. Put into the drawer. Took it out of the 
drawer in June 2018, revised it again. Submitted it to EK Books and signed the 
contract in August 2018. So short answer four months to write and one year to 
get an offer to publish. Then two years after acquisition, it was released, in May 
2020.

4. What is your writing routine?

 I have a monthly schedule where week one and week two of the month I write a 
 new picture book. Then week three I revise a previous manuscript and critique. 
 Week four if I have a manuscript ready, I submit to publishers and agents. I        
 teach three days a week so my writing days are Monday and Friday. After dropping    
 the children at school, I go to my home office and try to write for at     
 least an hour. I am a member of a picture book accountability group and we       
 have a spreadsheet where we record our individual time spent writing. I find this    
 accountability essential. I aim to write a total of one day i.e. 24 hours each       
 month.

5. What is your favorite writing craft book?

I am better at doing online courses to improve my writing. My favourite courses 
are the ones offered by The Childrens Book Academy. I have done the picture 
book course and the middle grade course.

6. What inspires you to write? 

 Inspiring ideas get me started. The creative act of making a story out of words 
 gets the story written. Then sharing the story with my critique partners gets my 
 story to a submittable standard. And now that I have a published picture 
 book the joy of sharing my story with children keeps me writing.

This is Sharon's workspace and Pepper.

7. What are you working on now?

 I am currently working on a story about my niece who was born through             
 surrogacy.

 8. Words of advice for writers. 

   In the words of a very wise little blue fish called Dory, ‘Just keep writing,
   just keep writing,    
                                   writing, 
                                                writing.'



Thank you, Sharon for joining us today. Sweet dreams and best wishes with your debut book.

   

Enter Rafflecopter for a book giveaway of Bedtime Daddy.  

a Rafflecopter giveaway   Runs until July 8, 2020. Watch for the winner. 

                                                           

Twitter: @sharon_giltrow

Instagram: @sharongiltrow1

 Facebook: @sharongiltrowwriter · Author

  · Author· Author

Website: sharongiltrow.weebly.com

Sharon Giltrow writes humorous picture books and adventure-filled chapter books. Sharon was born the youngest of eight children and grew up on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia surrounded by pet sheep, sandy beaches and fields of barley. She now lives in Perth, Western Australia with her husband, two children, a tom cat and a miniature dog.