Congratulations to Chang, Susan, Catherine, and Dianne, plus Writer to Writer

If you’ve had a story (or a book!) published, if you’ve won or placed in a writing contest, if you’ve gotten yourself an agent, or if you have any other news, send me an email so I can share your success. As writers, we’re all in this together, and your good news gives us all a boost. 

Email me at: brianhenry@sympatico.ca 

 

Hello, Brian.I hope you're keeping well!

I'm so excited to share that my debut picture book, Greetings, Floof! won the 2026 Magnolia Book Award — the Children's Choice Award for the state of Mississippi! I’m so honoured that children in grades Pre-K – 2 chose the book as their favourite.  

You were instrumental in helping me to get published. Thank you so much for all your help and support over the years!

Warmly,
Chang
C.J. Hong
Children's Book Author
Greetings, Floof! (Kids Can Press, 2024)
cjhong.com

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Note: If you’re interested in writing books for children or teens, don’t miss our Kid Lit workshop coming up Aug 23 with guest speaker, Patricia Ocampo, senior editor, at Scholastic Books. See here.

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Hi, Brian.

I'm looking forward to the Oct 18 – 22 writing retreat at Sherwood and will start fasting now. 

I signed with Three Seas Literary in February and my agent is Kara G.   We are currently getting one of my interactive stories ready so she can start submitting. 

Also, within two weeks of this, inbetween books offered me a contract to publish my picture book A Monsters Guide to Children. (You helped me a lot with this).  Hoping for a release in late 2027.   I still don't think I've really even processed this yet but definitely want to thank you for all of your support and feedback to help A Monsters Guide to Children come to life.

Can't wait for the fall retreat.

Susan Wollison

For information about submitting to 3 Seas Literary Agency, see here. 

inbetween books is a new children’s publisher, and they’re looking for manuscripts. See more about them here and, for submitting, see here.

For information about our fall writing retreat (at Sherwood Inn on Lake Joseph in Muskoka), see here.

 

Hi, Brian.

I wanted to share that I submitted one of the short stories I wrote during one of your Creative Writing courses to All Your Stories and Poems, and it was published in their June 2026 issue of All Your Stories.  

It's a convoluted website (I think it is) but the webpage with my story in it is this edition here.

It's a simple story and one of my first ever efforts but pleased to see it in a collection with other authors!

All the Best,

Catherine de Korte

 

Hi, Brian.

I'm having a wonderful spring and summer for news. As always, thank you for cheering us on and sharing your knowledge and expertise. Here's my little update.

Two exciting writing gifts found me in the last couple of weeks while I have been recovering from surgery.

I received copies of the French version of My Amazing Race Car Brain. I am super proud of Mon incroyable cerveau -voiture de course. Thank you, DC Canada Education Publishing, for believing in this project and message.

My TV Pilot, Moosekeg County FM, was #44 in the Capital Fund Screenplay Competition Hot 100.

I don’t know much about this list, but it says, “This well-respected list is published and provided to film industry financiers around the world and includes the top 100 Scripts of the year.”

No one has called and waved wads of cash in my face for the script, but I did receive an email this morning informing me that I earned a ten-cent royalty from Draft to Digital for a collaborative novel, which brings my total to $1.67. Don’t worry, they already took off $0.26 for tax.

I'm looking forward to your fall classes.

Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Dianne Koebel-Pede

To see what kind of books a publisher publishes, always check out their recent catalogue(s). For DC Educational Publishing, see here. 

See their submission page here.

See where else your fellow writers are winning accolades or getting short pieces published here (and scroll down).

See all of my upcoming weekly writing classes, one-day workshops, and four-day retreats here. ~Brian

 

Writer to Writer

Hi, Brian.

It was nice to see you at the Muskoka Authors’ Association Publishing Summit (here)! At the time you asked what everyone was working on and I'll admit, I held back. Besides the Middle Grade Novel that I'm doing a final edit on, I had an inspired idea to create a journal in February and was able to bring my vision to life! I'm self-publishing and had the prototype completed in June.

A Creative's Journal is unique in that it provides a highlighted section at the bottom of each page to store inspired ideas until you're ready to work on them. I journal almost every day and often writing ideas come through and I would have to stop to look for my "ideas" notebook, or if I didn't, it was often hard to find those ideas later when I was ready to work on them. One of the key ideas that came through was to create such a journal.

 Here are some key highlights:

- Hard Cover, Black leatherette

- 365 lined pages and several blank pages for sketching

- Quotes about creativity included throughout.

It's now available for pre-order on my website: www.catherineleighmccallum.com

This is meant for all types of creatives – from writers to artists and other professionals.  I thank you in advance for sharing with your readership!

All the best,

Catherine McCallum

https://clmccallum.substack.com/