During the Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy 2008 Bookmark Challenge weekend posts were dedicated to quotes about books, reading, and libraries. I liked collecting and sharing those. I’ve started collecting for next year already.

I also liked the predictable subject and format. It was easy to maintain and allowed me to take a break from the blog over the weekend. That break rejuvenated me for the coming week. Breaks are good. I don’t take enough of them, due in part to my somewhat hyper-frenetic-silly-super-active nature. Building breaks into the routine can only help. Right?

So as of right now, I’m dedicating part of the weekend to site-seeing. Yippee! How fun does that sound? And we don’t have to fret about the price of gas. I will share some of the Web sites and blogs that I like, visit often, find useful, just discovered, etc.

Roo pile

The first site I will share is the first step I would recommend to would-be children’s writers: The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Web site.

SCBWI is a national organization with local chapters in every state and in several foreign countries. Hmm, does that make it an international organization? The organization and Web site are dedicated to teaching new writers the writing and publishing ropes, connecting publishers and writers, and supporting published authors. If you want to know how to beef up your plot, how to format your picture book manuscript, how to submit your manuscript to a publisher, how to find an agent, and on and on and on, SCBWI can probably help.