Simple Saturday

Chris Barton, author of newly released and sensational The Day-Glo Brothers, gave a dynamite presentation at the latest Austin SCBWI meeting about writing for the non-fiction market. He began by demonstrating the distain for this genre by encouraging the audience to make a Mr. Yuk face. After we all had a good laugh, Chris proceeded to demonstrate how to breathe life, humor, creativity, and fascination into writing picture book biographies. I left the meeting completely inspired!

Non-fiction writers struggle with questions such as what part of an individual's life will a kid connect with? How does a writer tell a non-fictional story in such a way that a child will become intrigued enough to want to know more? In his dry-witted, clever way, Chris explained how to start such a daunting project. He demonstrated how to narrow the broad scope of a life down to a focused, resonating theme. All the while, Chris kept the crowd fully engaged, fluidly fielding suggestions and comments with ease.

It is no wonder Chris is finding such great success with his newest book. He's a natural public speaker and an extremely likeable guy. 

Chris is no Mr. Yuk.

Not at all.