Blueberry Pancake Publishing

  Turning my Blog into a Book   As many of you know, I am just a normal everyday American Girl. Well, for five years, this American Girl left her homeland and moved to Europe. This would not only turn out to be such a life altering event in my life but in the lives of my whole family. It also would become the time in my life when I started writing. As a teacher and mom, I had always been a lover of children’s books and enjoyed reading to little ones. This time in my life would introduce a love for writing and this eventually led to writing children’s books.   I began my journey in the Netherlands by sharing with family and friends on Facebook my daily adventures. In the beginning I would share funny posts about me learning how to drive a stick better. I had driven a stick in high school a few times. But nothing could prepare me for having my first rental car there being a stick and being forced to have to drive that way all the time. We had ordered me a standard d...

  One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blueberry Pancake Publishing Fish Interning for a Children's Author Since summer break is beginning for college students in the United States, I thought I'd take a few moments to introduce you to my intern, Sarah. Sarah began interning for me this semester beginning in January 2020. She will continue interning with my publishing company throughout her senior year of college. You may be curious about my title selection for this article. Fish is a term given to freshmen students entering high school or college. The reference is that these people are like fish out of water. They really don't know what they are doing. Sarah is definitely not a fish but she is about to enter the giant fish bowl we call "The Real World". It is my job to make sure she is ready to meet this challenge in life. Sarah is currently a Senior at Oklahoma State University with a double major in Marketing and Management. She is also a member of the sororitry Pi Be...

  Writing Struggles... My Juggling Act I taught for many years and loved every minute of the experience except for being away from my children. I think for every mom, there is a struggle between work life and mom life. Both are extremely demanding but for me... my children pulled on my little heart strings and I truly wanted to stay at home to raise them. After the girls all went off to college, I had zero desire to go back to teaching. But what was buzzing around in my head was a long-lost yearning to write a children’s book. Being a writer is such a fabulous career and one that I had dreamt about in the back of my head for years. For me, writing at this stage of my life is a blessing. I still do not have a job outside of the home, so I am able to spend a lot of time on writing. But the words dream, and job are hard to put together. Yes, I have the freedom to do what I’ve been dreaming about for years. And, yes this is an actual job. We won’t talk about how much I get paid becau...

  Inspiration~ Annie Laurie Inspiration is defined as “The process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative. “ I thought I’d share with you the inspiration behind one of the main characters in my 2nd book. There are really 4 main characters... my grandma, her best friend, 6 children and a little cottage in the northern pine woods in Michigan. Each is unique. I was trying to think of what to blog about today and I realized that I have a lot of new friends. I am lucky enough to be very good friends with the children that grew up with me. I am still friends with kids that I went to kindergarten, elementary, middle and high school. I’m still in touch with my best friend from college. Thankfully, I am still friends with my teacher friends from when I taught school. My favorites are the children who have found me on Facebook. I have one that said she became a teacher because of me. What better compliment could a person ever receive? I am...

  What's in a Name? People always ask me, “How did you come up with the idea for your story?”. All my family and friends who follow me personally on Facebook know of my love for dogs. I’ve shared before on other platforms about how Excuse Me Sir, Do You Bark English? came to be my first story. Our precious Little Bear was an escape artist. If the gate was left ajar, he would dart through and have a good romp around the neighborhood or even the forest that was close by. It was actually quite scary to have him missing. Luckily the Dutch are wonderful dog lovers and would all join in to find our precious boy. Now enter Blueberry Pancake Publishing’s second book. This book has been written for a few years, but I like to give each book its own time of glory. I’ve also learned that self-publishing a book takes a lot of work. I will be revealing small tidbits about the book along the way until it's time to launch. Today I would like to tell you how I came up with the idea for book #2...

 Stirring and Mixing to get the Stories Just Right These shown above are little poffertjes from  my kitchen in the Netherlands.  Writing a story for little ones is kind of like making blueberry pancakes. If you take a pinch of this and a dash of that and stir it all together. Gently fold in love and a hug.... Perfection. As pure and simple as a child opening a book. Blueberry Pancake Publishing... Creating Rocking Chair Moments. Blueberry Pancake Publishing Pancake Recipe Shhhhh secret recipe (ok, not so secret) Ingredients: 1 cup milk 1 cup self rising flour 1 egg Fresh blueberries Mix together first three ingredients. Gently fold in blueberries. Spoon out desired amount into frying pan. When batter stops popping bubbles, flip and cook other side of pancake. Remove when lightly browned on both sides. Serve with pat of butter and fresh maple syrup. My favorite comes from a little farm in Michigan called Currey Farms.

Reading Rocks! Blueberry Pancake Publishing would like to introduce a new, fun activity for children and families. We are calling it Reading Rocks! Little Bear is encouraging little ones to read and have fun. He wants you to read not only his book... Excuse Me Sir, Do You Bark English? but he also wants you to read any other fun book you love and enjoy.  Little Bear then wants you to enjoy a fun game called Reading Rocks!   Have you ever heard of Geocaching? It’s the world’s largest treasure hunt. I was introduced to this fun activity by my fabulous friend Wendy. She geocaches all over the world. I was lucky enough to go on a hunt with her in Germany. It was seriously a fun and exciting day. After a visit with Wendy the other day, my mind started thinking about how much children love treasure hunts. I remembered seeing painted rocks on Pinterest and thought what a fun idea for little ones. I did a little research and discovered others are already doing this ...