Our 3rd Annual Diversity Month Event is right around the corner!

We've been super quiet in the past few weeks!

Managing an active review blog, and trying to meet deadlines for editors with multiple projects is no easy feat!

But we can't leave the year without doing it big with our Diversity Month event!

2nd Annual Diversity Month Day 16: Author Interview w/ Barry Lyga+Kindle Fire 6" and Book Giveaway!

Okay, okay, okay!So this next author a part of our series is someone we've tried to catch up with for a while and we're so happy to have FINALLY gotten a chance to interview him. 

For those of you like us who have a penchant for...unorthodox themes or topics in YA, you might already know Barry Lyga. He's not out there writing about skin that glitters in the sunlight or predictable love triangles, instead he chose a risque theme to center off his successful Jasper Dent books:

Serial Killers

So for those of you that don't know him, get to know him. You won't regret it when you do!

Calling on writers and illustrators of diverse fiction!

So, just so you guys know, we spent our entire day at KidLitCon in Sacramento. We've met some really cool people who get the mission of diversity, in just the first day!

We plan to highlight it in a post later on in the month but since it's still Black Speculative Fiction Month, we've recently been looking for ways to help authors/writers of color with different opportunities to help them in any way that we can. KidLitCon just so happened to present us with an amazing opportunity like such.

Meeting Mira Reisberg, one of the founders for Children's Book Academy was actually pretty awesome. We plan to have her on our blog for our Diversity Month, but she also has a wonderful opportunity for writers of diverse lit.

Children's Book Academy uses their platform to help authors get published with amazingly cool e-Course classes. What's most awesome to this opportunity, is that it specifically opens it's door to authors of color, with disabilities, or LBGTQI, who are often the most underrepresented demographic in the publishing industry.

They really try to help writers of low income households, which is what attracted me most to this opportunity, especially for self published authors, who dont always have the same resources as traditionally published authors.

They are currently giving our opportunities for their Rafael Lopez Merit Scholarship: The Craft and Business of Illustrating Children's Picture Books but they also offer courses for writing and illustrating Picture Books, Chapter Books, e-book and apps, within YA, middle grade and much more.

Some free webinars include Writing and/or illustrating Second Visual Stories, and the Craft of Contradiction with Kristine Brogno and Mira, as well as writing humor and self-publishing in Class Clown Academy Meets Children's Book Academy with Stephen Mooser!

This is a wonderful opportunity to strengthen your craft! 

Anyone looking to learn more, please feel free to contact Mira via Twitter @childrensbookac , on Facebook or just through the official website Children's Book Academy