Jen Arena

This is an encouraging post, and true in my case, too. I've had manuscripts that I've put in a drawer until something changed--editors, the market, or me.

Florida finally makes the flamingo its state bird Bye bye mockingbird.

This is a great way to celebrate the return of flamingos to Florida! 🦩🌴
www.popsci.com/environment/...

Thank you!

I know @ericsmithrocks.bsky.social keeps a list of freelance editors for hire. Does anyone know of a similar list of freelance designers?

A friend of my sister is looking to self-publish a picture book.

www.ericsmithrocks.com/blog/tag/Fre...

This is a really great post. I'm bookmarking it to share with people who ask me about self-publishing vs. traditional publishing.

Yay! 🎉

Yay, Lynn! Tampa deserves someone as good as you fighting to make a great city even better!

(I kept watching out for the Reed Park gator. 🐊)

Perfect timing--I'm going to Belfast this weekend!

We watched the Opening Ceremonies on Irish TV and there were no commercials. It was amazing!

I love those pigeons--so expressive!

I saw so many books I wanted to take home!

The exterior of a shop in Wexford, Ireland with "RED BOOKS BOOKSHOP" written above the entrance.

Inside the bookstore, books piled from the floor to the ceiling.

Looking down a narrow passageway with books on every side.

Two small rooms in the bookstore with shelves and shelves of books and more books stacked on the floor.

I've been in many amazing overstuffed bookstores all over the world, but I've never seen anything like Red Books in Wexford, Ireland. ☘️📚

Ellen was a force. She was one of the first people I knew in kids books, when I was working at a fellow indie kids bookstore and only dreaming of someday working in NYC for a publisher.

Ask Me Anything sessions with Connie Hsu, Alvina Ling, or Rotem Moscovich? These are amazing auctions.
Connie was my editor for Besos for Baby and Marta! Big and Small and remains my dream editor to this day.

The best way of describing someone who’s all talk and no action that I’ve ever heard in the UK, by far, is “they’re all wardrobe and no Narnia.”

* read on for fun ways of saying “all talk and no action” in other languages (a thread)

Meet the Alaska Student Arrested for Eating an AI Art Exhibit A conversation with Graham Granger, whose combination of protest and performance art spread beyond campus. “AI chews up and spits out art made by other people.”

This interview is very funny. www.thenation.com/article/soci...

Happy birthday!

This book is so cute!

A green and yellow sign posted in a Dublin DART train that says "Report Anti-Social Behaviour" with a number to call.

Introverted editor friends, be warned! These signs are all over Dublin trains. 😉
I mean, I know the Irish are super friendly, but this is a little extreme.

We'd sit at the bar and order the smoked mullet with mint juleps. So good.

😂

❤️PA!
My original home river was the Brandywine. Then it was the Raritan in Jersey.

RT this with your home river.

The Hillsborough River, Tampa, Florida

Congratulations! I absolutely love Worm and Caterpillar Are Friends. ❤️🐛🦋

That's a great book.

Richard Scarry-inspired mini prints of an egg car, cheese car, carrot car, hot dog car, crayon car, apple car, banana car, and pencil car.

I just found out other machines have different prints and now I really want the cheese car.
And the pencil car, of course.
I'm so greedy!

Right? The best little surprise.

Mini Print Vending Machine stocked with Richard Scarry prints by Anastasia Inciardi. "4 Quarters = 1 Surprise Print"

A Richard Scarry-inspired mini print of an orange catdriving a blue and white striped toothpaste tube car.

A Richard Scarry-inspired mini print of a yellow pig driving a green pickle car

I was so happy to walk into a store in PA while Christmas shopping and find a Richard Scarry print vending machine! Of course, I got one--the toothpaste car.
A week later, I was passing by and got another. Pickle car!
Best quarters I've spent in a long, long time.

Oh no! 😂
Your challenge is to prove Merriam-Webster totally wrong. It's your year of strength.

Not just good . . .