The Children's Book Author Podcast

NBA player C.J. Watson & author released his fourth book for kids this March 2023, called "CJ and His Magic Socks". The first book "CJ's Big Dream" received great reviews and was an Amazon best seller. CJ has two other children's books "CJ's Big Project" & "CJ's Big Moment". The new book is available now on Amazon & Kindle, links below.
Today I chat with C.J about his basketball career, his four children's books and how to beat the odds and every obstacle to follow your dreams, and then inspire others to do the same. C.J was a lot of fun to talk to and watch out because I might just surprise him with a visit to Las Vegas for a joint school visit!
MORE ABOUT C.J WATSON:
C.J. Watson's basketball career has allowed him to play for some of the best teams in NBA history. While his professional basketball experience is impressive, his skills go far beyond the basketball court.

Philanthropy has been at the center of Watson's career since the start of his scholarship fund. The fund honors his late grandmother, Mary L. Watson, and helps support students studying education. In his hometown of Las Vegas, Watson also started the Quiet Storm Foundation in order to foster learning opportunities that include social skills development and health and fitness activities to help the youth grow and achieve their goals in his community.

In addition to his non-profits, Watson has developed a children's book series named CJ's Big Dream. With this series, he hopes to inspire young kids to chase their dreams and work hard for what they want.
For more information on "CJ and His Magic Socks" or to purchase visit
http://cjpens.com
Connect with CJ:
Instagram:@ quietstorm_32
Twitter: @quietstorm_32
Facebook: @officialcjwatson

This episode of The Children's Book Author Podcast is number 25, and is such a special one. I am joined by Jen Storer, Australian Children’s Author and Chief Inspirationalist at girlandduck.com, where she mentors, nurtures and guides creative souls from all over the world. And in today's interview she shares so much of her wisdom and inspiration with us writers and creatives. It's a not to be missed episode. Enjoy the show! Elena
More About Jen:
Jen Storer is a commercially successful and critically acclaimed Australian Children’s Author. As Director and Chief Inspirationalist at girlandduck.com, she is also a big-hearted businesswoman who mentors, nurtures and guides creative souls from all over the world.

Jen LOVES what she does, believes in working to her strengths and is always looking for new and inspired ways to help others.

She lives with her beloved in a divinely pretty Central Victorian town.

Read more at Girl & Duck.com

Hold on tight for another wonderful interview that will encourage you to push forward in your Author journey. Sandra has such an encouraging and practical "get it done" attitude - I changed as a person and as an author from her interview and I'm sure you'll do the same. Plus my introduction is a long one today because her interview really did trigger a transformation in me.
Enjoy the show!
More about Sandra:
Sandra Bennett is the International Award winning author of the Adamson Adventures. A series of middle grade books for readers aged 7 -12 years. Secrets Hidden Below, book 1, was shortlisted in the Australian Speech Pathology Book of the Year Awards 2019, while Fossil Frenzy, book 3 was a winner of the Queensland Writers Centre Adaptable Competition 2020 enabling Sandra to pitch the manuscript to film producers for the Gold Coast Film Festival. Fossil Frenzy was also a Finalist - Children's Fiction International Book Awards 2021 and received an Honorable Mention Middle Grade Fiction Royal Dragonfly Awards 2021. Sandra has also published two picture books and two early readers. She has ten short stories in various anthologies and wrote a graphic novel for low literacy learners in Papua New Guinea for Library For All.

As an Australia Reads Ambassador, Sandra enjoys author school visits, presenting writing workshops and talks wherever she can to encourage a love of reading by engaging and delighting young readers with her thrilling adventures. Increasing literacy in our children is Sandra's passion, and as such she writes books that help both parents and teachers build children's literacy through read-aloud stories, one great adventure at a time.

All the important links:
Sandra's Website: https://sandrabennettauthor.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GingerbreadAliens
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SandraBennettAu
The Australian Authors Society
Australian Reads Ambassador

Have you ever wanted to write middle-grade fiction? Or perhaps you already do, but want to make it so good that it wins every award it's ever entered into? Then this is the interview for you! Marc has won over 22 awards and has written and self-published eight books and many have been translated into 10 languages. You'll discover how to work with the best editors, writing in series, and which book awards are the best for exposure and feedback. So settle in and find out all about how to write an award winning middle grade book.
Enjoy today's episode.
Elena
MORE ABOUT MARC REMUS:
Marc Remus is a Neo Pop-Art painter, author, and illustrator. Born in Germany, educated in the United States, he graduated in art and illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA in the 90s.

​Having a passion for languages, he travelled to seventy countries, lived a few years in Honduras and Japan, and visited over a thousand cities, of which he has painted over two hundred. His art work has been featured in over one hundred magazine/newspaper articles in Germany, USA, and Mexico (TV documentaries available above.)

​During his studies in California, he took his first children’s book illustration class. His teacher inspired him to start writing and not just illustrating. The result was a picture book called Painting Brian, which led to the Magora series. He began taking classes in children's literature in 2003 and worked with some incredible editors. Over a period of twenty years, he developed the magical world Magora based on places he had visited, people he had met, and things he had learned through his studies in acting, cultural Anthropology, and linguistics.

In 2016 the first book of the Magora series was published on Amazon. It became a big success and ranked for five days as No.1 of all children's book on Amazon, with over 35.000 downloads. Since then, the series has won 20 awards.

In 2019, Remus started a new project. He wrote the children's book "The Chocolate Clouds." Since it is an illustrated book with 150 drawings, three years passed before it was finally published in 2021. In just seven months, it won six literary awards among them the first literary award in the UK (The Wishing Shelf Book Award.)

Following this success, many translators applied to create a version in their language. As a result, many foreign language editions evolved: Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, and Swedish. Some of these editions are already available on Amazon.
Find him at https://www.marcremus.com/author
https://www.instagram.com/marcremus/
https://www.facebook.com/MarcRemusBooks/
And find the best Awards to enter at https://www.allianceindependentauthors.org/ask-alli-self-publishing-advice/

​

How much did I learn about writing funny from Rob Kutner in today's episode of The Chidren's Book Author Podcast? A huge amount and you can too, by tuning in to the wonderful conversation. Rob shares his journey writing his first spooky-comedy graphic novel for kids, and gives timeless advice on how you can be funnier in your writing too.
MORE ABOUT ROB:
Rob Kutner has won 5 Emmys, a Peabody, a TCA, and a Grammy writing for such shows as TBS’ “CONAN” and “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and co-created the fact-based comedy TV show “Gander.”

Rob’s other TV writing includes “Teen Titans Go!” “Ben10” “Angry Birds: Summer Madness” and HBO’s “Dennis Miller Live.” He has also written material for the Oscars, Emmys, Writers’ Guild Awards, MTV Movie Awards, Guys’ Choice Awards, and two White House Correspondents’ Dinners. He has developed kids’ and adult animated series for Warner Brothers and SyFy.

Rob is the author of the satirical end-of-times bestseller Apocalypse How: Turn the End Times into the Best of Times! and the Amazon Kindle e-bestseller/Audible audiobook The Future According to Me. He is also the creator of the graphic novel “Shrinkage” for Farrago Comics. He has published humor and feature pieces for the New Yorker, New York Times, Esquire, Huffington Post, McSweeney’s, and the Weekly Forward.

Rob’s new horror-comedy kids’ anthology “Snot Goblins and Other Tasteless Tales” (First Second) is now on sale, as is “Look Out For The Little Guy,” the “in-universe” memoir of Scott “Ant-Man” Lang he ghostwrote. This makes Rob technically part of the MCU.
Here's the official link for Snot Goblins:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250780805/snot-goblins-and-other-tasteletale

And here's a fun video trailer of the book:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhSAjep4UPg