By Kim Childress

Thank you to Krause Memorial Library-KDL Rockford, Rockford Public Schools, and the Rockford Chamber of Commerce for continuing to make this annual event possible.

I missed the group author photo--because I was already talking books with some kids! Interacting with children over books is one of the greatest pleasures in the world! When we share our love of books and reading, we meet other book lovers, and when I talk to kids who excitedly tell me about their current favorite books? Well, I get great joy. And hope to perhaps touch the life of a child or two along the way.

Reading Rocks in Rockford is an annual event that takes place the first Saturday in June, a wonderful venue celebrating Michigan authors and illustrators, and it kicks in Summer Reading in Rockford, MI.

The Art of E-Commerce and I made a QR Code!

I made a QR code and managed to get it done in time for the event! (I felt so tech savvy;), which was an accomplishment. Because I just transferred the Ink-a-Dink.com bookstore site to my new Square POS software, with a goal to have it up and running for this event--the first Ink-a-Dink Bookstore Pop-Up Event of the Summer. (For authors who maintain their own websites, this is the fourth time I've rebuilt from scratch. It's a process. For e-commerce retailers? An ongoing continuously-learning process.) But it actually worked and thanks to all you new subscribers!

Ink-a-Dink is expanding, and we'd be thrilled to have you on our mailing list. You'll receive book recommendations, author interviews, pre-order specials, and giveaways, such as the June Ink-a-Dink Book Giveaway featuring "Amber Brown is Not a Crayon: The Graphic Novel." A big thank you to our new subscribers!

As I continue to build my bookstore, I would love to hear from you:

1. What are the children in your life currently reading and loving? Titles and favorite genres?
2. What books would you like to see?

And subscribe to this Childress Ink blog for news and info for authors and publishing professionals on the business of writing and the writing life, with tips and advice for authors of all levels. I love to help answer publishing questions from readers, like what should be included in a book synopsis, which I shall be sharing here next.

Happy reading and writing, and don't forget to take a break and go outside and play.

Kim Childress is an award-winning editor and author of hundreds of books for children and adults, including Find Your Future in Art. She is a product developer in children’s publishing, book editor for Girls’ Life magazine since its 1994 debut, and former middle-grade acquisitions editor for HarperCollins (Zondervan). She has maintained a successful career while raising a personal focus group of four children through diapers, doctors, broken bones, college, and plagues. Learn more about Kim and follow her adventures at ChildressInk.com and Ink-a-Dink.com. You can purchase her workshops at penconeditors.com, including on editing middle-grade and YA fiction and nonfiction, creating books of excellence for young readers, How a Book is Made from Start to Finish, and Trends and Opportunities in Fiction and Nonfiction Picture Books. Find these and more workshops from editors of excellence at penconeditors.com.