WHERE DO SPEEDBOATS SLEEP AT NIGHT? sails into the world-- Today!!

Ahoy, Mateys! So sorry it has been so long since I posted, but today is a very good news day and I wanted to make sure to share.

My picture book, WHERE DO SPEEDBOATS SLEEP AT NIGHT?, illustrated by the absolutely amazing Christian Slade sails into the world today. So very excited for you all to get a chance to see Christian's illustrations in this book!

(When my 12-year-old saw the f&g's he had to look at every picture. And it is a bedtime book about boats. And he is 12! Suffice to say, I think that Christian's illustrations keep on getting more and more amazing with every book in our vehicle bedtime series.)

So I hope those of you with little ones who like boats have a fun time reading SPEEDBOATS, and looking at the beautiful summer weather outside today, I hope we all soon get a chance to enjoy some super-fun summer boating!

Thanks for letting me share my "book birthday" good news!!

Good News Day Tuesday: Pictures from Last Week's Launch

Last week's launch party for WHERE DO STEAM TRAINS SLEEP AT NIGHT? was so very, very fun! Thanks so very much to Mockingbird Books for hosting this wonderful event! And thank you so very much to who attended and to all who sent their virtual good wishes!

Here are a few fun pics from the party:

And we had a green screen at the party! So everyone got to take their picture with their favorite train:

And I had the wonderful privilege of being interviewed by the Little Engineer from the amazing Play Trains website. (If you have little ones who like trains, you should definitely check this website out. It is sooooo cool!) And I am so looking forward to hearing my interview when it is all ready! Here is a picture of me being interviewed by the amazing Little Engineer (who asked me 6 great questions!):

Thanks so much for letting me toot my own good news! Do you have good news to share? Please toot-toot it with a comment below! :) 

Good News Day Tuesday: A Book Birthday and Two Launch Parties!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted on here! Excited to get back to blogging!

And so excited that today's "Good News Day Tuesday" is a very special one for me! Today is the book birthday for my third picture book, WHERE DO STEAM TRAINS SLEEP AT NIGHT?

Picture books take along time to come into the world (much longer than babies :) )! So I am so very excited that you can all finally see Christian Slade's amazing illustrations of train moms and train dads getting their little boy and girl trains ready for bed!

In honor of my launch day, I would love to invite you all to two special launch parties:

If you are in the Seattle area (or will be this Thursday night): You are cordially invited to my in-person launch party at the fantabulous, Mockingbird Books! I hope to see you there!!

And if you are not in the Seattle area (or even if you are but you just want to check this out too): You are cordially invited to my online Train Station Book Launch party on  my website. Just chug on over to
the party for a freight-load of train and picture book fun!

All aboard!

Why My New Web Site Animations Have Me So Excited!

If you had visited my website (www.briannacaplansayres.com) yesterday (or any day before then), you would have seen a beautiful blue sky with two lovely trees and one yellow digger busily digging away.

But if you visit my website now, you will see a beautiful blue sky with two lovely trees and one yellow digger busily digging away PLUS one fierce T-Rex putting her tiara on and off and one sweet steam train puff-puff puffing away. (Huge thanks to Jeffrey Duckworth  for these awesome new animations!)

The addition of these two new animated gifs means a lot to me. It all goes back to my initial vision for my website...

Good News Day Tuesday: An Interview with Debut Author Tara Lazar (in celebration of her recently released picture book, THE MONSTORE!)

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I am thrilled to be celebrating with debut picture book author, Tara Lazar.

Not only is Tara an incredibly gifted picture book author (with two more upcoming picture books in addition to THE MONSTORE!), she is also an incredibly giving, helpful and talented member of the kidlit community. And she is the founder of the super-awesome PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) which I'm sure I will be blogging about as November approaches!

Hope you enjoy this informative interview with Tara!:

Good News Day Tuesday: An Interview with Novelty Book Author/ Illustrator Chiêu Anh Urban (And a Giveaway Too!)

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I am excited to be celebrating with Chiêu Anh Uban. Chiêu's novelty board book, AWAY WE GO!, was recently published by Scholastic Cartwheel. What a clever concept!

Thanks so much to Chiêu for these very informative answers! And hope you enter for a chance to win a copy of Away We Go!. Details about the giveaway are at the end of this post!

Enjoy the interview!:

Good News Day Tuesday: An Interview with Author/Illustrator Joyce Wan (in celebration of her TWO about to be released books!)

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I am so excited to be celebrating with the fantastic author/illustrator Joyce Wan! 

Joyce creates some of the most adorable board books I have ever seen! In fact, she is busy creating lots and lots of amazing books! (Just read the interview to see all that she's working on.) 

And, just like Tina Kugler (the awesome author/ illustrator I interviewed last week), Joyce is also represented by that super-awesome agent, Teresa Kietlinski. :o)

A sketch by author/illustrator Joyce Wan 

Hope you appreciate Joyce's insights into her creative process as much as  I do! Enjoy the interview!:

Good News Day Tuesday: An Interview with Author/Illustrator Tina Kugler (in celebration of her TWO upcoming books!)

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I'm so excited to be celebrating with author/illustrator Tina Kugler who has TWO upcoming picture books. Yes, two! Isn't that awesome?

Tina not only has two upcoming picture books. She also has one incredibly awesome agent, Teresa Kietlinski! (Yes, Teresa is my agent too, and Tina and I both agree that she is incredibly awesome. :o) )

A sketch from THE CHANGE YOUR NAME STORE
written by Leanne Shirtliffe, illustrated by Tina Kugler
(Sky Pony Press Spring/Summer 2014)

Tina was kind enough to do an interview where she shares information about her upcoming books, her illustration process, and the challenges and benefits of collaborating with her husband on a picture book! Hope you enjoy Tina's wonderfully informative and thoughtful answers!:

Good News Day Tuesday: Interview with Three Authors Who Are in Highlights this Month!

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! After my post yesterday about how wonderful magazines are for beginning readers, I'm so excited to be celebrating with three (yes, three!) authors who are all published this month in magazines published by the Highlights magazine family. Highlights is amazing and these authors are amazing too!

Hope you enjoy this interview with Jeanne Kaufman (JK),  Jody Jensen Shaffer (JJS),and Deborah Holt Williams (DHW)! I'm so excited to be celebrating their good news today. Please enjoy the insights they give into writing for children's magazines!:

Good News Tuesday: Interview with Lisa Kahn Schnell, a Debut Nonfiction Author

So excited to be celebrating Lisa Kahn Schnell,
who just signed a contract with  Charlesbridge!

Happy Good News Day Tuesday! Today I'm so excited to celebrate with Lisa Kahn Schnell who just signed a contract for her first picture book! Congratulations, Lisa!

Lisa was kind enough to agree to do an interview where she shares wonderful information about her book,  her writing process and the unique benefits and challenges of writing nonfiction for kids. (And some wonderful information about horseshoe crabs too! :o) )

Please enjoy Lisa's very thoughtful answers!

Good News Day Tuesday: Book Launch for The Emerald Ring by Dorine White (includes an author interview!)

Please note: This very happy new feature was scheduled far in advance of yesterday's tragedy. My heart goes out to those in Oklahoma. Sending love, thoughts and prayers...

***

So I renamed Monday, "Keep Reading Fun Day", and now I'm renaming Tuesday, "Good News Day Tuesday". (Can you tell I write rhyming picture books? :o) ) Every Tuesday, I'm going to try to share some good news from around the kidlit community, so we can celebrate with our fellow authors and illustrators.

And today, we're going to celebrate with (drumroll please)....

Dorine White!

I had the pleasure of meeting Dorine at the amazing Western Washington SCBWI conference I attended recently, where she told me the exciting story of her upcoming debut novel, THE EMERALD RING.

Since tomorrow night (5/22) is Dorine's book launch (at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park at 7:00), I thought her wonderful book news would make a perfect first bit of cheer.

So here's a brief interview with Dorine: