Putting together any book is a long an detailed process, let alone coordinting a compilation of stories from various authors and an illustrator, to finalise the finished product. As for our 'Backyard Beasts & Curious Capers Anthology' the fun however, is in the final stages when it all falls into place with words that appear to jump off the page and illustrations that take you to another world or dimention. In the words of our esteemed editor Katherine R. Pepper (a published author in her own right), read on to find out ecactly what is involved. "As well as writing my four stories for BBCC, I also formatted the book and put it together. Lucky me! Every book, of course, starts with a story, or, in our case, stories. So, one day, at one of our monthly Ten Penners’ meetings, we decided we wanted to put together another anthology. Woohoo! That was the easy part. Next came the hard part – writing the actual stories! Aaaaggghhh! Many, many, many months went by, during which we went through the process of creating, reading, editing and finalising our stories. There were lots of laughs along the way – which was just as well, because, even though it’s fun, writing is also hard work. You have to actually make up people and situations just out of your own brain! Crazy, right? Anyway, we finally had our 20 stories. But that wasn’t the end, oh no. There was a lot more to come before our book baby was ready to face the world! And that’s where the fun really began – for me. Although the stories start off as plain old Word documents, you can’t just whack them all together and then publish them. They have to be in the correct format for printing as an actual book. Fortunately, KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) provides Word templates for this, setting out the correct front and back matter, section breaks etc., and you can download the template and use it as your base document. This does make things easier, but you still have to know what you’re doing (because Word can be a tricky beast…). The template is quite plain, but you can, of course, change the fonts and anything else to make the book look just how you want it. Once the stories were all in, I then added Jennifer’s wonderful illustrations, and some other bits and pieces, and the interior of the book was done. But a book also needs a cover, so that was the next part of the process. The cover is in three parts – front, back and spine. Once your interior file is complete, and you know how many pages your book will be, you can download a cover template from KDP to ensure everything fits together properly when the book is printed. Jennifer had already created a beautiful front cover, so I then matched the colours and the fonts to create the back and spine, using Canva and PhotoScape X on my MacBook. The interior file and cover were then uploaded to KDP, and, once they were approved, we ordered our first proof copy! This bit is awesome, because for the first time you get to hold the book in your hands… After a couple of tweaks, and a further proof, we were ready to hit publish! And here we are – BBCC is out in the wild! Tada!" As you can now see there is some time and work involved in the writing and editing. As for me and the Illustrating side........I'll leave that for another post! Please do feel free to ask us anything in regard to creating your own books. We are all more than happy to help you get started. Happy reading and sketching! 😀👩‍🎨 Jennifer Scicluna Author/Illustrator.

So much goes on in the background of preparing for a Brand New book launch, especially when it's one you worked on and have written some stories yourself! ✍️ I honestly had no idea about the time consuming work involved behind the scenes prior to presenting it to the world! 🌏 (Well that's the Dream🤞). I am certainly learning more as the time gets closer! We have venu's lined up, competitions and givaways. Plus for those of you interested, a fun idea I just found out about called a....... Blog Tour , which you can follow us on, so please do Watch this SPACE because it is all happening right Here! We will let you know What is on, Where it's on, When the Blog Tour starts, and the Date is set for "The Backyare Beasts & Curious Capers" much anticipated Book Launch, which will be here sooner than you think! I for one am VERY EXCITED!! Chat agian Soon, your friendly illustrator/author  Jennifer😁👩🏻‍🎨✍️

Hello there book fans! If you have been following our Ten Penners publications in the past and have purchased one of our previous Books we would love to hear from you all! Please don't be shy! Do post your reviews on our books here so we can interact and connect with you too. Genuinly looking forward to chatting with you!😁 If you have read any of these books please do let us know we'd love to hear from you! Happy Reading! 📚📖😀

Being a Mum over the years I had dabbled a little in writing adventure stories for my three boys. They proved to be exciting bedtime stories that had my sons engaged and waiting for what was to come. Over the years as all mums can appreciate life, work etc. get in the way so I never tried to get any of my works published. As years went on I concentrated more on my passion for Art. Now, being a member of this wonderful imaginative group of writers I have tried my hand again at writing for children. Writing for children is all about seeing the world through the eyes of a child. Watching the daily events in awe as a child would, then be adventurous and create havoc! Haha!😉 that's my way of seeing it. As my three sons were my inspriration, you will find my work tends to lean more towards a boy being the main character in all my stories. While being an artist /illustrator living in that creative world you'll find my thoughts full of wild imagination which I draw from everyday life, out side of and in my mind, so my work finds itself mostly whirling in the mystical and magical genres. I am excited and looking forward to our new Antholgy Backyard Beasts & Curious Capers finaly being in my hands and reading it to my grandchildren. Now that I have grandaughters who knows perhaps my work will have a different spin on them. If you too are a mum, with a zillion thoughts going through your mind of what you'd love to write, I encourage you to just do it! ✍️Let the world around you, and children be your inspiration to putting your thoughts down on paper no matter how crazy they may be, they may surprise and amaze you as well, filling you with that feeling of contentment and accomplishment you just can't describe until you actually do it! I look forward to hearing from any of you aspiring to enter the world of writing for children. There can never be too many of us! Till next time have a Fabulous and Imaginative Day! Jennifer 👩🏻‍🎨😉

My name is Jennifer and I am The Ten Penners artist/illustrator. It has been a pleasure getting to know and working with this wonderful group of ladies over the last 5 years. Join me and all our wonderful writers on this exciting journey here on our Forum as we Bring to you another of The Ten Penners' wonderful Children's Adventure Anthologies! Coming Very Soon! My gorgeous fluffy companion is always by my side while I paint or draw. I'd like to introduce you to Hollie my pomeranian beauty who lights up my life! If there is anything I can help you with please head over to Ask the Authors & Illustrator category where I will attempt to answer your questions the best I can. I look forward to meeting you all and hearing your thoughts on our latest book Till next time Have a fabulous Day! 🙂👩🏽‍🎨🎨