Blog of the Week:
Annette Gulati's The Writing Wild Life...

Annette Gulati started blogging (hesitantly, she says) just over a year ago “I kept hearing over and over by editors that even unpublished writers needed to create a web presence. I already had a website, but there was something about the blogging community that lured me in. I was reading other author blogs and I enjoyed following their journeys. I also loved the fact that there were so many friendships out there.”

So Annette created The Wild Writing Life as a way to chronicle her writing journey, what she calls “the trek I’m taking through the sometimes perilous jungle of children’s publishing.” But the purpose of her blog, she says “has sort of grown into finding a place in this community, and having the opportunity to talk about children’s literature with others who are as passionate about it as I am. My blog is really a smattering of things: relating industry news, some book reviews, author interviews, sharing my own successes and failures. I feel sort of like the parrot who sits atop a tree overlooking the jungle and knowing exactly what’s going on, but with the goal of someday being right down there with the others in the thick of it all.”

Annette is well on her way to descending from that tree top. Last year she won the Barbara Karlin grant for picture book writers from SCBWI. “Picture books have always been my first love,” she says. Winning the grant “was a tremendous boost of confidence for me. I have numerous picture books in various stages of development, but I’ve also written several easy readers and chapter books. I also love writing for children’s magazines.”