Tipsgiving?

Mother Reader is hosting the next Carnival of Children's Literature, and she was looking for posts with "tips" in 'em. You know... tips for writers, readers, librarians, publishers, etc. And I thought "huh, I never give tips and tricks and ideas like that on my blog." But over the past few weeks, I've had conversations with folks interested in blogging and interested in writing, as well as donning my librarian hat and pointing people towards books AND picking read-alouds AND.... Well, you get the idea.

Anyway, I sat down last night, overstuffed both in chair and in belly, and wondered if there were any tips I might be able to offer... any great words of wisdom. Well, no. But I did realize that there was a common thread to how I approach all of those choices, and I had no other post worthy of the Carnival. So I figured I'd throw my two cents out here on the blog and call it a tip. Then I fell asleep in a pie-induced coma. But today, I give it a try. And here it is:

_________ what you love. Yup. Simple, non-profound, but certainly true for me. Write what you love. Blog what you love. Read what you love. I even read-aloud what I love (or what I love most from a selection of many). Sure, you can change it to "what you're passionate about" or some variation on theme, but seriously, it works like that famous spoonful of sugar: to give one example, when I blog about what I love, the blahgs disappear.

Yeah, yeah, I know I'm ignoring practicality and what the world allows sometimes and all that stuff. Big deal! It still works, I tell ya.

And now it's off to another orgy of food where I will, in fact, follow my advice and only eat what I love. So I'll see you at the dessert table!