Esther Harder

Houston news station KHOU 11 read Quarantine Kids live during their Turn the Page literacy drive.

Literature is a great method for teaching SEL skills because in reading a story, we're offered the opportunity to side with a character.

You might think that writers are natural content creators, so the social media presence comes naturally. Perhaps it does, but not for me.

This past week, I ran into the living, breathing person I named my main character of Quarantine Kids after.

One of the most-repeated questions a writer gets is "where did that book idea come from?"

Since my book is about inspiring creative responses to COVID times, creating a socially-distanced book launch fit with my overall theme.

What the admissions counselors don't tell you is that there are limits to responsibility juggling.

What fun to hold and touch the Quarantine Kids picture book in physical form! Check out the book trailer.

Are you one of those people who reads a book's copyright pages? Here are the important items you should include in a copyright page.

I discovered that the printer had new requirements that demanded a last-minute decision: increase my page count, or switch to paperback.

From sketches, we moved into full-color page renderings of Quarantine Kids!

My illustrator needed layout details: What were my page dimensions? Did I have templates? I needed to choose a printer sooner than expected!

MFA classes taught me that there is limited, if any collaboration between author and illustrator. This is NOT the case in self-publishing.

With my picture book manuscript in hand, the next thing I needed was, well, the pictures! So off I went to find an illustrator.

I could manage a book project from my balcony in the middle of COVID, couldn't I?