Day 269: Drawing PiBoIdMo's Logo with Tara Lazar and Troy Cummings

Street magic performer. Hog-calling champion. Award-winning ice sculptor. These are all things Tara Lazar has never been. Instead, she writes quirky, humorous picture books featuring magical places that everyone will want to visit.

Her picture books available now are:

• THE MONSTORE (Aladdin/S&S, 2013)
• I THOUGHT THIS WAS A BEAR BOOK(Aladdin/S&S, 2015)
• LITTLE RED GLIDING HOOD (Random House Children’s, Oct 2015)

These titles are coming soon:

• NORMAL NORMAN (Sterling, March 2016)
• WAY PAST  BEDTIME (Aladdin/S&S, Fall 2016)
• 7 ATE 9: THE UNTOLD STORY (Disney*Hyperion, 2017)

Tara is represented by Ammi-Joan Paquette of the Erin Murphy Literary Agency.

Her last name rhymes with “bazaar”—you can listen to Tara pronounce her name on TeachingBooks.net. She’s not Tara Laser-beam (although that would be awesome).

5 Unusual Facts About Tara:

And the not so unusual stuff…

Tara at 3 years old

Tara loves children’s books. Her goal is to create books that children love.

She writes picture books and middle grade novels. She’s written short stories for Abe’s Peanut and is featured in Break These Rules, a book of life-lesson essays for teens, edited by author Luke Reynolds.

Tara created PiBoIdMo (Picture Book Idea Month) as the picture book writer’s answer to NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). PiBoIdMo is held on this blog every November. In 2014, PiBoIdMo featured over 1,300 participants from around the world.

Tara was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2010 and has permanently lost feeling in her feet and legs. She has an inspirational story to share about overcoming a chronic illness to achieve your goals and dreams. Tara can speak to groups big and small, young and old—just contact her for more information.

Tara was recently named a council member of theRutgers University Council on Children’s Literature. She’s belongs to SCBWI and speaks at conferences and events regarding picture books, brainstorming techniques, and social media for authors (backed by 20 years experience in internet marketing). Her former career was in high-tech marketing and PR.

She also teaches for The Writer’s Circle Workshops.

Tara is a life-long New Jersey resident. She lives in Somerset County with her husband and two young daughters. If they had a dog, it would be a small white fluffy thing named Schluffy.

HOW TO CONTACT TARA:

• Email: tarakidlit (at) gmail (dot) com
• Twitter: @taralazar
• Pinterest: pinterest.com/taralazar
• Facebook: facebook.com/authortara

Troy Cummings has been writing and illustrating since he was a little kid. Among other things, he's the creator of  GIDDY-UP, DADDY!, the tale of a man mistaken for a horse, and THE NOTEBOOK OF DOOM, an early-reader chapter book series about a kid who moves to a town full of monsters.

In addition to books, Troy's illustrations have appeared on:

Animated backdrops for an opera
a package of fish sticks
Jigsaw puzzles
iPad pop-up books
A poster warning people about germs
A poster warning people about a film festival
A cookbook for dogs
A thing for the humane society
A card game about hiking
Newspapers, magazines and greeting cards
Troy Cummings lives in Greencastle, Indiana with his nice family and mean cat.

Remember to visit Tara and Troy's websites!