Mirka Muse

The other day I noticed an unfamiliar charge on my card. I monitor my account closely, so I spotted it while it was still pending. I calle...

There’s an old Jewish saying- IT’S ALWAYS SOMETHING. (The English version is more like ‘if it’s not one thing, it’s another.’) I ...

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer. When asked to define great, he said, ...

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a writer in pursuit of publication must bear a lot of rejection. And that is all right, bec...

On a Diane Kress Hower’s blog: http://dkhower.blogspot.com/2012/01/passion-for-picture-books-mirka-breen.html?spref=fb My first guest i...

This New Year’s Eve my family watched a most fitting movie: Midnight in Paris . As time relentlessly marches forward and 2011 refuses to s...

Will this be the year we abandon the ‘family picture?’ So Christmas passed, and soon Hanukkah will too. For the first time in thirteen year...

We are Hanukkah People, and if I learned one thing, it’s that this charming but minor festival should not, in any way, ever, no-way-no-how...

No matter how curmudgeonly you might imagine you are, one way or another everyone finds themselves partaking in the grand gifting exchan...

When I was a little girl reading movie magazines about beautiful people, I read about some who flew their lunch from Paris to Hollywood or...

I was asked when I started writing seriously. I have to confess it was long ago. I was six and had just learned how to form the letters. I...

When our neighbors relocated six months ago, they moved about a mile away. With them went their adorable dog and two cats, all of whom ha...

Most “How-to” books for picture book writers tell us that after our book is contracted, it is the editor’s job to find the illustrator. In...

How many mystery writers does it take to screw in a light bulb? Two. One to screw it almost all the way in, and the other to give it a ...

A few years ago, when I began writing story picture books, conventional wisdom in How-To books was that such stories must not exceed 2,000...

A few days ago our family DSL line was disconnected for no reason that we, or the Internet provider, could figure out. DH’s polite pho...

My son, taking a linguistics course in college, is enjoying it immensely. But as he shared tidbits from his professor’s wisdom, this old j...

I’ve heard that no one ever sees themselves as others see them. There’s no way to prove this, but is seems intuitive enough. So when my ...

My father came to refer to my picture book texts as ‘Rabbi & Donkey’ stories. I have never written a picture book with a Rabbi in it,...

With the Jewish High Holidays around the corner, I thought I'd throw some ponderings to the universe. I'm definitely not a Rabbi, ...

While most night dreams are undigested odds n’ ends of the day, some dreams seem to have a different quality. I think of these dreams a...

After re-reading the eloquent Take Joy by Jane Yolen, and being reminded by a dear friend that it’s all been definitively said, ages ago,...

I’ve posted before about the artistic impulse to ‘leave something behind.’ ( ‘Why?’ August 16 2011) I think of it as creating time capsul...

Another writer posted on a kid-lit chat board that she no longer cared if she got published. Her post made me reflect on my own journey. I...

There is a lot of advice on how to be or not to be a writer. One bit I heard too many times to count is that a writer should write everyda...