Kevin McNamee - Children's Writer

About Me

Hello, my name is Kevin McNamee.  Welcome to my website.

I'm a writer and a poet living in Yonkers New York, along with my wife and daughter.  I grew up in The Bronx, which doesn’t entirely deserve the bad rap that it gets.  My experiences there have given me a wide assortment of characters and plots to choose from.  Although I may need to clean some of them up quite a bit to be suitable for the children’s market.
 
I’ve been writing since I’ve learned the alphabet, but I’ve just started writing seriously for children about four years ago.  I was watching my nieces fight and it gave me an idea for a sibling rivalry story, there was no looking back.
 
I continued to write and I started submitting my work for publication.  Before long, I had amassed an impressive collection of form rejection letters.  But I was determined to improve and learn all I could about writing for children and the children’s market, so I did the following… 
  • · Read Harold Underdown’s Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing for Children
  •   Read Writing Children’s Books for Dummies
 
Despite their titles, they hold a lot of practical information about writing and the children’s market.  I also…
 
  • Joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
  • Joined two terrific critique groups that I found through SCBWI, one for prose, one for poetry
  • Purchased the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Market annually for invaluable information on where to market my work.
 
If you happen to be a writer and you’re just starting out, I highly recommend that you do all of the above.  If you happen to be a writer and you’ve done all of the above, good for you!
 
As I’ve been educating myself about the children’s market and striving to improve my writing, I’ve noticed the following:
  1. My rejection letters are getting nicer
  2. I’ve had some successes.  Here they are…
 
Title Genre Date
It Will Never Work  Short Story  April 2008
If I Could Be Anything Picture Book November 2009
The Sister Exchange  Picture Book December 2009
The Soggy Town of Hilltop  Picture Book January 2010
Lightning Strikes  Picture Book To be determined
What Is That Thing? Picture Book To be determined
Papa’s Suns  Picture Book To be determined
Just For Today  Picture Book To be determined
My Brother, the Frog Picture Book To be determined
An Eyeball In My Garden Poetry Anthology Fall 2010
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
… and I’m trying my best to add to this list.  I have a varied inventory of picture books, poetry and short stories available and am actively seeking publication.
 
Happy Writing,
Kevin
 
To find out more about me, visit my blog at www.kevinmcnameechildrensauthor.blogspot.com
 
 

If you would like to email me, I would love to hear from you.  You can email me by clicking here.

                                                      

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