iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 20/05/2026

@doucette515.bsky.social You showed me yours so here are mine, in no particular order. Haven't read the Katherine Paterson ones I'm holding or the other I was just gifted. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 20/05/2026

Whoa! & Here we are spoiled for choice. My #kidlit #podcast rabbit hole started with ❤️Julian is a Mermaid💜 & realizing I could hear directly from not only Jessica Love but also the editor, art director, delightful Candlewick Press in general (A Bookish Home, Candlewick Press Presents) #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 20/05/2026

Then when I was stuck in my head post MFA, Liz Gilbert's Big Magic and her podcast came out. Felt so playfully freeing -and taps into my more mystic sensibilities... I do believe book ideas have a 'moment' and can strike multiple creatives or pass from one to another if left unworked... #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 20/05/2026

These two were my favorites for years! When I primarily wrote lit fic and poetry. The 'shitty first drafts' concept in particular still serves me very well. That and picturing King trashing Carrie and other manuscripts. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 16/04/2026

A full room and beautiful gratitudes with Robin Wall Kimmerer at Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing. #cffw #ffwgr #ffw2026 What is our role as writers, especially nature writers, in this age? Part is to know our place. Let us listen and begin.

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 16/04/2026

Starting off Calvin Festival of the Arts: Laurie Halse Anderson on writing historical #nonfic #pb #mg #ya adventures. Her rules for her work- don't shy from hard eras/topics but do it from place of love. Use primary sources, fact check, center ordinary folks. +Ok to be nosy and bad speller. 🙃 #cffw

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 15/04/2026

Who'll be at Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing this week? #kidlit #pb circle w K Kraegel last #cffwgr rocketed me into active craft & industry info, esp spiritual pb stars @beamingbooksmn.bsky.social @eerdmansbooks.bsky.social @ivpress.bsky.social . + @scbwi.bsky.social & here! #cffw #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 07/01/2026

Same. I see we won't be making friends via the @bsky.app Similar Accounts feature, when your lovely #kidlit profile leads to shirtless bros and "minors dni". @safety.bsky.app @support.bsky.team

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 07/01/2026

Indeed! We write -and draw, and sing and dance- out better stories than these bitter ones spitting out of the dumpster fires. #withalittlehelpfrommyfriends #kidlitchat Luck.

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 07/01/2026

Well, 2025 was a certain kind of year. Questionable outcomes on my goals BINGO, but I did check off the big one by #winning #12x12pb @12x12challenge.bsky.social! @vbartles.com and others, how bout you? This year my word is "slow," because burnout is real and not great. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 23/07/2025

It's the tertiary and quarternary (?) plots that get me in trouble. #kidlitchat #thetroublewithpoets

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 11/06/2025

Night, ya'll. We've got this. Let's make something rad this week, to report at the next #kidlitchat.

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 11/06/2025

So many drafts in different directions as my brain shoots the story off multiple ways. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 07/05/2025

My aspirational tagline- Seriously unserious shenaniganating. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 07/05/2025

Not in the query trenches yet but have a tip page going with generous advice from agents+publishers on #favoritepodcast @literaticat.bsky.social , @ktliterary.bsky.social , @picturebooksummit.bsky.social , 3 Point Perspective, Illustration Department. Queries- hard but not mysterious. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 23/04/2025

2/2 In a writing seminar she gave the ex. of a man she met w a scarred hand(?) as a result of something in his past he was deeply ashamed of, which morphed into Adam's hearing loss in #RavenBoys. My simple #kidlitchat ex: my kid's *hatred* for wet grass led to an antagonist having a sensory downfall

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 23/04/2025

I used to think it was cheesy or cheating, but I always have to 'steal' one small spark from real life to ignite a story. #YA fabulosa Maggie Stiefvater talks about it as snagging one moment's 'beating heart,' then reshaping the details but with the stakes & emotion intact. 1/2 #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 23/04/2025

Late to the party, as usual so far this year, but excited and a little proud to duck in before the DJ went home. Hey there, #kidlitchat party people!

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 10/04/2025

Does anyone enjoy *eating* macarons? & Can you explain why, beyond "cute"? I admit I'm more nonprofit-office-leftovers-garbage-disposal than foodie but these are down there with supermarket brownie bites. At the local patisserie they're $5 honey lavender supermarket brownie bites. #hottake ?

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 26/03/2025

Recent lol #kidlit : How to Count to One & This Is a Book of Shapes, both winks at concept #pb genres. A forever fav: Eileen Spinelli & David Slonim's Silly Tilly, 'a daffy down & dilly goose who takes her baths in apple juice, wears a pancake as a hat, tries to ride the farmer's cat' to #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 26/03/2025

Late for #kidlitchat & up much too late - but in service to a DIY victory! 1st time filling my own #watercolor pans! Then went a little nuts mixing, to use up 3 pans I'd duplicated. Bc of course 2 were pthalos (tinting strength of tanks)... #illustratorproblems #didittomyself #hyperfocus

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 12/03/2025

Feeling lucky, privileged, grateful for any head space for #kidlit while so many of us have jobs, healthcare, personal rights exploding. So, double congrats to each of us on #kidlitchat with good updates + love x2 to all whose beautiful creative seeds are buried deeper for now. Hang in. Grace. 2/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 12/03/2025

I'm pretty sure it's still January, so I'm not sure how this is quarterly. But to play along...I'm hitting my major #12x12pb goals. But sadly too wiped each week to explore the forums & friendships. Balancing creative needs, parenting, mutual support in my circles, eating, ya know? #kidlitchat 1/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 26/02/2025

Hey there, #kidlitchat pals. Flopped in bed after another long week. But wanted to say hi because what inspires me most is everyone who is keeping their eyes up, heart open, hands reaching out. It might be next week - but looking forward to reading over all your favorites. I have so many names

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 05/02/2025

I'm hearing illustrators predict a rise in maximalism, along with traditional media and visible human touch, in this era of ai 'digital slurry'. I am here for it, esp the maximalism. Take 10 crystal goblets, arrange em in the path of the sun to go full constant prism onto a series of rainbow flags..

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 05/02/2025

Can we all form a pact to stop dropping Harry Potter references into any future books? Such an overused shortcut in YA, quirky romance. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 05/02/2025

Plus to everyone's point about mild curses being the best language, that Lithgow album got my kids to use "oh gosh, oh gee" #kidlitchat 2/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 05/02/2025

Music is a great reference, too. Anyone else know John Lithgow's album Singing in the Bathtub? (Yes, he sings. It is amazing.) The songs are all from the ~1920s-40s. The names and food in them are telling, and just one line like "turn off the Telly, Nelly" sets a whole scene. #kidlitchat 1/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 05/02/2025

I'm seeing a lot about word choice and metaphor choice here. Worth saying that what the character notices/misses/feels allowed to speak aloud also varies considerably from historical to present. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 15/01/2025

Leave it to me that my fav web communities are 1sided: podcasts! It feels like great company to draw along with 3 Point Perspective, Good Ship Illustration, Illustration Dept podcasts. All 3 have web learning communities that sound fab but I got suckered into skillshare for a yr first...#kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 15/01/2025

I second everyone else about their local SCBWIs for tips & webinars. Tho I do wish I knew how to make the listserv not explode my email... Love #kidlitchat for weekly checkin (not just sayin it bc this is your party). The final Twitter pb pitch was a great push to focus. +Just into my 1st #12x12pb!

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 11/01/2025

Free bird! I also went full extra...in the exact opposite direction... and did mine in watercolor. Thank you for the 2025 Bingo idea, @vbartles.bsky.social (& @krsilverstein.bsky.social ). Rad of you both to make shareables and invite playing along. #12x12pb #kidlitchat #writingcommunity #goals

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 09/01/2025

Countdown clock is chiming! I'm chuffed to be able to join in the fun of @12x12challenge.bsky.social! Been following since spring. See any of you on the call tonight? #kidlitchat #12x12PB

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 18/12/2024

@deniseganley.bsky.social Aaaaand there it is. Forgot the #kidlitchat on the one where I asked everyone to shower me w their goodreads profiles.

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 18/12/2024

Learning about StoryGraph from last week's wishes. While I debate & forget to look into it, I'd love to swap Goodreads with fellow pb obsessives. I mostly get recs from my MFA era; I am so not in the limits-of-language, genre-blurring literary mindset this...decade. www.goodreads.com/user/show/14...

goodreads.com

Katie

Katie has 1,135 books on Goodreads, and is currently reading Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L'Engle, Clock Without Hands by ...

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 18/12/2024

2/2 Two beauties that came out this year were Popi's All Souls Song and Winter Solstice Wish. Kudos to the creators and @beamingbooksmn.bsky.social for soulful, artful books to celebrate rich parts of the seasonal/liturgical year. I loved adding them to our rotation. #kidlitchat #pb

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 18/12/2024

ADORED Nen and the Lonely Fisherman (queer eco-conscious mermen, whaaaat!) #lgbtqbooks A few years old but but new to me (& US markets)! It's such a clever, emotionally intelligent and inclusive update on The Little Mermaid. #kidlitchat 1/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 06/11/2024

Very slight proposed amendment- my greatest thrill is that after handing my kids so many blank books to cocreate they've started offhandedly showing me booklets they've made solo. As easily, delightedly as blowing bubbles (to paraphrase I think Leonard Cohen about children casting song)❤️ #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 06/11/2024

So glad to say that polls in my swing county in swing MI were 400% smoother, more #faithinhumanity inducing than expected. Other precinct chairs agreeing. Strangers checked on each other. Voters sent elsewhere said great, thanks. All kinder than average grocery lines. 2/2 #kidlitchat #election2024

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 06/11/2024

I know we're all talking around the election but honestly the most uplifting kid thing was working the polls today! So many kids there being coached about rules & also how to move through that space. Esp 2 teens who showed autism-like traits & so patiently worked through the process #kidlitchat 1/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 11/10/2024

Bet you're impressed by my inner city Northern Lights. It really was dreamy - green strobes and pink puddles evanescent through the thinning crowns of trees. Even a fairly humble #auroraborealis turns me to #poetry at the beauty of our Earth.

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 09/10/2024

I adore all ages of #cozyfantasy, from DePaola's Strega Nona & Four Scary Stories, up to #mg A Wrinkle in Time or Bridge to Terabithia, to Stiefvater's #ya Raven Boys & Scorpio Races, to Practical Magic, Tanya Huff's Keeper trio & Sing the 4Q, Pern, Rivers of London #bookrecommendations #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 02/10/2024

Here's to all our beloved family eccentrics. May we know them, may we be them, may we raise them. #kidlitchat 2/2

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 18/09/2024

A #kidlitchat miracle! Not for the 1st time I just wove pretty deep in the interwebs iso a beloved #mg #fantasy novel title. I mostly remembered building a fairy ferris wheel from old bike tires and straws as a book report.Then *poof* #reddit takes me to 1999 Sarah-Kate in her hiking boots and slip

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 18/09/2024

So many, but I was particularly fascinated by the tiniest ones- the Borrowers using thimbles as cups and matchbox beds, Ralph from Mouse and the Motorcycle making engine noises, Hunka Munca the naughty mouse from Beatrix Potter's world who broke the fake ham off the dolls' plates. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 11/09/2024

Samesies. I was just posting how fabulously scatterbrained I am. I had to make my spouse help me choose only ONE wip, which seems cruel. But, shockingly, a few weeks later I'm kicking along with drafts and several illustrations. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 11/09/2024

I'm a creative tornado, who used to lose ideas on loose scraps til I found the perfect pocket-sized notebooks and retrained myself to keep ideas on separate pages and start new ones for each conference or season. Gamechanger. #kidlitchat

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Katie Booms Assarian @commonpoem.com · 04/09/2024

My only (stamp-related) regret is the Tomie DePaola Strega Nona ones sold out. Thus begins my scavenger hunt at the local USPS branches. #booknerd #kidlit

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