Reported by Angelina C. Hansen Sundee Frazier, born and raised in Washington and proud of it, won the 2008 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent. The main character of her first novel, BRENDAN BUCKLEY’S UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING IN IT, was originally written as a girl, Brenda. Changing the gender of her main character... Continue Reading →
A photo from the conference
Stay tuned for more conference photos in the printed Chinook, but I have to share this one shot of Chadwick Gillenwater as a gnome. He might not have had his dramatic entrance with the faculty parade, but I'd put him in a wheelbarrow and cart him around, all the same. (Note: that was a compliment.)... Continue Reading →
Congratulations to the 2010 Outstanding Work-in-Progress winners!
This year, we again asked each of our manuscript consultants to nominate one or more of the manuscripts they critiqued at SCBWI Western Washington's 19th Annual Writing and Illustrating for Children Conference.Here are the authors whose manuscripts received special recognition from our faculty consultants:Congratulations, winners!Please understand that some consultants chose not to participate, so if... Continue Reading →
Congratulations to the 2010 Juried Art Portfolio Display winners!
Great job, Western Washington illustrators! I have to tell you that several of the conference faculty made a point of telling us how impressed they were with the overall quality of all the portfolios in this year's juried art portfolio display, so everyone who participated should feel proud of his or her work--way to represent!That... Continue Reading →
Illustrator Panel: Secrets for Success at Every Stage #scbwiwwa
Dana Arnim, Jim Di Bartolo, Paul Schmid, and five stolen candy bars joined me, Jaime Temairik, Sunday afternoon.The panel had been asked to divulge three secrets -- career secrets, not political secrets, although I think Jim knows things...PERSONAL:The Chinook Update blog had a round up of local studio tours a few months ago. You may... Continue Reading →
Elizabeth Law (@egmontgal) talks more cowbell and less vampire #scbwiwwa
We're having some technical difficulties in Salon 1. In short, we have no audio. So Elizabeth Law is acting out this SNL skit on cowbell. I'm now a fan of having no audio, because it leads to performance art by Elizabeth. Outstanding!(And now, she just gave the A/V guy a cowbell. Zing!)Elizabeth's twitter name is... Continue Reading →
Laini Taylor on big, juicy plots #scbwiwwa
Here are a few highlights from Laini Taylor's breakout section on plot:Everything we do in writing is a balance between dramatization and narration.Plot is the answer to the question, "What happens?""What is the story about" is not a question about plot. That is about premise and themes.The plot is the sequence of events over which... Continue Reading →
Niche publicity ad marketing: how to tap into unusual markets #scbwiwwa
Barbara Fisch and Sarah Shealy are talking about niche markets and how you can get your book into them. Niche markets is a smaller, more focused area for targeted publicity.You want to pursue niche markets because review outlets for books are shrinking rapidly. We're down to two major newspapers with a pull-out review section (NY... Continue Reading →
Local success story panel #scbwiwwa
The stars of the panel this year are Robin Cruise, Holly Cupala, Kevin Emerson, Lois Harris, Paul Schmid, Suzanne Selfors, and Suzanne Young.Suzanne Selfors: She wrote three adult novels first, all dense historical fiction set in Ancient Greece. She faced a lot of rejection. She found herself loving and reading a lot of middle grade... Continue Reading →
Is your career over if you pitch an editor in the bathroom? #scbwiwwa
No, it is not. Mitali Perkins just confessed pitching Cheryl Klein of Scholastic in just such a venue.