Weekend on the Water! Open-door Kid Lit Drink Night for anyone who wants to join! What's not to love? Hope to see you all there, where you, too, can schmooze our amazing faculty and join your fellow SCBWI folk for a laugh, a toast, and even a nugget of advice...or two!
Sara on a Sunday!
You're never too far away from SCBWI-WWA! While on vacation back East, imagine the thrill I just experienced as I opened the New York Times Book Review this morning over breakfast, where the name SARA NICKERSON fairly leapt off the page in the Children's Book section (apologies for the blur––I blame my hands, which were... Continue Reading →
Highlights from the Nonfiction Intensive
On Friday, Andrew Karre from Lerner/Carolrhoda gifted a group of our region’s nonfiction writers with over five hours of his undivided attention. And, wow, was it an afternoon to remember! He brainstormed with the group and helped us hone our ideas into something marketable. He gave feedback on our short proposals and/or first pages. And he gave insight... Continue Reading →
Lucy Ruth Cummins: Now/New/Next
Lucy Ruth Cummins is an art director at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. She gave us a look at what she is seeing a lot of in terms of illustrated books and what she sees as trending. This was an opportunity to see books she admires and has worked on, in many styles,... Continue Reading →
Matt de la Peña: Hey, Author Person, Get Out Of My Way
Matt de la Peña followed up his Friday Fiction Intensive, focusing on dialogue, and his Saturday Keynote address with a terrific breakout session on the use of the narrator in fiction--getting out of the way of your characters and clearing the stage for them to do the work. Matt spoke to the importance of the... Continue Reading →
Keynote Speaker Rachel Vail: Building Character- Creating Believable Kids
Our final keynote for the conference was Author Rachel Vail. Rachel shared insights and stories from her children and childhood to show us how to make believable characters and stories. She talked about how books show us other layers, perspectives, experiences and a mirror to ourselves as writers and readers. She also talked about how... Continue Reading →
Caroline Sun: How to Work with Your Publicist
Caroline Sun, the Senior Publicity Manager at HarperCollins Children's Books, gave us a much-appreciated glimpse behind the publicity curtain. Here are a few of the highlights: Your editor will typically introduce you to your publicist 4-5 months before the publication date to share plans, timelines, and initial ideas. He or she will want to know... Continue Reading →
Local Success Panel: Stasia Kehoe, Kiki Hamilton, Ben Clanton, Deb Lund #scbwiwwa
This is what success looks like! (Only in real life, it has better lighting) This year we featured four local talents who make us proud: Stasia Kehoe, author of the novel in verse AUDITION; Kiki Hamilton, author of the fantasy THE FAERIE RING; Ben Clanton, author and illustrator of VOTE FOR ME; and Deb Lund,... Continue Reading →
Melissa Sweet Keynote: Play at Work
Melissa Sweet telling us how she works. Melissa Sweet, the amazing illustrator of more than 100 books for kids (!), has won all sorts of recognition for her work from outfits you might have heard of, including the New York Times and NCTE. And then there's her Caldecott Honor for A River of Words: The Story of... Continue Reading →
Helen Landalf – Keeping it Real: Bringing Authenticity to Fiction
Helen Landalf (Flyaway, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) identified three elements of authenticity in fiction and illustrated each with examples from regional author’s published books. “Most of us can just feel when a story is authentic – it’s like a punch in the gut.” “If a story feels authentic the reader has the reader firmly... Continue Reading →