Breakout Session: Beyond Scrivener - Using Tech To Tame Your Nonfiction Research with Colleen Paeff

 

Robert F. Sibert Honoree Colleen Paeff starts every book with a sense of wonder for her subject. Whether exploring the intersection of pollution and infrastructure, as in THE GREAT STINK: HOW JOSEPH BAZALGETTE SOLVED LONDON’S POOP POLLUTION PROBLEM (2021), or delving into the science of synchronous fireflies, as in the forthcoming FIREFLY SONG: LYNN FRIERSON FAUST AND THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAIN DISCOVERY (2025), Colleen aims to provide readers with equal doses of information and awe. Learn more about her books and her author presentations for young readers at www.colleenpaeff.com.

In celebration of the third anniversary of her award-winning book, The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London's Poop Pollution Problem, Colleen is offering picture book critiques to anyone who buys two copies of her book from her local indie bookstore (until they sell all their stock). "Look for details in my next newsletter!" Subscribe via her website below:

www.colleenpaeff.com

Wow, what a treasure trove of info in this session as well as Colleen's handout! Though the focus of this session was nonfiction research, I can't help but think that many of these tools would be super-useful for illustrators (especially reference material) and fiction writers as well.
For each tool, she explained why and how she uses it in her research process, with plenty of how-to screenshots and examples. I definitely plan to watch the replay of this session so I can pause at certain sections, take notes, try things out, etc. Here are some she discussed:
The Library ExtensionFree library catalog search tool that automatically shows if a book you're viewing on Amazon and other retail sites is available at your local library. Over 5,000 libraries are supported!
Scan Text into Notes Free. Uses OCR technology (Optical Character Recognition) to turn written text from an analog source into searchable, editable text.
Kindle AppFree. Using Readwise with the Kindle sends highlights to your preferred note-taking app (Colleen uses Obsidian). Colleen then breaks up these highlights into separate notes and adds tags to help keep her research organized.
ReadwiseCost: USD $129/year. Readwise enables you to create highlights fro a wide variety of online sources and store them in your note-taking app.
Otter.aiCost: Free (with limitations); USD $30/month; $100/year. Voice to text transcription tool that uses AI to quickly transcribe lectures, dictation, audio files, and meetings (virtual or face-to-face).
ReaderCost: A Readwise subscription. A "read later" app like Pocket or Instapaper.
ObsidianCost: Free or USD $4/month to sync across devices. Bare bones but powerful note-taking app that lets users connect ideas from a variety of sources and allows you to organize them, creating links and tags. (Note from Debbie: I love Obsidian, too! I use it for my picture book project notes as well as other book projects.)
After telling us about even more methods and tools and knowledge management rabbit holes to check out, Colleen reminds us that there is no ONE right method, and each creator needs to find what works for them. In the end, none of these tools are necessary to write a book. 

Debut Author Panel: Colleen Paeff

Colleen Paeff received a bachelor’s degree in set design for theater from California State University, Fullerton, before becoming a bookseller, preschool teacher, and newspaper columnist. (She never did become a set designer!) Her debut picture book, The Great Stink: How Joseph Bazalgette Solved London’s Poop Pollution Problem (illustrated by Nancy Carpenter), was named a 2022 Robert F. Sibert Informational Fiction Honor Book and won the 2022 Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction Text for Young Readers. 

What were you like as a kid? 

Colleen had a huge imagination as a kid, and like fellow panelist Pamela Harris, Colleen also loved Judy Blume saying, “To this day, every time Judy Blume appears, I start crying.”

When did you start writing?

Colleen got her first idea for a book in college when she was introducing her pet lizard to her dad who then leapt onto his glasses (the lizard did the leaping, not her father). Colleen admits that manuscript is still sitting in a drawer but that is what started her off. 

Between your first college lizard story and your debut book you may have experienced some challenging moments where you wanted to give up, how did you push through? 

Colleen says, “I feel like I did give up many times along the way. I had my family, and raised a child. I’d send a manuscript out and get rejected and then wait five years, and then revise it and send it out again… But the thing that really brought me back to writing seriously, after my daughter moved out for college, was I went to an SCBWI Writers Day and entered one of the contests."

Colleen's lizard story won one of these contests and that gave her the thought that maybe there was something there, it gave her a boost of confidence… "Now when I look back at the editor rejection letters, I received they weren’t really rejection letters—I didn’t realize what a big deal it was for someone to take the time to write something personal—it was actually an invitation to do more.”

Colleen credits trusting herself more than learning a new element of writing craft as the biggest factor in her sales success, and that a big part learning to trust herself came from finally finding her writing community. When Colleen first started to get serious about publishing she sent a request out on the SCBWI message board asking for people who were in the LA area that might want to join a monthly children’s book club. Ann Whitford Paul ended up seeing that post and invited Colleen to a write-in where she met lots of other local children’s book creators.

How did The Great Stink come about?

“How to be a Victorian was a book I was reading as research for another project, and it mentioned something called The Great Stink: When the River Thames was fullllll of sewage, and then, when a heat wave happened, it created this horrible, horrible smell…”

Colleen happened to be going to London and while there visited the Crossness Pumping station that pumped all that stink into a reservoir. Colleen found it all so fascinating. “What I hope readers take away, what I didn’t even realize, is that we still have billions of gallons of raw sewage going into our fresh waterways every year.” 

How has publishing changed your life? 

Colleen still has the same voices in her head saying the same mean things, sadly the publishing deal did not make the voices go away, but she keeps writing anyway. “Writing is so weird, for such a long time you don’t have The Book Deal. And yet you’re still spending so much time writing, working on it, revising, and YOU have to be the one to do it all. Now I feel like I have a team of people who have faith that I can publish a book, too.”

Look for Colleen's second book, Rainbow Truck (co-written with Hina Abidi and illustrated by Saffa Khan) from Chronicle Books in August of 2023 and learn more about her at www.colleenpaeff.com or on Instagram @ColleenPaeff and Twitter @ColleenPaeff.

The Debut Author Panel Begins!

Moderated by Martha Brockenbrough, the "Debut Author Panel: An Honest Talk About the Path to Publication" has four debut author panelists:

Clockwise from Martha at top left, the panelists are:

Pamela Harris, whose debut YA mystery is "When You Look Like Us"

Winsome Bingham, whose debut Picture book is "Soul Food Sunday"

Colleen Paeff, whose debut Picture book is "The Great Stink"

Dustin Thao, whose debut YA novel is "You've Reached Sam"

also pictured, in the 9 o'clock spot, is ASL interpreter Keturah.

Look for individual blog posts for each debut author!