The Ins & Outs of Author Publishing Panel - A Self Publishing Panel: Hilary Horder / Hillary Moore

BALLARD OF THE BROOM is an author-published book written by Hilary Horder Hippley and illustrated by Hillary Moore. 

Hilary Horder Hippely is the writer of the author-published BALLAD OF THE BROOM. She has also traditionally published 5 books. Hilary is represented by Karen Grencik, at Red Fox Literary.

Hilary notes that the choice to author publish is about your goals. You need to feel passionately about what doing. The BALLAD OF THE BROOM was decades in the making. And, there are reasons Hilary decided to author publishing (self-published). Hilary did share the manuscript with her agent, who loved it but also thought it would be a hard sell in the market. 

Some considerations that made Hilary go the author-publishing route were: It's a book that defies the rules of picture books. The subject matter not typical to most picture books. It's also a ballad, and verse is a challenging sell in the market; Most picture books are targeted to 4 to 8 years old. This book is for 6 to 10 year olds; And, Hilary wanted to be able to choose her illustrator, Hillary Moore. Hillary was exactly who Hilary Horder wanted for this project.

Hilary shares that Reedsy was a great resources for needed services. (Note: SCBWI members have access to self-publishing resources, which included vetted service providers. https://www.scbwi.org/self-publishing-resources )

A success moment connected to this book for Hilary: There are certain booksellers that love that book, and carry it. Just yesterday Hilary was a tiny bookstore and the BALLAD OF THE BROOM was tucked between Ferdinand and Where the Wild Things Are. Hilary says, "How cool is that?" Very cool! Also, a child approaching her, clutching it to her chest, tell Hilary that it's her favorite books and that she asks her parents to read it to her every night. 

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Hillary Moore is the illustrator of the author published Ballad of the Broom, which is a 36 page picture book, not typical for a traditionally published book, but when you are publishing, you can to make those decisions. This is her debut picture book. She is represented by Marietta Zacker at Gallt & Zacker Literary Agency.

Hillary says the owrk on BALLAD OF THE BROOM was a labor of love, and it was not a quick and easy process. Hilary Horder and Hillary Moore worked in collaboration together, making a whole lot of tiny choices to make the book happen. 

In doing this work Hillary learned a lot of new skills, mostly in the design of the book. 

A really interesting note shared by teh writer about the illustrator role: In doing the illustration for this book, Hilary Horder gave Hillary Moore the control over the illustration. A picture book is a marriage of text and illustration, and it was important that Hillary did the illustration in service to the story, not in service to the writer. 

A success moment connected to this book for Hillary: Hillary says there are so many. But the book is inspired by an actual island--a tiny--one you could walk across in five minutes. Hillary had been to this very island, such a obscure place, and felt magical. There was serendipity to it all when Hilary invited her to be part of this project. 

If you have interest in author publishing yourself, this panel is a must watch. So much information was shared. 

If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference,

register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2025. Replays of the

conferences will be available until September 14th, 2025.

Day Two Welcome with Sarah Baker

 Day Two Welcome with Sarah Baker

"Hi, everyone! So glad you're here with us on Day 2 of the SCBI Virtual Summer Conference, and I hope everyone's having a great conference so far!"

Sarah greeted us with the warmest smile on Day 2 of the virtual conference. We started with a question:

"I would love to know in the chat, what was one standout thing that you learned yesterday?"

The chat lit up with highlights from the breakout sessions, the panels, the keynote, the roundtables.

"The book finds you" -Kari Hale

It's so helpful to know what other people are learning at the conference. Everyone seemed super enthusiastic, because the chat was moving so fast!

"It looks like everyone's been having a great time, and that makes us so happy at SCBWI. We try really hard to make this a really rich experience, and we try to put content in here that will fit for everyone, no matter where you're at in your writing and illustrating and translating journey."

Reminder, if you post any inspirational nuggets on social media, don't forget to use the #scbwisummer25 so everyone can find each other and get to see everyone else's highlights. 

"Okay, so we're going to get started with a fantastic panel, The Ins and Outs of Author Publishing!"

Sarah then introduced our fantastic moderator, Lee Wind.

Breakout Session #2: Scripting a Graphic Novel with Shannon Hale

  Scripting a Graphic Novel with Shannon Hale

Shannon Hale (Author) is the New York Times best-selling author of fifty books for preschoolers, kids, teens, and adults, including multiple award winners The Goose Girl, Book of a Thousand Days, and Newbery Honor recipient Princess Academy. With LeUyen Pham, she created her best-selling graphic novel memoirs Real Friends, Best Friends, and Friends Forever, and the Itty-Bitty Kitty-Corn picture books. She co-writes books with her husband Dean Hale, like the Eisner-nominated graphic novel Rapunzel's Revenge (with Nathan Hale), books for DC Comics about young Wonder Woman (with Victoria Ying), and best-selling chapter book series The Princess in Black (with LeUyen Pham). She lives in Utah with her four children and two ridiculous cats.

"There is not a standard for what the script looks like. It varies. Screen writing does but with graphic novel writing, everyone has a different look of script."

Shannon spoke about the very unique format. "Graphic Novels are a medium, NOT a genre." 

• Completely unique art
• We don't have the cushion of narration we have in prose 
• Unlike in movies, we don't have the cushion of sound, music and movement 
• Art through a series of static images
• The reader must be able to final in the space between the panels on their own
  

With graphic novels, "you can tell any story you want, not just superhero ones."

1. Choose what story you want to write: Is there a reason that this story needs to be graphic novel rather than prose? 

"So there's just a million ways to take advantage of this format that I find so playful and enjoyable." Shannon appreciated graphic novels because it allows you to contrast the mundane look of reality with the color world of the imagination. 

"And the juxtaposition of the narration saying one thing, and then what's actually happening being something different. It's something that you couldn't do in prose." Think about why your story is a graphic novel verses proses. 

Graphic novels are a great opportunity for "show, don't tell"

The composition, the color scheme, the softness/hardness can all be little clues to the reader, even if they might not stop and notice those things. But they feel them and absorb them.

"So, with graphic novels, you can be very thoughtful about all these little choices that you make." There are endless opportunities for "show, don't tell" with a graphic novel.

"What your secret to writing a great graphic novel script?

OUTLINE.

"Each line represents one page of art."

"So, it probably goes without saying, but I need to be really familiar with graphic novels and comics as an art form in order to write in it. To understand how much you can tell on a page."

Shannon meticulously decides how much information you can give in a single panel that's going to communicate and work. So reading a lot of graphic novels is super important. "Sometimes my graphic novel outlines can be a higher word count than my actual script."

One reason why Shannon needs an outline for graphic novels as a prose writer is that she is used to solving the problems and to seeing the story in that way. And before she starts breaking it out into individual panels, she needs to see the narrative flow, because that is how her brain works. 

"I can solve so many narrative problems, so many plot problems, and character problems and arc problems in outline form before I start to panel." So she spends most of her time outlining the story. She can spend months outlining but once she is done, script writing comes easily. "Focused, heavy work before I start to script."

One thing to keep in mind when you're structuring your story is that because a graphic novel is a visual format, readers are going to intuitively expect a kind of 3 Act structure that we're used to getting in movies. Doesn't mean you have to follow it, but it is a tool in your toolbelt.

Shannon continued on about narrative tools, the story "beat sheet" as well as other tools she uses to complete a graphic novel script. Another one that I must rewatch as there was so much jam-packed in this session, and as I have a graphic novel in mind, I want to take all the notes I can.

This session as well as the many others will be available to rewatch over and over until September 14th, 2025 through the Membership portal!

Happy Conferencing!

Breakout Session 2 - Plots, Bots, & Knots: How to fix your YA novel with Stacey Lee

Stacey Lee is the New York Times and Indie bestselling author of historical and contemporary young adult fiction, including The Downstairs Girl, a Reese’s Book Club Summer 2021 Young Adult pick, and her most recent novel, Kill Her Twice, a School Library Journal best book of the year.  A native of southern California and fourth-generation Chinese American, she is a founder of the We Need Diverse Books movement and writes stories for all kids (even the ones who look like adults). Stacey loves board games, has perfect pitch, and through some mutant gene, can smell musical notes through her nose. Connect with her @staceyleeauthor on Instagram, and @staceylee.author on Facebook.

Stacey will focus on the 3 core elements of plot: goals, obstacles, stakes.

Without these 3 elements your story lacks the gas your story needs to drive itself to its destination. 

1. GOALS

• Our character needs to want something
• Goals come in all sizes
• Goals need to be specific
• Goals change as the plot evolve

2. OBSTACLES

Types: physical, other people, a threat, internal struggle

There's no specific number of obstacle your novel needs. A rule of thumb: for every goal, your character needs at least one obstacle working against it. The more obstacles, the more interesting. 

3. STAKES

What is on the line for the character?

• what your character stands to gain or lose
• personal, shaped by the characters values
• internal stakes
• external stakes

So ask yourself:

What's at stake for your character? 

What is the worst that can happen?

What do they stand to lose?

If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference,

register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2025. Replays of the

conferences will be available until September 14th, 2025.

Creating Winning Picture Book Biographies with Don Tate

 Don Tate is an award-winning author and/or illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed nonfiction biographies for kids including (this is a partial list!) Carter Reads The Newspaper, No Small Potatoes: Junius G. Groves and his Kingdom in Kansas, Whoosh! Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions, The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch, Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton, It Jes’ Happened: When Bill Traylor Started To Draw, Strong As Sandow: How Eugen Sandow Became The Strongest Man on Earth, William Still and his Freedom Stories: Father of the Underground Railroad, Jerry Changed The Game! How Engineer Jerry Lawson Revolutionized Video Games Forever, and Swish! The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters.

In today's fantastic session on crafting picture book biographies Don demonstrates the power of finding your next nonfiction story by looking for what was missing from your own childhood library and shining a light on the role models you wish you'd been able to read about when you were growing up. 

Little Don!

Don, growing up in Iowa, did not see black men as heroes in the books of his school or public libraries—in highschool he was assigned to read European folktales, Edgar Allan Poe, Thoreau, Steinbeck, Hemingway. Don felt like these books weren't for him, but for his white friends. And that didn't change after college when Don's new job as a book designer for an educational publisher had him designing guides for, you guessed it, European folktales and books by Edgar Allan Poe, Thoreau, Steinbeck and Hemingway.  But that publisher also had him designing a guide for a book he'd never seen before, Black Boy by Richard Wright.

It was the first time Don had seen a black male centered in a book, the first book he could really relate to. Don says that Wright's autobiography saved his life and is what made him a reader. Don went on to read the biographies of Frederick Douglass, Malcolm X, Claude Brown, Nathan McCall, and many more. Don saw himself in these black men in America who faced obstacles, most often racism, and how they overcame these obstacles to contribute greatly to the American story. All of which was so inspiring to Don that when he entered publishing he knew he wanted to create books that were missing from his childhood library with subjects such as these inspiring men. 

And that's just the first bit! The rest of Don's session takes us deeper into how to find your next biography inspiration (including thinking of heroes in our news today, not just of the past), he shares tips on research (we all bow down to the amazing resource that is librarians!!), and ways for artists to develop their written voice (super cool tips from Don and how he uses 'mentor texts').

Writing from the Immigrant Experience Author Panel - Edwidge Danticat / Suma Subramaniam

Edwidge Danticat was born in Haiti and now lives in New York, and many of her books capture moments special to each space she's lived in. Watch Out For Falling Iguanas captures a quintessential Florida experience Edwidge remembers from her many years of living in Florida. 

Edwidge also captured a darker and less quintessential Florida experience that even ten years after it's publication is unfortunately still occuring: Her book Mama's Nightingale, came from Edwidge's visits to detention centers in Miami. Places like Boystown where there were often young or very young unaccompanied minors forced to appear alone in their immigration court hearings. The book was recently banned specifically for supporting open borders proving it's still unfortunately a very relevant book. Other titles from Edwidge: Anacaona, Behind the Mountains, Eight Days, The Last Mapou, Untwine, My Mommy Medicine, and a travel narrative, After the Dance. Her memoir, Brother, I'm Dying, was a 2007 finalist for the National Book Award. She is a 2009 MacArthur Fellow among many other honors.

Suma Subramaniam was born in a bustling city in South India and now lives in Washington state. She is the author of the V. Malar chapter book series set in India, My Name Is Long As A River, and Crystal Kite Award Winner, Namaste Is A Greeting. Her poems have been published in the Young People's Poetry edition of Poetry Magazine from Poetry Foundation. 

STEM and STEAM issues dealing with severe weather, nature conservation, and animal welfare are present in Suma's V. Malar series right alongside celebratory and joyful explorations of holidays and cultural rituals because everything we have done seasonally as a society, including holidays, has been impacted by climate change.

Both Suma and Edwidge talked about the importance of storytellers in their own childhoods, namely their grandparents and older family members sharing oral histories of their cultural past, with both celebratory and cautionary tales being told, and both authors strive to carry on in those traditions of sharing and telling.

The subject of book bans came up again in this session. Edwidge, who grew up under a dictatorship, reminds us that tyrants in power go after writers and artists first because like us they know the power of the written word and drawn image. 

Writing from the Immigrant Experience - An Author Panel: Hanh Bui / Meera Sriram

 Writing from the Immigrant Experience - An Author Panel

Paulo Yoo: Let's start with introduction! Tell us a little about yourself!

Hanh Bui : Hello, my name is Hanh Bui. My latest book is Ann's New Word.It's inspired by my first teacher in America, Miss Mary Ellen. She is the reason that I grew up to become a teacher as well. I met her at the refugee camp when my family and I came to this country in 1975, at the end of the Vietnam War. She helped me during a time when I was struggling to navigate life in a new country. She made me feel safe and seen, and I knew that I would someday want to grow up to become a teacher as well. I spend a lot of time with children in schools, and is really the highlight of being an author, being able to be with the kids that I write these stories for.

Meera Sriram: Hi, everyone. My name is Meera Sriram. I was born and raised in a very "busy, colorful, chaotic, bustling city" called Chennai in the south of India. I immigrated to the United States when I was 23 years old and I've lived in this country for over 25 years. I currently live in Berkeley, California. I mostly write picture books, My recent title, The Spice Box, is a little boy who wants to cook using the heirloom spice box, which holds more than just the colorful spices. Essentially the story is about the power of family history, their history of migration and hopes and dreams. It's a celebration of the amazing smells, the aroma, and the colors, and the flavors of the different types of curry that we have in Indian cooking. It's a way to decolonize the curry.

Paula: I want to talk about some personal stuff in terms of what about your own background, what specific moments or stories,  inspired you to realize this isn't just an anecdote but a book. 

Hanh: So, in 1975, when my family and I left Vietnam at the end of the Vietnam War, we were rescued at sea by the U.S and that was the beginning of my journey in the resettlement.

After being at sea and the trauma of leaving and losing home, and family, it was scary when I first arrived. I didn't want to speak at all. I only spoke with my family.

And then I met Miss Marilou. I gravitated towards her because she was so kind and gentle in her approach.

This story is actually inspired by a true event. One day, I went to a refugee camp store where I found a sweater. And on the sweater, there was a reindeer stitched on it. And it was Rudolph, but of course I didn't know that, because we didn't have reindeers in Vietnam. So I wenr to school to ask Miss Marilou. I didn't know what the word was so I pointed to it, and she said told me that it was a reindeer, which became my first English word and the inspiration for this book. I also wanted to honor my grandmother, who helped me to be brave, because seeing my grandmother face so many new challenges and learning a new language made me feel if my grandmother can do it, then I can do it too. This year is actually 50 years since we came to the United States i and I reunited with Marilou, my first teacher.

So, Miss Marilou was 19, and I was 8. And she had given me a photo on the last day, and on the back of the photo, she had written, "Hanh, I love you, Marilou Shaida," and because she had written her full name, my husband was able to find her. And I felt like it was really important to write a story that honors the journey that children go through learning a new language and navigating two worlds.

There's so many kids out going through that now and felt it would be comforting for them to know that it's not just about learning a new language—it’s about learning anything new. It's really about trying and not giving up. And so, um, when I go to school visits and kids get to see me, and they know that.

Paula: One of the controversies right now is that there's a growing movement, to try and make English the official language of America. There’s a lot of debate over this. How do you feel about that, and how has being bilingual or multilingual benefitted you both as a person and as a writer?

Hanh: I remember when I first came here, my grandparents kept trying to encourage me to only speak English. Because my grandparents didn't speak much English, I end up being our family translator. But I loved hearing my language at home. Because that's what made me feel safe, especially as I was navigating two world, at school and at the camp was all Vietnamese children.

But once we were sponsored, and I was the only student in my class that was not a Caucasian, I was really nervous, and worried about speaking the language. And so I loved when I could go to my ESL class at school. I could speak English or Vietnamese. And I think that there's so much beauty to having all of our languages heard. And I feel that knowing another language actually helped me to learn English. And so, I encourage that with my children, to speak multiple languages. 

First of all, when I heard that English was to be the official language, I felt like it has always been the official language in this country but I also thought that there's beauty in all of the other languages that I get to hear around me. And I think that it does help us as writers to be open to the experiences of others.

Meera: I'm a strong advocate for bilingualism, and multilingualism. There’s scientific research that has shown considerable brain development in younger kids that speak more than one language.

And also when I speak, I have an accent, and people always ask me, “What language do you write your books in?” I have to tell them English. When they ask, “How come?” I tell them, “If you knew your history of India being colonized by the British, then you would know that most of us in India can speak and understand English.” I am happy to say that one of my books, A Gift for Amma, was probably one of the first books to have a Tamil word on the book cover, in the title. It means mother. So I am always an advocate for including words, and I prefer not to italicize those words. Because it's a form of resistance to keep them in non-italicized. I do what I can to make sure that communities that speak languages other than English feel seen and feel heard.

Paula: I want to talk about family. We started talking about that earlier, and I wanted to return to Han. In your book, The Yellow Áo Dài,  you have a lot going from the grandmother to the mother, to the daughter.  In terms of stories of immigration, why is it so important to bring in the old people? Because these are books for young kids, but we're bringing in the grandmas, the aunties, the uncles. Why is that important, and how do you do it in a way that is engaging for children to learn about those types of connections?

Hanh: Going back to the language conversation, it means so much to me the first time I saw the word Áo Dài on the cover of the book, which is the Vietnamese traditional dress. And now kids in school know what Áo Dài is. 

But when you asked about grandparents, it is about honoring those who came before us. That’s a big inspiration for me as far as wanting to include that in my book because my grandmother would share oral storytelling. She gifted that to me during our whole journey coming to America.

When I was feeling very seasick and very worried, she would calm me with stories of our homeland. And so, I learned that from her, and I do that with my own children. I share our stories, and I honor my grandmother and my mother-in-law.

That's why The Yellow Áo Dài is about my daughter and her grandmother, and their love of being princesses. Their love of our traditional dances, the fan dance and our traditional dress, our Áo Dài. We write stories that are more complex. We write our family stories, and I remember when my daughter was feeling sad that she didn't know her grandmother because she passed away when she was a baby. But when my daughter saw all these photos of grandmother wearing Áo Dài in her favorite color, yellow, she felt closer to her and want to learn about our family history. And I wanted to celebrate my own grandmother. 

I think a lot of children can relate to stories that have to do with their grandparents and those kind of relationships.

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This panel was full of such rich topics and having so many writers speak on their lived experience and how it influences their work was awe-inspiring. This brought me much hope in a political world that tries to silence storytellers. 

Reminder that this will be available to rewatch until September 14th, 2025 in your SCBWI Membership portal.   

Inspired by her first teacher at the refugee camp, Hanh Bui pursued a master’s degree in Early Childhood Education and taught second grade. Hanh’s commitment to celebrating her heritage includes giving presentations at school visits about her refugee experience to children studying immigration as part of their school curriculum. She serves as co-chair of the Equity and Inclusion Team for the Mid-Atlantic region of SCBWI. She is the author of The Yellow Áo Dài and Ánh's New Word, (Feiwel & Friends, Macmillan). 

Meera Sriram draws from her life straddling the East and West to tell stories for children. She is the author of several picture books including A GIFT FOR AMMA (South Asia Book Award), DUMPLING DAY (featured in The New York Times),  A GARDEN IN MY HANDS (SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Finalist) and the most recent THE SPICE BOX (CALIBA Golden Poppy Award Finalist). Her work has been selected Best Book of the Year by School Library Journal and Bank Street College, included in several state reading lists, and has received starred reviews from Kirkus, SLJ, and Publishers Weekly. Meera also volunteers her time to champion the Equity & Inclusion Awards in her SCBWI region. She lives with her family in Berkeley, California. For more information, please visit:   http://www.meerasriram.com 

Writing from the Immigrant Experience Author Panel: Paula Yoo (moderator) / Zahra Marwan

Paul Yoo is an accomplished writer. RISING FROM THE ASHES: LOS ANGELES, 1992. EDWARD JAE SONG LEE, LATASHA HARLINS, RODNEY KING, AND A CITY ON FIRE (Norton 2024) won the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award & SCBWI Golden Kite Award/Nonfiction Older Readers. FROM A WHISPER TO A RALLYING CRY: THE KILLING OF VINCENT CHIN AND THE TRIAL THAT GALVANIZED THE ASIAN AMERICAN MOVEMENT (Norton 2021) won the Horn Book Award, longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award and was a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. Other books include the YA novel GOOD ENOUGH (HarperCollins 2008) and nonfiction picture books from Lee & Low Books about Dr. Sammy Lee, Anna May Wong, and Dr. Muhammad Yunus. Paula’s TV credits range from NBC’s THE WEST to The CW’s SUPERGIRL and multiple pilots. She enjoys playing violin & with her 4 cats!

Paula starts by noting how nuanced talking about the immigrant experience is. She holds up all the panelists books and her enthusiasm for all of them is contagious. She even made the potato curry recipe in the back of The Spice Box by Meera Sriram (panelist) and brought it to make us all salivate.

During conversation about language, Paula shares for those who might not know, that there has been a movement in the last 20 years to stop italicizing words written in a foreign language as not to other them. 

Fun fact and connection with panelist Edwidge Danticat: Paula was a huge fan of Edwidge's adult short stories, and when Paula was writing for The West Wing, episode 414, they were sitting around the room, with Aaron Sorkin, pitching ideas for a revolution happening, and Paula had read Edwidge's story Children of the Sea which Paula used as an example and that's what lead to the storyline for that episode. How cool is that!

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Working as a traditional artist with watercolor and ink, Zahra Marwan creates work that reflects her cultural roots in Kuwait as well as her life now in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She loves poetry and independent cinema and how quiet and mysterious the night is. She is deeply fond of the sea.

Her debut picture book, Where Butterflies Fill the Sky, was published by Bloomsbury Books and named one of the New York Times / New York Public Library’s 10 Best Illustrated Books as well as NPR’s Best Books of 2022. The week before receiving the Dilys Evans Founders Award from the Society of Illustrators, she was honored with an award by the UN Human Rights Commission for creating art that brings visibility to statelessness, indigenous groups, and minority rights.

Where Butterflies Fill the Sky about not wanting to leave her home as a child and the luck of coming to New Mexico. And Zahra's latest book The Sunflowers relates to the art our ancestors have left us in a way to connect with family. 

In discussing language, Zahra shares that she grew up speaking Arabic. Now living Quebec, she speaks to people in both Arabic and French, and she notes that when she is in public and speak Arabic, she feels more scared than if she was speaking French. Simply introducing herself and saying her name prompts questions from people. For Zahra, the personal is always political, and she is alway navigating how to survive in countries that don't want her. 

Zahra believes that Arabic language is so rich and inspires her art. Her art is stunning, and Paula (our moderator) notes that there are so many easter eggs in the art that Zahra let's us know about in the author's note. Do take a look!

Her book iWhere the Butterflies Fill the Sky received an award from the United Nation Human Rights Commission for brining visibility to statelessness, indigenous, and minority rights. 

Zahra has felt really lucky to work with editors she has. They have taken her, and what she wants to do, seriously--the stories from her culture and what she understands her culture to be as opposed to constant Ramadan stories.  Zahra says, "There's more to the Middle East."

This panel discussion is deep and personal, and one you'll want to listen to. I hope you will.

If you want to view this session to hear the full content, along with the rest of the conference, register at https://www.scbwi.org/events/virtual-summer-conference-2025. Replays of the conferences will be available until September 14th, 2025.

Breakout Session #1 - Telling the Truth: How to Combine Research and Storytelling Strategies to Craft Compelling Narrative Nonfiction with Paula Yoo

Author Paula Yoo  talks about all genres from picture book, middle grade, and young adult nonfiction for today's session focusing on 'narrative' nonfiction. For clarification she offers Melissa Stewart's wonderful essay (and her book out about it!) that explains the differences between the five established types of nonfiction: active, browsable, traditional, expository literature and narrative nonfiction.

Paula shares fascinating details and backstory about the subjects of her books in this session with tons of detail that will make you want to read the full stories. She gives us examples of how she turned facts on a timeline that read like a Wikipedia entry into emotionally resonant stories built around life-changing moments that make for compelling kid nonfiction reads. Information plus evidence (wikipedia facts) plus an emotional reaction give Paula 'the truth' the emotional core of what gets readers into the story. Paula gives examples from her own books as well as authors like Don Tate and Christina Soontornvat on how they combine biographical truths and emotional reactions to make great narrative nonfiction picture books.

Paula gives behind the scenes details of the making of her books including Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire and From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement sharing her experiences speaking to first hand witnesses, survivors, and family members touched by these events and gives session attendees tons of great advice on ways to research the best primary sources.

Paula's time spent working writing for Hollywood has also informed how she writes narrative nonfiction and she shares additional tips particularly on how screenwriting and storyboarding techniques can help authors build up, among other things, better dialogue within narrative nonfiction.

Paula went on to share her actual nonfiction book proposals showing attendees all the ways in which these initial sales documents must sell not just the subject of the book but the emotion in it as well. Even if you are not interested in writing nonfiction this whole session is an incredibly thoughtful and fascinating talk for anyone remotely interested in civil rights issues and American history.

Breakout Session 1: My Secrets: How I Make Picture Book Art with Heart with Rahele Jomepour Bell

My Secrets: How I Make Picture Book Art with Heart (and Hybrid Techniques) 

with Rahele Jomepour Bell

Rahele Jomepour Bell was so excited to be sharing a personal look into her illustration process and some of the techniques that she uses to bring the stories to life. Rahele spoke about emotion in picture book illustration, and the steps she has taken throughout that journey and the philosophy of her storytelling using pictures. How she adds emotions, and some of the techniques that she uses. 

"This is me at 5 years old."

Originally from Mashhad, Iran, the second biggest city in Iran, where she gets much inspiration from the colorful patterned tiles and the pictorial history of the people, helping to build their identity and shape who they are in the future. 

“I remember me and my grandma used to go to the mosque. She was going to pray, but I didn't care. All I cared about were all these rich textures and patterns and tiles. The colors. The mystical, mysterious atmosphere.”

She remembers looking at the huge, beautiful, heavenly architecture and being amazed. Patterns are a huge part of Rahele’s artistic identity, and these images show how intricate and beautiful the tile work from Mashhad is. 

Moving from Iran to the United States was a huge journey for her and shaped who she is today. She always encourages people to travel because it gives you a new perspective to your lived experience.

Based in the Kansas area, Rahele is an educator at Kansas City Art Institute in the illustration department. Rahele feels so fortunate to have several publishes picture books and is thankful for her agent, Christy Ewers. 

We started with the concept of "The Blank Mind." A lot of times people ask, "How do you have get such expressive illustrations? How did you add emotion?"

As we know, as creators, sometimes we have “blank minds.”

She started to realize why we have fear in our drawing, or why we have a “blank mind," where we can’t come up with good ideas. One reason, she says, is the lack of conscious awareness, meaning we are not "aware of our subconscious." That is when she discovered amazing surrealism artists. 

To improve her subconscious mind and to generate emotion in her art, Rahele introduced the concept of Automatic Drawing, where you make marks in an accidental, and random fashion.

Those surrealism artists used automatic drawing. “Their intention was to free draw from rational control and access the subconscious.” They were attempting to release that fear of drawing. And Rahele encouraged us to take that huge step. By using simple lines and form and rich texture, you can simply see the emotion in your work.

Here are some illustrations drawn by Rahele that were influenced by the surrealist approach of using free-form lines and shapes. 

"Emotionalizing my work, and not having that fear of bringing the subconscious out is doodling."  Don’t be afraid of the messy, unpredictable nature of automatic drawing. It helps you be spontaneous, and improve your abstract skills, allowing you to let go of the perfectionism. 

“It's about letting the story find its own shape on the page, guided by my subconscious.” Don’t overthink it. When you are dealing with emotion, it’s all about filling that “blank mind” and coming up with the idea.

“There are two types of emotions when we are making illustrations, or any kind of visual art—basic emotions and complex emotion.”

Basic emotions are the ones like happiness, sadness, anger, fear. But when you want to exaggerate that emotion, you need to use complex emotions and bring out those underlying tones. Find ways to deepen your understanding, and the understanding of the reader and you do so through the visual language of emotion, like colors, lines, shape, and composition.

“Composition is the most important part of it.”

Think of the illustration as a whole from the main character to the background. How can you capture the emotion of the illustration? Of what is happening? Find ways to layer them together as it all helps to express the emotional heart of the piece. 

Bring that emotion with these small touches— the texture, the brush strokes, the movement.

“Whenever my artist friends get stuck in some idea, or want to find their voice, I tell them go and dig into art history.” Use inspiration from those who came before you and begin to dissect why their pieces invoke particular emotions. 

Another key component in finding and creating emotion in your picture bookmaking is through your lived experiences. Release all of those life experiences and memories and “the history of you as the artist.” In our artwork, we can be honest with our readers, our audience. 

“I called it ‘My Artist History.’ That's who I am today. You live the life, and you are documenting it, and later on, you're gonna use it subconsciously in your art.”

“We can easily tickle them, and touch their hearts.” We connect with them through our shared-lived experiences and though we might have done the same things, in expressing authentic and real feelings, we are able to imagine those moments of joy, or sadness or giddiness. Be relatable, transparent and honest in order to connect to the reader through the artwork.

“Just create. Just let those raw ideas come out.”

Take reference photos. Play with other mediums. Collage. Digital. Traditional. Observe others. Stimulate your imagination. Generate new ideas and let the subconscious work itself out. Don’t overthink it. 

“Just bring that inner feeling out.”

And all of those lived experiences? That’s your artist's story, the story of you. It is your voice, your artist's voice. Use it in your art. 

Rahele continued the session by showing us her personal inspirations and covered the history behind what she has done so far.

She went over some of the practical process in the making of a picture book illustration, from manuscript, to thumbnails to her process of mixing both traditional and digital, showing an amazing video of one of her illustrations from scratch to finish. Watching that video answered a lot of questions within my own process and I’m grateful for it. 

We ended with some advice about portfolio building and my, how quickly the time flew! . I highly recommend watching or rewatching this video. I know I will!

You'll have access to rewatch this video, and the many others in your Membership portal until September 14th, 2025.

"In a picture book, Words and pictures can operate in tension, or reveal slightly different things, cleverly talking to one another. A picture book should feel organic, as though words and pictures were born in the same moment— a single, crystalline, utterly unified hybrid"

- Daniel Hahn, The New York Times

Rahele Jomepour Bell (Illustrator) is an Iranian/American picture book artist who has an M.F.A degree from Iowa State University. She started her profession in the United state in 2016 by collaborating with Face Magazine's Art Director: John Sandford. Rahele has created pictures for fiction and non-fiction children's books such as "Our Favorite Day of the Year," "The Treasure Box," "To Change A Planet," and "Angry Me /  Peaceful Me. " Different prestigious awards recognize her illustrations, including SCBWI National Portfolio Grand Prize and Bologna Illustration Exhibition.  

www.rahelestudio.com