How to Be a Spaceheadz: a Multimedia Thingy* Starring Jon Scieszka

Here's the sad truth about Jon Scieszka: Though he is a man, he doesn't actually smell like stinky cheese (usually). But it's OK. It really is, because there's no one who gives better, smarter, or funnier advice about writing for children.**

The full title of his talk was How to Be a Spaceheadz: The Ups and Downs and Sideways of Telling a Story Across Multiple Media. (The sign outside the room omitted the final Z, but people managed to find the room anyway. Even that Mac Barnett guy.)

OK. So multimedia is a huge opportunity for us, Jon says, because no one has any idea what it really means (which you can tell from looking at at some of the early stuff out there).

This medium is not built for adapting other things, he says. If you want to work in this medium, work in this medium. What would exist well on a phone or iPad? "Don't just take Where the Wild Things Are and crap it up."

Kids today know how to use technology, but they don't really understand the difference between story and advertising. Jon's new series, SPACEHEADZ, aims to help make these kids media literate. It imagines a trio of aliens who've learned everything they know about earth from watching television. They come to earth to recruit humans.

Jon is using Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, music playlists, and Twitter (including one account entirely in hamsterese) to build the online dimension of the story.

Jon also told us the secret to writing books that will make kids laugh. We're still working on getting the translation from hamster, but here it is: Eeek. Eeek eek eek eek; eek eek. Eek? Eeek eek. Eeek! Eeek! (Eeek eek eeek eek eeek--eek.)

* Is it just me, or is it hard to think of words after last night's party?
** When Madonna has schedule conflicts, that is. Because that lady, she is a major hoot.

Marion Dane Bauer: Basics of Writing Picture Books

The room is abuzz and packed for Marion Dane Bauer's session on picture book writing!

Marion has been publishing since 1976 and is the author of more than 70 books in an array of genres (novels, early readers, fiction, nonfiction, picture books and novelty books). She's also won an array of awards including a Newbery Honor.

When she started out, she was "wrting in the cracks of time." Then when her youngest child went to first grade and her husband suggested she get a job. She told him she wanted five year to give writing a go. Suddenly she found herself sitting behind a manual typewrter in the corner of her bedroom. And she started out writing picture books because, she tought, "anybody can do that". She soon realized that was wrong and she stated spending a lot of time in her library reading lot of books, and for years she wrote and published novels, still working on picture books manuscripts along the way, having an editor her told her: You are not a picture book writer. Then she learned that you can't let someone else define you as a writer and she sent her PB's to other editors who didn't pigeonhole her a novelist only.

Carolyn Mackler (continued)

Carolyn is reading summer goals she wrote in her journal when she was in her early 20s. Among them:

• look in to psychology as a career
• become an au pair in Italy
• rent a house with a guy
• live in NYC with her mom
• get a dog.
• go to Africa

Instead she wrote her first book, fell in love with her husband, and wrote eight hours a day on THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS. The following January she won a Printz Honor, and suddenly she began getting big royalty checks and being asked to speak.

And then, she said, her words dried up.

She got to a point where she tought, I can't write a book.

After encouragement from her friend, and the passing of a little time, she got through her hard time and began writing again.

Then THE EARTH got pulled from an entire school district and got TONS of press. It was the 4th most challenged book in America in 2008, and continues to stay on the list. (And it made her father very proud.)

At first, Carolyn was stunted by the censorship, second guessing herself. Then she let herself go with her writing, and came up with her latest novel TANGLED.

KEYNOTE: Carolyn Mackler--For Richer or Poorer: Writing Through Good Times or Bad

Carolyn Mackler recieved a Printz Award for her novel THE EARTH, MY BUTT, AND OTHER BIG ROUND THINGS. She's currently working on her sixth YA novel. Her lastest book is TANGLED.

Carolyn said she spent her teen years tyring to blend in. ("If I were a J. Crew color, I would be ecru.") And the feeling never subsided that she had to blend in. This year, she decided she wanted to be "hot."

Marital vows, she said, are simialr to making the committment to be a writer. You have to stick with it even through the more difficult times.

As a teen, writing in her jounral and reading helped her from feeling alone or like a misfit.

After college she interned at Ms. Magazine, and did whatever she could to make money writing.

For her first book, she tapped into her own life and finished a draft of her first novel. She got an agent at age 25 and got her first book published.

Julia Durango accepts the Golden Kite Award for fiction for her book "Sea Of The Dead"

Judged by writers of the fiction genre to be the best fiction book of the last year, "Sea of the Dead" is the winner of this year's Golden Kite Award.



Accepting the award, Julia Durango shares that the reason that she writes is that all her books contain secret messages, to her children - a footpath of memories to freeze time with her sons. She may not have a magic spell to hold her children at 2, or at 13, but in her books,

Cha Cha Chimps- it might look like a counting book about dancing monkeys. But there is a secret message in the book to her son... It's hard to be the mother of a 2 year old, but her heart is so full of love for him, and if only she could keep him 2 forever...

Sea of the Dead - on the surface, it's an adventure about two empires at war. But there is a secret message to her 13 year old son in that... It's hard to be the mother of a 13 year old, but she knows he's off to find his own path, and she can't keep him with her forever.

But in the book, she has.

And that's a little bit of magic, after all.

Alexis O'Neill Pro Track On School Visits: Setting Fees, Getting Gigs, and Delivering the Goods

I'm thrilled to sit in on Alexis O'Neill's session on School Visits this morning!



Alexis is an author of three picture books and numerous articles, pens the column "The Truth About School Visits" for the SCBWI Bulletin and just launched the blog schoolvisitexperts.com - where she shares her expertise and has created a community hub for authors and ilustrators to learn and talk about the art and commerce and pursuit of school visits!

First thing that impressed me about Alexis' session: She gave each of us a brief survey to fill out (30 seconds) before the session started to gauge the room's interest on the three main topics - setting fees, getting gigs, and delivering the goods.

And then she got our attention by getting us all clapping and singing a rhyming song - that got the room quiet and excited and attentive. (Without saying "okay, everybody sit down and be quiet, we're ready to begin!") Oooh, she's good.

She shared handouts where

Here's some highlights from the information she shared:

Setting Fees

You're professionals. You need to think about what you're worth. You have something of value to share with other people.

Where you are in the country can dictact how much you can charge.

Even when schools say they don't have any money, there are programs they are mandated to do (for example, title 1 schools have literacy requirements - suburban schools have parent organizations that raise money throughout the year for programs.)

Find out what other authors around you are charging - even libraries have budgets. That way you know what's reasonable.

And know your bottom line - what makes it worthwhile for you to do?


Getting Gigs

Get known locally first, but realize you're never a prophet in your own land. You'll get more gigs 50 miles away.

Find out what state and local meetings and events can you attend - is there a librarian event you and some other authors can do a showcase at?

"Wherever librarians and teachers gather, be there."

Delivering the Goods -

Your school visit needs to be enriching, and you want kids and teachers to learn something that they can use when they get back to the classroom. Kids are writing every day. You're a writer. If you're an illustrator, it's another way of expressing an idea - and kids need to do that, too!

Remember that everyone in the audience wants you to succeed. Be human, and don't think you have to be perfect.

As she wrote in her slideshow presentation

Inspiring lots of writing and art (where kids express themselves)

Wow. This is such a great session - lots of contributions from audience members (which includes some super-accomplished author visit experts themselves!), and lots of great stories and advice from Alexis! I'm really going to have to check out the articles and forms and downloadable pdfs on her schoolvisitexperts.com site, and if you're interested in doing school visits, so should you!

Deborah Heiligman's Nonfiction Panel Hot Tip!

"Write down where every quote is from when you write it the first time!!!" (source notes)

Good advice!

Nonfiction Panel: The Rock Stars of Nonfiction, Part 1

Here are a few key insights and habits these great writers shared:

Susan Campbell Bartoletti starts her research in libraries, and has six times as many library cards as credit cards. These libraries have databases and other sources you can't find anywhere else. But she also travels to the places she's writing about, and even spent time at a Ku Klux Klan rally.

She has a secret for knowing when to stop researching: "When the facts begin to repeat themselves, that's when I know it's time to begin writing." (Sometimes research can be a sophisticated form of procrastination.)



Deborah Heiligman: Almost all of her sources are primary. She read Darwin's autobiography and a two-volume set of letters from Emma's family. A line in one of Emma's letters made her cry. "I knew I was hooked. I got absolutely passionately attached to both Charles and Emma."

Tanya Lee Stone calls extreme research "detective work." You have to let go of not knowing what you're going to find and whether it's going to fit into the story you're going to tell. Before she started researching ALMOST ASTRONAUTS, she kept coming across obscure mentions of women who almost became astronauts and got interested; tracking down the women was a big challenge. She interviews lots of people to enhance her baseline research. You want to learn all you can before you interview people, though.

Elizabeth Partridge spoke about connecting with an editor. With nonfiction, you generally send a cover letter, a sample chapter, and an outline. Crafting that forces you to get some clarity on the research you've done (even if your book changes as it's written and polished). She's also used photographs to engage an editor's imagination.

Nonfiction Panel: The Rock Stars of Nonfiction, part 2

BIG laugh in the room when Deborah Heiligman agrees with the point of checking back with your interviewees and letting them read your manuscript to check it... for Charles and Emma Darwin!



Ken Wright is asking great substantive questions, and we're all learning a ton.



Here are the website links (and some great quotes from the session) for these amazing, passionate and so articulate nonfiction authors:



Tanya Lee Stone



"Almost Astronauts started out as a picturebook!... Trust yourself and ask yourself "What is the story I need to tell." (Rather than focusing on the kind of book you think it's going to be.)



"If you don't have a point of view, why are you telling the story?"



Elizabeth Partridge



"You want to have multiple layers in your nonfiction" If it's too straightforward, it will be boring.



advice she still sticks by:

"Have emotion in every single paragraph - every paragraph should have emotional
resonance!"

Deborah Heiligman



"We're all trying to do something original"



her editor told her



"Let the content dictate the form"



(Moral: stay flexible to what you discover - even if it diverges from your proposal.)



"Everything I put in the book has to be in service to the main story you want to tell" (like for Charles and Emma, even for the details of the ship voyage, the ones she included all resonated to the love story that was the story she wanted to tell!)





Susan Campbell Bartoletti -



Tells the story of how she was contracted to write a book on American involvement in World War II, and how it ended up being a book about Hitler Youth instead! Which was her Newbury Honor nonfiction book "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow."



She also related going down to Arkansas to visit the KKK today as research for her upcoming historical nonfiction on the KKK - and how that helped bring the story to life.





And to finish, Deborah Heligman paraphrased a beautiful quote from Isaac Bashevitz Singer:

Is it a story?

Does is have a beginning, middle and end?

Is it a story that needs to be told?

Is it a story that only I can tell?

Gail Carson Levine: Sweat and Magic

Although the title of Gail Carson Levine's talk is called Sweat and Magic, she will mostly be talking about sweat.

Gail has been writing her blog on writing for over a year. Her most frequent note about writing is, "I don't know what I'm doing."

"I get very stupid when I write."

"There is so much that is possible." If you're writing story that doesn't follow a traditional story arch, Gail believes you can make it work.

She likes to make lists, and suggests you might try to. "When you make a list, no idea is stupid."

Usually plot arises out of situation. Watch people and see this in action. "We all create plot as we all create our lives. So it's worth observing ourselves and the people we know."

Suspense Builders:
-Time "When you have time pressure in a book it's wonderful."
-Distance, Distance can operate a lot like time.
-Thoughts, "If you character is worried, your reader will be worried."
-Action
-Separation, from the problem
-Main character flaw
-Secondary character flaw
-Expectation, could be good or bad
-A test or a trial
-Disaster
-Something lost

Prompt: As you go through the rest of the day, think of ways, wherever you are, that something tense could happen. Write about it.

"When we reread a book, it's totally predictable, but we love it anyway."

How to surprise:
-confound expectation
-surprise yourself
-ask your characters
-make a list!
-avoid easy morals
-review
-workshop it

Prompt: Create a distaster by having one character ask another about his thoughts at that moment.

Character Development

Gail's characters don't arrive whole and fully formed. She must be with them for a while before they are fully developed. She discovers it through dialogue and action as she wings it. "It’s kind of existential. We become ourselves through our acts and so do our characters."

Gail recommends the book WHAT IF: by Anne Bernays and Pamela Painters which has a character questionnaire she uses throughout the writing process.

It's wonderful to listen for speech mannerisms.

Prompt: Three characters getting ready for school. How does each one prepare? Reveal the thoughts and feelings of each, and each should be different.

Mean Prompt: Pick out a passage or scene from a book you dislike and rewrite it.

Gail Carson Levine has written seventeen books for children. She's also written a book on writing, WRITING MAGIC.

Why Narrative Nonfiction is Hotter Than Ever: The "Rock Stars" of Nonfiction

Good Morning Conference Goers and blog followers!



Ken Wright moderating, and left to right: Tanya Lee Stone, Elizabeth Partridge, Deborah Heiligman, and Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Early this Sunday Morning we have something worth getting up for... the Narrative Non Fiction is hot Hot HOT panel with multi-award winning author for her nonfiction titles Susan Campbell Bartoletti, National Book Award Finalist for "Charles and Emma: The Darwin's Leap of Faith" Deborah Heiligman, Golden Kite winning author Elizabeth Partridge, multi-award winning author (with an upcoming "The Good, The Bad, and The Barbie: A History of the Doll and her impact on Culture) Tanya Lee Stone and it's moderated by Writers House agent (with a passion for nonfiction) Ken Wright!



As Lin is saying in her introduction, it's a genre that's finally getting it's moment in the spotlight.

Ohh - the panel's about to start!

Party Party Parrrr-ty! The Heart and Soul Celebration

Wowsa. We children's lit folks know how to boogie on down. And have a great time. Maybe it's because writing and illustrating can feel like such solitary pursuits, when you get a critical mass going (and yes, more than 1,100 of us *IS* critical mass) we can generate some amazing costumes, dance moves, and talk waaaaaay into the night.

Here are some highlights of the evening, costume-wise, silliness-wise, and of course, connecting and hanging out with the most awesome tribe ever - the community of children's literature!

Me and the Wonderous Sara Wilson Etienne!



Graham (a.k.a. Doctor Love), Media Guru & Author Greg Pincus, and the fantabulous Rita Crayon Huang

Funny Man and writer Charlie Cohen and the effervescent author Eve Porinchack

Agents galore! From Left to right: Jill Corcoran, Tracy and Josh Adams, and gate-crasher Barry Goldblatt

And then, hours into the party, I had to blink hard to make sure I was seeing things properly, from my bats-eye view:



See what I mean? If you flip it upside down, you'll see Michael Reisman and Jacqui Robbins, in a re-enactment of "Cupid and the reluctant Muse..."

And still, the party charged onwards, taking over the X-bar and talking into the small hours of the morning, where I got to hang out with (among other incredible folk) the amazing Ellen Hopkins!

In addition to learning and networking and growing in our careers, it's important to say just how fun these conferences are - it's a chance to celebrate what an amazing community we are all part of!

Thanks all for a great night!

Lee

The Annual Juried Illustrators' Portfolio Showcase

A team of judges (including Loren Long, Justin Chanda, Mac McCool, Steve Bjorkman, and Alice Pope) spent two hours perusing dozens and dozens of portfolios and picked one grand prize winner and two honor recipients.

And the Grand Prize Winner is...

Molly Idle

Honor Award recipients... 

Ye Won Lee

Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Arthur A. Levine Workshop: Strong Emotion on the Page (DAY 2)

Strong Emotions on the Page is a four day master class.

Read about Day One HERE.

So far, no singing or disco (no matter what mbrockenbrough tweeted), but we're right back to finsihing up Step 2 that we started yesterday. New sights, smells, tastes, sounds, and sensations.

In addition to learnings from yesterday, the images that stay with us have much to do with the choice of words. Also, this particular group seems to have issues with sweaty thighs, birthday spankings, and smoking parents.

Arthur Levine now promises fun, followed by the word, HOMEWORK.

Step Three: Take the your snapshots (written in step one) and create a written piece, not be more than 350 words.

Will you being doing homework with us tonight? Before or after the "Heart and Soul" poolside gala?

Christopher Cheng's Book Trailer Hot Tip

Christopher, in his Pro Track Session on Making Book Trailers, made the point about how book trailers share a lot with movie trailers - keep it short and don't try to tell the whole story.

"It's a teaser to get you in. Keep them really short. A minute and a half or even 30 seconds."

Great advice!

Willim Low- Pushing Pixels: Picture Book Illustration in the Digital Age

To start the fourth session off, William Low gives us a glimpse into the life of an illustrator—he takes us through a picture book he worked on (very beautiful, and created completely in Photoshop). When he was almost finished with the artwork, he and the editor realized that the main character wasn't quite right, and almost every piece needed to be re-worked. A good reminder that creating a picture book is hard work, even for very experienced illustrators!

With a step-by-step hand out to refer to, Low takes us through some very useful processes in Photoshop, such as working with line art and creating digital collages by pasting textures and patterns into line drawings.

Low has been great throughout the session about reviewing this technical information thoroughly and taking time to make sure everyone in the class is understanding all of the steps.

In his Sunday session, he'll be talking about some really important topics for any illustrator who is or will be turning art in digitally.

E.B. Lewis Saturday Afternoon Keynote - Pursue Your Passions

E.B. Lewis is correcting Lin as she does her intro for him

Lin: He's illustrated over 30 picture books.
E.B.: 50
Lin: He's won three, Coretta Scott King awards.
E.B.: 5
Lin: He's 6'5"
E.B.: 6'3"

A screenshot of his awesome website, where you can see he uses the title Artistrator (which Lin says is a nice bridging of the artist vs. illustrator conundrum.)

E.B.: Being a writer or illustrator of children's books is an amazing thing. A beautiful thing. But author or illustrator is just a subtitle, our real title is: Artists. And when we become artists, we become scary people, we observe, we are critical thinkers, we try to shape and change minds. That's a lot of power. If you look back in history, we're the kind of people that get destroyed first.

E.B.'s putting a big elephant in the room: what feeds our passion to write and create art is inspiration. What happens when you don't have any inspiration or ideas? What happens when that dries up? For E.B., he had two and a half years of not feeling inspired or turned on by the work he'd been doing.

E.B. starts his slide show:

We see photos of him as a kid. And his uncle, who he credits with turning his life around. He enrolled E.B. in painting classes, talked to him about his paintings, took him to galleries, and bought him a book of Modigliani paintings, one of E.B.'s all-time favorite artists.

Slides of his art from the 1980s when he was not not sure what to paint, so he began documenting his life. He painted children playing outside, wheelbarrows, cheesesteakeries, 19th century slave safe houses, and Philadelphia neighborhoods in flux.

He relates the very impressive story of how he got an agent and got into the children's book world followed by a brief bibliography of his early books. So many great covers and stories.

And here's the book that won him the Coretta Scott King Honor this year:

So, we've seen all these great books and art being produced by E.B., but all that hard work takes a toll. During those two and a half years that E.B. was trying to figure out how to reinvigorate his inspiration and passions, he decided, no matter what, he would:

• Go into his studio every day, even if it was just to sweep the floors
• When on school visits out-of-town, always get some Thai food
• And absolutely go to a local art museum

Two of these three practices resulted in a moment where "the ceiling opened up and a pearl dropped," E.B. rediscovered his passion.

I've omitted so much great stuff, but if you have a chance to see E.B.'s exquisite paintings that he made in response to the moment above, I think you'll be as blown away by the power of his ideas and images as the conference audience was. A true artist.

Bruce Hale: Skype School Visits

Bruce Hale wears a lot of hats, literally and figuratively. He's author of the Chet Gecko series and SNORING BEAUTY. He sings jazz, acts, and gives seminars on storytelling. And he can make illustrator Jarrett Krosoczka (don't miss his LUNCH LADY books) do his bidding. More or less*.

Bruce gave us a detailed overview of how to use Skype to bring your book act to schools.

Skype is free software that you can use for video conferencing. When the session began, we saw Bruce on stage, in front of a screen with a picture of Bruce on stage, and in that image was another picture of Bruce on stage. In other words, it was like looking at a Russian nesting doll, but one with a cool hat and a waistline. Also? Surreal.

Using Skype, Bruce and Jarrett demonstrated the things that could go wrong in a school visit. It took several minutes to actually connect--some of which was planned, some not.

It eventually worked, though, and Jarrett swore us to secrecy as he revealed a small disaster that occurred during his first school visit via Skype. I have censored this so that Jarrett doesn't hunt me down, which he promised to do should the vow of secrecy be broken.

So, Jarrett was waiting for his session to begin. The tech guys could hear him, but they couldn't see him. As he waited for a solution, he let rip a thundering fart.. They were too polite to comment on his flatulence, but everybody knew what had happened. They knew. The bottom line, so to speak: anything you say or do can be transmitted, he said. And then he farted.

Moving on.

Bruce gave some excellent, practical advice about using Skype for school visits. Among the gems:

• Be visual. Gesture lots, and use props.
• Prepare the students well beforehand (send them to your website, etc.)
• Pile on the Q&A, but let the teacher run that session
• Wear something suitable. No crazy patterns.
• Get feedback afterward, and use testimonials for your site.

* Jarrett did more, specifically, he ate Tostitos during the Skype, which gave us an enhanced sensory experience.

Keynote: Marion Dane Bauer

Marion Dane Bauer is one of our industry's greats: She's written more than seventy books covering the gamut: fiction, nonfiction, early readers, novels, picture books, novelty books. She can do it all beautifully.

The same was true for her keynote, which not only silenced us (in the good way), but it made many of us cry. She not only talked about her work, but about her life and how her struggles have shaped her stories and understanding of what it is to be human.

She began her speech explaining the three-point trajectory that stories follow:

- Where does every story begin? With a character's desire
- Where does every story move? Toward a climax.
- Why write or read a story? To be able to feel the resolution of a desire.

"What I know when I begin to write a story--any story--is what a resolution is going to feel like. I may not have much of an idea of how I'm going to get there, but I know what it's going to feel like when I'm there," she said.

That's what she needs to get the first sentence on the page. She "feels her way" into an idea, even though her books tend to have a pattern to them. To find our stories, we have to look to our own experience. Most stories, she explained, begin in neuroses: "anger, fear, unfulfilled longing so deep it never leaves you, even in your sleep."

She explained how she shaped her story THE VERY LITTLE PRINCESS (which is now dedicated to Jon Sciezska, the princess-hater).

Marion spent a year and a half on a 65-page manuscript, and sent it off. She knew it wasn't quite right, but it was as close as she could get. Three weeks went by--no phone call. Marion got nervous. The editor finally called and they had a hard discussion.

Afterward, Marion pondered their conversation and realized that all this time she had been writing about her son's death. Her son died about a year before she started. At forty-two years old, he was one of the youngest people ever known to get a degenerative disease that first manifests itself like Parkinson's. Then comes dementia, then hallucinations that become psychosis.

"We lost him by inches. He spent his last 14 months in a nursing home, and left three small boys behind," she said.

During this long process, she didn't cry. The death was just so protracted. She realized the story was about her need to cry, and that question we all live with every day: the question of mortality.

It's the "same old story," she always writes, she said, but it's entirely new. "It's new because my life is new. Struggle will always be there. That's why we read stories, to write, as well as to read."

LGBTQ Panel (continued)

Tony: The finalists for the YA catagory of the Lamda Literary Awards are almost always from manstream publishers.

Arthur: There's less segmentaion in the BFYR area. (There's no "gay teen" section. Gay YA is shelved with all YA.)

Tony: Really satisfying careers happen when talented writers writer to this niche about which they are passionate. (Visit Lamda Literary at http://www.lambdaliterary.org/ to learn more about their awards and programs.)

Lee: He started his blog, I'm Here, I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? two and a half years ago when he realized there was no "safe space" on the web that readers could go to as a resource for LGBTQ material.

Nick: Invites queries.

Noah: Don't hold back on what you want to create. It will stunt you creatively.

Lee: The tides have turned. There are about 250 books on his blog right now. Things are moving forward. And there's crossover into adult readership when it comes to LGBTQ YA lit. (Adults are reading the books the didn't have available when they were teens.) There are so many stories that need to be told--mid-grade crush books, fantasy, graphic novels.)

Aaron: Don't be afriad to tell the story in your heart. We have not reached critical mass when it comes to coming out stories. He's writing the book he wanted to read when he was young. (It's a YA memior that will be published y Little, Brown.)  And he had to get over his own inner-homophobia to begin to put it on the page.

Arthur: It's not just gay teens reading gay YA. Straight kids are reading them, too. But we're not living in "a rainbow land of golden goodness." It's important to strap on your blinders when you're writing. Don't focus on possible outcomes. Just focus on the story.

Tony: Homophobia still exists in the culture and institutionally. Choosing to write a beautiful LGBTQ story is a choice that could present obstacles. Those writers are choosing to battle those obstacles. That shouldn't stop an artist from telling the story they want to tell.

Caroylyn Mackler: Creating Characters That Come to Life

Warning: DO NOT read to the end of this post if you DON'T want a couple of great questions to ask yourself about your character.

When starting a novel, one of the first things she thinks about when creating character, are the details and the quirks that make a person (a character) who they are; those things they continuously do that make them them.

We're writers. We don't film it. We write it. So the language around the character is important. Each character has their own way of speaking.

Carolyn suggests reading your book out loud for many reasons related to language. "Nothing beats reading your book out loud."

Another essential piece is research. Research was very important while writing TANGLED. She wanted all four characters to have distinct voices. She spent time speaking to a teenage wrestler for hours to help her write a teen boy (Dakota). She also spoke with a teen actress, as well as sat in on an audition for a teen role to help her write the character Skye.

Carolyn asks questions about her characters. If she has a day when she gets stuck, she does something she calls Questions. She once heard Paula Danziger say she wants to know what the inside a characters closet looks like.

Questions:
1. What does you character keep hidden in his or her underwear drawer? If nothing, then where do they hide things?
2. Who would your character call/text/email/send smoke signals to when something good happens? And what would that good thing be?

Panel: A Look at the LGBTQ Marketplace

Aaron Hartzler (author and SCBWI Director of Communications) moderated a panel including Arthur Levine (Scholastic VP and Publisher), Lee Wind (blogger, leewind.org), and Tony Velenzuela (Executive Director, Lamba Literary and writer), Nick Eliopulos (Scholastic Editor), and Noah Woods (illustrator and writer) discuss LGBTQ books for young readers.


Arthur: There's a change in the market place from the past 10-20 years. It's no big deal to publishers, writers, book buyers, etc. to have books with LGBTQ content/charcters/themes. Yeah, your book may get banned or burned...yay! Publicity.

Nick: There's not that much out there. There are a lot of aspects to the gay experience that haven't been covered, so there's a lot of oportunity in this area.

Noah: You avoid authenticy if you censor yourself and avoid LGBTQ material.

* Disclaimer: The inclusion of the above image is not a commentary on Cheer  Bear's sexuality. However we strongly believe he/she is an ally of the LGBTQ children's literature community.

Agent Panel: Josh Adams (Adams Literary)

Literary Agents View the Market Place

moderated by Lin Oliver

Together with his wife Tracey, they started Adams Literary in 2004. They represent everything from picture book to young adult.

"I'm here to say today that the state of the market is strong." Editors in today's market are being cautious, but there is a resurgence in hiring and acquisitions.

Timeless is what Adams Literary strives for. They are in the business for the long run and want to build careers.

"Timeless will always be timely."

Lin: Explain a little bit about foreign markets.

You want someone who will aggressively market foreign rights. Generally, it's a much better deal for you as an author having your agents negotiate foreign rights for you directly (the publishers get a percentage too).

They've seen that authors' advances can be higher in foreign markets.

Lin asks about sub rights, especially in this time of new publishing platforms.

Authors want to keep all their rights.

More and more publishers are asking for audio rights because they are looking to recoup their investment, especially with a high advance.

How should authors feel about a simultaneous release of their books traditionally as well as on another platform?

There has been talk about ebooks for years. There has been growth with ebooks but it's still a very small fraction of the traditional.

Lin: There's much discussion about self-publishing and what defines a published piece of work. How do you all feel about that?

They've noticed it used as a way for people to break into publishing. Then people come to them with a track record, having built a fan base.

Lin: How would you assess the market place? And how do you access the opportunities for people to break in in a significant way?

In some cases (not generally true) it's easier to sell a debut than an author that has one or two books under their belt because there is no track record. There are opportunities for authors who are focusing on their craft. It may be more of a challenge these days, but it can still be accomplished.

Lin asks about the client/agent relationship.

It's all about teamwork, striving for the best for the agency and their clients. It's all about communication.

Compares the relationship to being a real estate agent. They're not the interior designer, and won't go in and completely redecorate the house, but they will go in and stage it for you.

Adams Literary wants to look at the big picture with their clients; to manage and maximize earnings over the lifetime of a career.

Adams believes part of their job is instilling in their clients the confidence they need to do their best.

Agent Panel: Ginger Clark

Ginger Clark has worked as an agent at Curtis Brown, Ltd. for about five years. She represents science fiction, fantasy, paranormal romance, literary horror, and YA and MG fiction. She handles British and Commonwealth rights for the entire Curtis Brown List.

Follow her on Twitter at @Ginger_Clark.

From her introduction: 

"A good agent thinks globally. A lot of my clients have made as much money abroad as in the U.S., and in some cases, more. The market for a certain kind of fiction is doing well here and it's doing really well abroad."

On editor lunches: Middle Grade is coming back. Editors are looking for series and good MG in general. "We've neglected the 8- to 12-year-olds."

On the YA side: She represents high fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal romance. "We've had a lot of vampires and werewolves and it's now time to look at the more unusual creatures," she says.

From the Q&A portion, moderated by Lin Oliver:

About international publishing: Think about how you can make sure your book isn't super, super American. A brilliant book about American football isn't going to win over British editors. A good agent should be aware that you can make money when your work is translated. (They have a man on the ground in Bulgaria—interesting! Or, as they say in Bulgaria, "интересен.")

What are subsidiary rights, and what should authors consider retaining: Publishers want to set audio rights as boilerplate—something that's been discussed and settled. Multimedia rights are an issue (especially "enhanced ebook rights," such as gently animated picture books). The problems she has with that: Film companies wouldn't want that to happen. If you're doing a film deal, film companies want the rights or want to "freeze" them so other people can't have them. Good agents think about these issues and talk them over with publishers, as opposed to just agreeing to the boilerplate.

How should writers feel about the simultaneous release of their book in digital format? When you start ebook negotiations, major publishers start by offering 25 percent of net. She's hoping that changes. The giant news last week was that Andrew Wylie had started his own e-publisher. "It was certainly an interesting shot across the bow of publishers."

How would you assess the business, in terms of the centralization of power? What are the opportunities for mid-list authors and unpublished writers? We're about to head into the golden age in terms of power for children's books. Interest in the children's markets is growing.

"The snobbier side of the industry is taking what we do seriously. As they should. Frequently it is the children's division that is making profits and paying people's salaries," she says.

What are the primary services you provide your clients? She's not your therapist, accountant, best friend or mother. "I am your bad cop. Your man on the ground in NY ... When it comes to sitting on the phone with you for two hours, talking about your problems, I'm not the right person for that. Sorry."

Premium Workshop - An Editor Over Your Shoulder: Polishing Your Picture Book with Diane Muldrow

photo from http://patricianewmanbooks.blogspot.com/

Sat in on the first session of Diane Muldrow's Premium Workshop yesterday, and I am really excited for those 20+ attendees. They are going to get some ultra-polished picture book manuscripts out of these hours with Diane. And not just traditional, 32-page hardcover trade manuscripts. Diane is teaching the group about board books, Golden Books, novelty books, all sorts of formats.

Diane starts with a history of her career as a children's book editor and an author. She invites the class to reformat their manuscripts the way she lays them out, which is, at times, a radical departure from what most of us have learned is industry standard formatting. The caveat, however, is you do this only on your personal copy of the manuscript to see how it informs your self-editing. And all authors must self-edit, says Diane, so who better to teach us how than an editor!  Her ideas are superb, making authors who don't draw think visually, mapping out every single page turn and writing up all possible illustrations ideas.

The class looks at the evolution of Diane's book, WE PLANTED A TREE. A gorgeous hardcover illustrated by Bob Staake. She hands out a copy of her original manuscript. A story she thought about for ten years before actually putting pen to paper. Diane credits the powerful ideas and images in Nobel Prize winner Wangari Maathai's book about the Green Belt Movement in Kenya as being the inspiration behind WE PLANTED A TREE.

The next few sessions, attendees will be doing in-class exercises using existing picture book texts as well as their own manuscripts to learn about format, pagination, and art notes. Diane says all stories start out as lumps of clay and she's going to provide tools (like how to have good flow, suspense and mood in your story) to help attendees edit themselves and build stronger books.

This is going to rock! It sold out on the first day of conference registration, so here's hoping they do this again.

One attendee I recognized from my local SCBWI WWA was John Deininger. Check out his artwork in the portfolio show tonight, or on his site.