The Official SCBWI Conference Blog

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Golden Kite Awards: Steve Watkins

Steve won the Golden Kite Award for Excellence in Fiction for his novel, "Down Sand Mountain."

He's speaking about the moment when, as a child, he discovered that books weren't just THERE, but that they were written by people...

and that very day, he went home to write his very first book, "The Glisening Sword."

He's telling us the plot... The room is laughing! Applause for the suprise ending!

His parents made copies and distributed it to their family and friends as a Christmas present that year!

40 years later, his second attempt to write for young readers, he had better editors (that would catch things like the missing silent "t" in "Glistening!")

"I'm just so blessed to be a member of this community."

Posted by Lee Wind

Golden Kite Awards: Hyewon Yum

Hyewon Yum won the Golden Kite Award for illustration for Last Night, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Winning for picture book illustration, Hyewon Yum spoke of how she wasn't someone who ever lifted her hand to speak in class.

And now she's before almost 1,000 people!

And she gave a very gracious thank you.

Posted by Lee Wind

Golden Kite Awards: A Life In The Wild

Pamela Turner received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction for A Life in the Wild: George Schaller's Struggle to Save the Last Great Beasts, by Pamela S. Turner, received the Golden Kite Award for Nonfiction.

Pamela thanked George Schaller, the scientist who allowed her to profile him in her book. He was a scientist who first observed gorillas in the wild. He's now 75 years old and an active scientist and conservationists.

Pamela is donating the prize money and the profits from her book to conservation projects. How wonderful! Go great beasts!

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

Golden Kite Luncheon Awards: Bonny Becker

Bonny Becker received the Golden Kite Award for Picture Book Text for A Visitor for Bear.

Ultimately, Bonny says, we want to show to our kids that despite its woes, the world is a wonderful place. She also wants to show through her books that she likes people (and this comes across in her character Mouse and Bear).

When she writes from a place she loves, she says, the writing is easy.

Work, discipline, training and luck are important.

She quoted E.B. White: I wake up every morning and torn by the desire to improve the world and the desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan my day. Bonny says she's decided to plan her days writing what she enjoys and urges the audience to do the same.

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

Golden Kite Awards: SCBWI LA 2009 Portfolio Award Winners Announced

Congratulations to the winner and honorees of the SCBWI LA 2009 Portfolio Award contest! The Grand Prize winner and two Honor recipients, their art work, and websites are listed below:

Grand Prize: Israel Sanchez, http://www.israelsanchez.com/

Honor: Brian Ormiston, http://brianormiston.com/

Honr: Stephanie Roth Sisson, http://www.stephanitely.com/index.htm

Posted by Paula Yoo

Golden Kite Luncheon

The conference goers have just finished the "rubber chicken" and the festivities of the Golden Kite Luncheon are now beginning.

Portfolio competition winners will be posted shortly. Stay tuned.

Everyone's Getting Ready for the Golden Kite Luncheon!!!

Posted by Lee Wind

Jim Averbeck's session: HOT TIP for picture book writers!

Replace your visual details with sensory descriptions.

Awesome advice!

Posted by Lee Wind

DAN LAZAR: "How to Craft a Winning Query Letter: Secrets to Keep You Out of the Reject Pile"

DAN LAZAR: "How to Craft a Winning Query Letter: Secrets to Keep You Out of the Reject Pile"

Highlights from Dan Lazar, Writers House agent, panel on query letters:

-- Website recommendation: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com (his bio is listed here: http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/DanielLazar/)

-- Want some of Dan's secrets to writing a query letter that ROCKS? Here are a couple tidbits:

1. "If you can write the Next Great American Novel, then you can write a great query letter. Period." Dan brought two real query letters to demonstrate what worked for him, and one "fake" letter to show what doesn't work. One letter showed the writer's voice, which intrigued Dan who wanted to see the writer's voice in the actual manuscript. So if your voice comes through in a query letter, that can help get you out of the "reject" pile!

2. If you have never been published and do not have any publishing credits, don't worry. No need to apologize or even bring that up. You don't need logos or colored paper to impress. And it doesn't hurt to open with "a specific familiar reference. "I'm a human being and I have feelings, so you should appeal to my vanity," he joked.

3. Do NOT start with "To whom It may concern"!

4. MAIN THEME: BE SPECIFIC. Dan cannot stress this enough. He says you should be as specific as possible in your query letter, from stating why you are interested in pursuing Dan as your agent, specific details about your bio, your manuscript etc.

5. Try to avoid "What if?" when describing your book's story in a query letter. It's a "good tool" he says for sparking plot ideas and brainstorming, but not for a query letter. He recommends being MORE SPECIFIC and using more original language instead of starting off with "What if..." when describing/introducing the plot of your book in the query letter.

6. For email queries: He says find out first if agents accept these - he does, FYI. Technical note: Do not include any HTML coding because that can result in inconsistent formatting and invite spammers.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg! Dan offered dozens of tips and secrets on how to write an effective query letter. It was a packed lecture hall and it was clear everyone appreciated Dan's helpful advice. Again, another reason to join SCBWI and attend these conferences for fantastic advice from veteran industry experts!

Posted by Paula Yoo

Linda Sue Park: Scene Building Premium Workshop - cont'd

Special Guest: Margo Rabb

A wonderful thing about the YA market right now is that there are no rules anymore.

In CURES FOR HEARTBREAK, Margo writes in first person.

Margo is big on revision. "I go through so many drafts, I can't even count."

Margo loves interior monologue: when she learns something a little more about a character.

POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

Jim Averbeck's Session! Opening The Door: Writing For Illustration

Jim is the author of the beautiful and multi-award winning "In A Blue Room."

Starting quote: The Illustrator is the other partner in writing a picture book. The trick is to get them to love your words and visualize what they want to do.

Jim is a writer first, who moved into illustrating as well.

For "In a Blue Room," he wrote the words and Tricia Tusa illustrated.

Then he illustrated a story by Linda Sue Park, "Long Walk To Water." (A serialized novel that came out in newspapers. To be published by Clarion.)

"Except If," his upcoming Picture Book, is one he wrote AND illustrated.

So he's looked at this from all three angles!

And here are just a few of his great tips for authors:

Choose a subject with a strong sense of time and place.

Variety of setting is really important.

Action and movement - but can you do it with nouns?

Increasing visual complication!

Character Attitude (Like Alexis O'Neill did in "The Recess Queen.")

WOW - so much great advice and insight!

Posted by Lee Wind

Stephen Fraser-The Current State of the Children's Book Market

Great session with Stephen Fraser. Quick notes:

The state of the children's book market is “cautious”. Publishers ask 'is this book essential to our list?'

We are in an era of no mediocre books. They don’t want midlist books. Pubs want books that will be best sellers.

So make your books stand out.

Posted Suzanne Young

Linda Sue Park: Scene Building Premium Workshop (Day 3)

When Linda is writing she thinks in terms of progress and impediment.

One difference between YA and MG: YA has more impediment than middle grade.

Linda never has a subplot, instead she thinks of everything as progress and impediment as they relate to internal and external quest.

Weaving:
Any element has to recur more than once. If an element is in a scene, it has to be important enough to show up again in the story. Nothing can pop up later in the book that solves some problem.

POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

Holly Black Keynote! Basics of Fantasy - The Sequel!

The distance of fantasy lets us address issues in a way that we (and our readers) can process it.

Like anger. If you have a werewolf, who is helpless with rage, that's a metaphor that fantasy lets you work with...

On the difference between Horror and Fantasy:

Fantasy contains the Numinous (that was Holly's word in the word parade!)

Something at which you tremble and are fascinated by at the same time.

Fantasy contains this combination of FEAR and AWE. Horror is fear and disgust.

On setting up the magic of your fantasy world:

There's day logic and night logic

day logic is almost like science - it works the same way every time

with night logic the rules are seldom spelled out. We (the readers) don't exactly know how it works. It's hard to write, but it's very satisfying because it contains the numinous.

Figure out which kind of magic your world has. The Magical society has its own rules. So does the magic!

Wow - now she's drawing out "Holly Black's Theory of Fantasy Plotting"...

so much good stuff!

Posted by Lee Wind

Holly Black Keynote! Basics of Fantasy - A Live-Blog, Book One

Holly's speech is called "Examining the Strange: The Basics of Fantasy Writing"

She's talking about her affinity for fantasy, especially her childhood, where

Holly's mother told her to never astral-project, because if you leave your body empty, something else could get in there!

(This got a Huge Laugh.)

And if we want to write fantasy, Holly exhorts us to READ fantasy! But not JUST fantasy. We need to read broadly. Widely.

As children's book writers, Holly believes we are in a genre-less genre, because kids don't know about the boundaries of genre, and that enables us to mix and meld and experiment!

And that fantasy has something amazing that makes it unique...

To find out what, check out the Holly Black Live-Blog Trilogy, Part Two!

Posted by Lee Wind

Blue Moon Ball: Alice's Party Pics

These party goers took the theme literally.

The blue faerie needs a cocktail.

Sara Wilson Eitenne is such a wild thing.

Quesadillas and crinolines. Yum!

To see more of my party photos, see my post on Alice's CWIM Blog.

Dan Yaccarino - continued 2

Here is the equation for the morning:

Dan Yaccarino + Lies = awesome new stories in new formats

We saw what happened when he lied to TV ad people: (sorry, I can't find any links to the great Gardenburger commercials he made, but you probably remember them)

And what happened when he lied to children's television people:

Dan's talk should maybe be retitled to: Say Yes to Lies

POSTED BY JAIME TEMAIRIK

Insider Info Not to Be Missed!

Afternoon Session Preview: Frank Portman, Steven Malk, Krista Marino

Sometimes you end up in the right place at the right time and get great scoop at the conference. For me...twice!

So, since I'm part of Team Blog, lucky you, I get to share. Shhh...

Later today, Portman, Malk, and Marino will be presenting together in the afternoon breakout session: The Writer-Agent-Editor Team. This scoop from Steven Malk: the talented Frank Portman will preform a song (or two!) during the session. How cool is that?

Then yesterday, Frank's über cool editor, Krista Marino, handed me a Frank Portman promo CD FULL of goodies (some of them secret...squeee!).

Nothing like cook swag, huh?

I'll be there live blogging (and sharing a bit from my swag!), but if you don't want to miss a Frank Portman performance, you'll have to join me.

Blue Moon Ball-Suzanne's Party Pics

So... I take lots of pictures. And last night at the Blue Moon Ball, I took like 6500. Or something. Here are three of my favorites, and for more, you can visit my blog at http://www.suzanne-young.blogspot.com/

It was a blast!

I took a short trip into space... and came back married.

I was very happy to take a moment from my... um... studying to get a picture with the wonderful Lin Oliver.

I've always had a thing for astronauts. But this is Bill Cochran-resident funny guy.

Hoep to see you all there next year!!!

Posted by Suzanne Young

Blue Moon Ball: Jolie's Party Pics

The Blue Moon Ball was OUT OF THIS WORLD!

I heart the poolside gala, hosted by Lin and Steve, each year at the LA conference. I remember my first experience when I was shocked to find out how much fun the children's book community really has when they are gathered together: the dancing, the food, the conversation, oh yeah...and the cocktails. Good times.

So, how 'bout a bit of flavor from last nights party? There were great costumes, lots of blue, great food & drink, and (most important) many happy people enjoying the evening. Like these ones...

That's me with Richard Peck (yes, even the conference celebs come to the party). I'll have more of my party pics at Cuppa Jolie soon!

Dan Yaccarino - continued

Where do Dan's book ideas come from?

From the things he loves: ROBOTS, TOYS, MASHED POTATOES.

Dan doesn't try to second guess the market and he knows that kids can smell a rat story that does not come from your heart. He makes stories that HE wants and he wants you to do the same. Send out art and manuscripts that you want to do, things that come from the heart.

Dan tells another story about seeing an editor and LYING! When Dan meets with a picture book editor to show his portfolio, the editor notices a painting in his bag that Dan had done for an editorial illustration assignment. She asks about the painting and if it has a story and he says YES (even though it didn't just yet.) He says the story is at home. She asks if he can fax it to her when he gets home. He says YES. And then on the way home he stops at Starbucks and writes the story. The kicker is only TWO words were changed from that original Starbucks story to the final published text. Maybe Dan is a robot?

Oh jeez, he's LYING to tv producers in his next story...

POSTED BY JAIME TEMAIRIK

Dan Yaccarino - Say YES!

Dan Yaccarino and David Wiesner having a chat right before Dan's keynote

Dan's our first kenynote speaker this Sunday morning.

A few tidbits from Dan's background - he was a spit ball thrower in elementary school. No picture books in his home growing up, but he went to the library and took stacks of books home. Preferred Fleischer Bros. cartoons over Disney. Went to Parsons and upon graduating did tons of editorial illustration, his favorite client being CAT FANCY (just kidding, he loved all his ed. illo. clients equally.)

His first meeting with a children's book editor Dan LIED! When asked if he had any ideas for a picture book Dan said, Yes.

Dan shows us some of his early picture book work which you may see more of at his website.

POSTED BY JAIME TEMAIRIK

Blue Moon Ball: Paula's Party Pics

Good morning! Did everyone survive last night's insanely surreal and super fun Blue Moon Ball party? In case you can't remember what happened last night (LOL), here are three photos I snapped for evidence of the merrymaking... if you want to see more photos, please check out my website for a wrap up photo gallery later today at http://paulayoo.com

Picture No. 1: Jay Asher and I (Paula Yoo) found our Mojo! We did not plan out outfits together, but I was wearing a retro '60s blue velvet dress and white gogo boots (check out more pics later at my website), so I was delighted to discover Austin Powers himself was attending the Blue Moon Ball. Yeah, baby! :)

Picture No. 2: This was the official SCBWI drink this year - a Blue Moon Frozen Daiquiri! If you weren't able to make last night's party, don't worry, I made sure to have one for you! :)

Picture No. 3: This picture is proof that YES, men DO attend the national SCBWI conference. (The statistics are something like 10,297 women and 23 men at the conference. I found two of them, picture book authors, and had to snap their picture as proof of their existence. I call them the Blue Moon Prom Dudes. LOL.)