Jane Yolen Added As Winter Conference Closing Keynote Speaker!

Jane Yolen author of children's books, fantasy, and science fiction, including Owl Moon, The Devil's Arithmetic, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight? has been added to our conference line-up as a special closing keynote speaker! Jane has been called the Hans Christian Andersen of America and the Aesop of the twentieth century.

Besides the SCBWI's own Golden Kite Award, her books and stories have won the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, two Christopher Medals, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards, the Jewish Book Award, the World Fantasy Association's Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Association of Jewish Libraries Award among many others.

Don't miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the wisdom and wit of a legendary voice in the world of literature for young readers!

Click here to register. Early registration ends January 4th!

Details for the 2010 SCBWI International Winter Conference

Preliminary details for the 2010 SCBWI International Winter Conference in NYC have just been posted at SCBWI.org! Click here for a print-friendly brochure and all of the info you'll need to start planning!

Farewell and Autograph Party

Farewell & Autograph Party

After Kathleen Duey's inspirational farewell keynote address, conference goers enjoyed the Farewell & Autography Party where they were able to meet and greet the authors and get their autographs! Fresh lemonade, pretzels, and candy treats were provided for everyone as they headed out the door and back to their homes.

It was clear that close friendships had blossomed between conference goers over the past four days and that everyone - from aspiring newbie writers to published veteran authors - were inspired to rush home and WRITE WRITE WRITE.

The room was full of camaraderie and everyone enjoyed the celebration at the farewell shindig. Tonight, the faculty will meet for a final celebratory wrap-up party.

The entire SCBWI TEAM BLOG - Alice Pope, Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik, Lee Wind, Paula Yoo, and Suzanne Young - would like to thank SCBWI for giving us this opportunity to share the highlights of the 2009 national conference with everyone. We had a blast attending all these panels - our one regret was that we wish YOU were there! :) If you would like to find out more about SCBWI and join as a member, please go here for more info: http://scbwi.org

Remember, we are an interactive forum, so please comment away on our blogs. We look forward to the dialogue between SCBWI members about this year's conference.





Posted by SCBWI TEAM BLOG

Conference Take-Aways: Edith Cohn

Edith tells us about the moment from the Conference that she found the most useful:




Posted by Lee Wind

Conference Take-Aways: Nathalie Mvondo

I spoke with Nathalie about her LA Summer conference experience - and she had some good news to share!




Posted by Lee Wind

Conference Take-Away: Chris Rylander

I asked debut novelist (THE FOURTH STALL) Chris Rylander about his conference highlights.




POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

Conference Take-Aways: Kimberly Shumay

First Time Conference Attendee talks about what she got out of the LA Summer Conference:




Posted by Lee Wind

Conference Take-Aways: Sandi Greene

I asked first-time conference attendee Sandi Greene about her conference highlights.



POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

Conference Take Away: Greg Pincus

I asked Greg Pincus about his conference highlights. You can find Greg HERE and HERE.



POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

Conference Take-Aways: Stephen Bramucci

I asked 2nd time Conference Attendee Stephen what was his biggest take-away from the 4 day Los Angeles event-a-palooza:





Posted by Lee Wind

Autograph Party! - Jaime's Pics

(L to R) Ingrid Law! Ellen Hopkins! Karen Cushman! Kathleen Duey!

(L to R) Jim Averbeck! Chris Eboch! Marla Frazee!

RA and author Sydney Salter with a big ol' stack of books to get autographed!

Nancy Sanders!

Dan Santat start his own unadvertised line he's so good!

Kathleen Duey--Transmutation: Books That Matter

Kathleen Duey on the benefits of SCBWI...

The give-and-take of SCBWI is epic, and it has grown. It's gone from a family to more like a small village. It's given us a place to send all the people to ask us how they can publish. Membership in SCBWI makes editors know you're serious about writing. You can make connections.

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

Kathleen Duey--Transmutation: Books That Matter

Kathleen is telling us that the first thing she does after a conference is write down her conversations.

Next, she goes over and annotates her notes--you'll never remember more about this than you will in the next two days.

Then she goes through her business card. When she accepts then she writes a note on them saying why she took them. If you haven't, go home and write notes on them.

Contact everyone you took a card from. Send a thank-you to editors and agents who took the time to talk to you.

She asks, how many of us are not on Facebook. To everyone who raised their hands, she says: "Shame on you."

Kathleen is talking about the marvels of Twitter, that people were tweeting on the streets of Iran after the election. That there are writers chats on Twitter. And that she's writing a Twitter novel.

Kathleen Duey--Transmutation: Books That Matter

The amazing Kathleen Duey is offering the final keynote session of the 2009 SCBWI Summer Conference.

Lin Oliver says she'll "Send us out on wings of inspiration."

Kathleen has published more than 70 book and was nominated for a National Book Award last year for Skin Hunger.

Kathleen starts out by saying how much SCBWI has done for her. SCBWI, she says, raised the bar and changed the business.

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

Books Come from Being at SCBWI Conferences: An Interview with Two Success Stories

Yes, success comes from being a member of SCBWI and attending conference. Check out this interview from the conference with Ann Leal, author of ALSO KNOWN AS HARPER, and Jill S. Alexander, author of THE SWEETHEART OF PROSPER COUNTY.

POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

OOOooo! NEW SCBWI website bits!

Aaron Hartzler's taken the stage.

He's unveiling some really amazing stuff that you'll soon see on the SCBWI website:

A searchable speakers bureau will soon be launched -- you'll be able to upload a short video of yourself and a bio.

Teachers and librarians will be able to search by name, book title AND location!

An Illustrators Gallery!

With the price of membership will come the ability to have images and unique links living at the SCBWI site that you can send to art directors and editors.

AWESOME!

SCBWI Team Blog - Hard At Work, for YOU!

From Right to Left: Alice Pope, Team Captain! Lee Wind, Paula Yoo, Jolie Stekly, Jaime Temairik, and Suzanne Young!

Kelly Sonnack: How to Avoid Childish Mistakes When Writing for Children

Kelly Sonnack, agent with Andrea Brown Literary is offers 15 tips in this session. Here are a few:

• Beware of lessons and morals. (“And Gator never misbehaved again.” “I guess veggie shakes are so bad after all.”) If you want to incorporate one, it has to be almost invisible and fun to learn.
• Avoid writing to trends and copying bestsellers. This does not mean you can’t write a vampire book, but you have to realize that the bar is higher for you.
• Don’t let an adult solve the problem or come to the rescue. (And of course, she says, every children’s book needs to have a problem or conflict the character must overcome.)
• Don’t list character spec (“Gregory had sturdy broad shoulders, handsome hazel eyes and short thick reddish hair. He was a good-looking 18-year-old.”)
• Avoid stereotypical teen dialogue (“Oh my gawd, could my life be any more embarrassing? I mean come on. That was so over, like two years ago.”) and overdone teen angst (Arguments, rolling eyes, sighing, dialogue like: “You don’t understand me.”).

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

Steven Malk - What to Expect When You're Expecting: An Agent's Guide from Query Letter to Published Book

Workshop attendees and HALF of the Oregon contingent,

Amy Baskin (L) and Stephanie Bauer (R)

Steven urged the packed room to stop looking at their Amazon rankings.

Steven believes (and he says this is the Californian coming out in him) that the more you're out there putting good things into the world the more good things will come back to you.

In the children's book world, a great example of this is bookstore visits/author tours. It may not seem a success at the time and it is true they are lots of hard work, but the point of a tour or store visit isn't always immediate sales. Steven believes the power of a book tour is not quantifiable and hopes authors and illustrators will make the effort to be nice to everyone they meet on a tour. Because you never know, the dorky kid behind the counter may turn into tomorrow's power agent.

He asked everyone in the room to please read DEAR GENIUS if they haven't already.

Steven shared a few anecdotes -- Nikki McClure and Cynthia Rylant's book ALL IN A DAY was rejected by quite a few places and one complaint was that it looked like 'something they'd sell at Whole Foods,' and Steven wondered what on earth was wrong with having a book that appeals to people with as much disposable income as Whole Foods shoppers?

Steven mentioned that client Chris Rylander, who was in the room, had sent Steven a novel for adults (a no no) BUT Chris had also included the funniest query letter Steven had ever read. Steven let Chris know that he had no idea why he sent the adult book, but if Chris ever wrote anything for kids as funny as that query letter he'd be interested.

Someone then asked what happens to your manuscript after it has been requested by Steven and Steven said it is sent to a machine/room a lot like this:




POSTED BY JAIME TEMAIRIK

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Linda Joy Singleton, author of the DEAD GIRL series with Flux, has an autographed copy of her brand new book DEAD GIRL IN LOVE to give to you! So if you're here at the conference, the first person to find Linda and tell her you'd love to read her book will get it!