Special WLA Inside Story Opportunity!

Do you have a new book out Fall 2018 or Spring 2019? Our region is teaming up with the Inland Washington region to present an “Inside Story” sort of event at WLA in Yakima October 17-20. The date and time haven’t been communicated to us yet, but if you’re interested in being part of this event please e-mail Dori Butler, SCBWI-WWA PAL Coordinator at dhbutler@kidswriter.com. Include your name, book title, publisher, and pub date. We have limited slots available, so this is a first come, first served opportunity.

You must be a CURRENT SCBWI member at the PAL (published and listed) level and your profile on the SCBWI website must be updated to reflect this. And your publisher must be on SCBWI’s list of recognized (traditional) PAL publishers. Visit here to double check.

Meet Our 2018-2019 Mentors: Illustration!

Meet our mentors from our Mentorship Program 2018-2019

      Here’s what Illustration Portfolio Mentors - Amy Hevron and Erik Brooks have to say.

             

Tell us a little bit about what you are working on now and your current projects.

Amy: Currently I’m illustrating MOON BABIES, a picture book written by debut author Karen Jameson. I am also in the process of revising a few non-fiction picture book manuscripts

Erik: I just recently finished two board book illustration projects and I am currently working on some technical exercise drawings for a climbers/endurance athletes training guide (to be published by Patagonia Books). The later is bit of a departure from picture book illustration, but jobs like this help to fill in the occasional gaps.

Later this summer I’ll be diving into a new picture book project and hope to be making submissions on two new picture book projects of my own and my first attempt at a graphic novel. I have ongoing weekly commitments as well to my local newspaper comic strip, Welcome to Harts Pass :)

How does being a mentor influence and inform your work and why do you do it?

Amy: 
In my author/illustrator journey, I have benefited greatly from mentors in this industry. So, I look forward to returning the favor and helping guide others on their path. In reviewing other people’s work, it helps me to evaluate my own work more objectively.

Erik: Being a mentor is a lot like how I feel when giving elementary schools workshops and/or presenting to kids. A thoughtful consideration of my own process, habits, inspirations, faults and successes always becomes a great mirror for comparing how I actually work vs how I could be working. Inevitably, this ends up helping both the student and the teacher, as the renewed understanding of my own approach makes me better too! As a certified K-12 art instructor, these mentorship opportunities also nicely engage that part of my brain that at one time wanted to be a teacher.

What are some challenges you have encountered in your writing/illustration journey? How did you manage to survive through them and achieve success?

Amy: I’ve experienced rejections, book projects falling through, and book projects I had to pass on. With each challenge, I look for the learning moment. These take aways have helped me focus my portfolio, improve my writing, and better my understanding for when I’m not a fit for a project. In challenging times, I lean on supportive family and friends who encourage me and love everything I do not matter what. I’ll seek out inspiration for new stories or characters by walking around the neighborhood or going to a museum. Staying positive and continuing to create help me to push through challenges.

Erik: My first book was an IndieBound Pick-of-the-Lists, a Publisher’s Weekly “Flying Start.” Six months later (unbeknownst to me and shortly after I’d earned my first royalty check) the publisher filed for bankruptcy. The book/career with a fairly auspicious beginning was quickly DOA with a first title no longer available for distribution - and to this day the publisher (18 years later) still owes me money and only recently returned the rights.

It was with a small publisher, I was 28 and totally naive about the business, and I was also just maybe a little too “nice” about getting the rug pulled out from under me. I rolled with the punch. I kept doing school visits, and I started working on those next book ideas. I’d never expected to have a first book actually sell that well, so I simply persisted - in a manner of speaking - and just tried to work and do what seemed like the next “right thing.”

Ten years and 14 books later, a similar “momentum buster” happened again when Marshall Cavendish sold its picture book list to Amazon Publishing — and independent bookstores dropped a book of mine that had been selling well only three months into its release. Totally out of my hands. Just another “luck of the draw” situation, but one again with definite financial consequences!

Anyway, this is an unpredictable journey with many ups and downs. The beauty is that you have the ideas and you create the next thing that you are trying to sell — be that an entire book or a portfolio update that will hopefully catch an editor’s eye. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, but on a certain level, the ball is always in your court to keep on forging ahead.

As another hedge against the ups and downs, I also spend at least part of almost every day doing non-writing/illustrating things. I parent, I coach, I volunteer, I visit school and libraries, I plot other ideas like starting a hat-making business or a collective studio art space in town… Whatever the case, I move some energy and effort around to other things. I know that my “Job” is to write and to illustrate the best books that I can possibly make, but it certainly helps when there are other outlets for success and failure. Sometimes I’m a better coach or parent or teacher than I am an illustrator, but that positive uptick feeds itself along the line eventually back to other things.

What advice would you give to your beginner self who is just starting out to make a creative career?  

Amy: Enjoy this time in your career while you’re just starting out. Experiment and play and relish that no one’s watching yet. Take classes to improve your skills or learn new ones. Join SCBWI to meet peers who are at a similar place in their career journey and stay connected with them. Limit social media while you’re creating. For me, it’s dampens my creativity rather than energizes it. Know that you’ll have good creative days and blah creative days. Try to make the most of whatever kind of day it is.

Erik: Rejection and some failure are definitely part of the game, but I got used to that quickly and kept plugging along. To my younger self: I could have sought to find a better “team” to have my back or help to improve my work (outside of my lovely wife and a few consistent editors along the way) - an illustration community, an agent etc.. Yes, I jumped in and have figured out a LOT in 18 years, and I also take a certain amount of pride in publishing 26+ books and making this work without an agent or closer group— but it IS a little harder and perhaps a little more isolating this way.

As a second thought, and I lucked into this myself, learn some computer skills applicable to design and layout programs. This is perhaps a given these days and part of every current illustrator’s worldview, but I know that there are at least a few colored pencil and watercolor artists out there who still don’t know much about scanning or color correction or how to use technology to capture your artwork and put your best foot forward for submissions. I spent 18 months in a graphic design department learning on the job with the Adobe Creative Suite and InDesign just prior to my first attempt at writing and illustrating for kids. My first book submissions were in the era of faxing sketches and photocopied book dummies at Kinkos, but it all changed pretty quickly with the advent of the internet. Those skills that I learned with Photoshop and Illustrator… I still use them almost every single week. The transition to sharp looking PDFs, creating my own promo postcards, website portfolio, etc. were all made SO much easier given that time and fluency spent on the computer. I still prefer painting and drawing on paper, but whenever I want to mix it up with digital media — or have a publisher asking me to make corrections digitally — I am totally up to the task.

            For more details of the mentorship program check here.

Amy Hevron is an illustrator, designer, and children’s book author living in Seattle, Washington. She is a two-time winner of the Portfolio Honor Award from the SCBWI. She illustrated Trevor written by Jim Averbeck coming in 2018. And her author/illustrator debut Dust Bunny Wants a Friend arrives in 2019. Prior to focusing on children’s books, Amy worked as an art director at design firms and game companies. She is represented by Kirsten Hall of Catbird Agency. Amy’s portfolio can be viewed at www.amyhevron.com.

Erik Brooks is the author and/or illustrator of many books, including the Washington State Book Award winner, POLAR OPPOSITES, and the CBC/IRA Children’s Choices award winner, THE PRACTICALLY PERFECT PAJAMAS. His most recently illustrated board book, IF I WERE A WHALE, will soon be joined by two additional titles. From his home in Winthrop, WA, Erik also writes and draws a weekly comic strip for his local paper, visits schools and libraries around the country, and plays in the woods like a wolverine! View Erik’s portfolio at www.erikbrooks.com

Meet Our 2018-2019 Mentors: Nonfiction!

Meet our mentors from our Mentorship Program 2018-2019

Here’s what our Nonfiction Mentors – Clare Hodgson Meeker, Laurie Thompson, and Marin Younker have to say.

Tell us a little bit about what you are working on now and your current projects.

Clare: My current book project is a narrative nonfiction chapter book titled Growing Up Gorilla, the story of a baby gorilla named Yola at Woodland Park Zoo whose mother initially refused to care for her at birth. With patient help from zoo staff and support from a shy adult silverback in her family group, Yola was able to bond with her mother within five months. The book will be published by Millbrook Press in the fall of 2019.  

Laurie: Right now I’m focusing on promoting TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: HISTORIES AND MYSTERIES, which releases June 26, and on completing the backmatter and photo research for the next book in the series. I’m also revising two picture books, one fiction and one nonfiction, and working on sample chapters for a YA nonfiction proposal that I’m really excited about. Somewhere in there, I’m also trying to find time to revise a MG nonfiction proposal and finish a draft of a new picture book!

Marin: My work-in-progress is tentatively titled Stuffed and is an exposé of taxidermy. Like Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge, it’s intended for middle and high school readers with adult crossover appeal. My agent, Michelle Witte, has a draft of the proposal and manuscript for editing. In the meantime, I am in the thick of research and note taking which are my favorite parts of the process.

How does being a mentor influence and inform your work and why do you do it?

Clare: I have had many writing mentors over the course of my career. They encouraged me to believe in my own voice as a children’s book author, taught me about the writing craft, gave constructive advice on my manuscripts, and helped me find my way in the writing business. I enjoy mentoring fellow writers at any stage of the process because that is how I learned and was able to get published.

Laurie: I love being a mentor because it gives me a chance to give back to the community in the same way other authors assisted me in my journey, but I also have a completely selfish reason, too! I firmly believe that one of the best ways to become a better writer yourself is to carefully critique someone else’s work. It helps me stay focused on the fundamentals of good writing, and I know that I invariably learn things about my own writing when I’m giving someone else feedback--both by being reminded of my weaknesses as well as learning new tricks. I also find a lot of inspiration through mentoring, because even if someone has a lot to learn there are always things they do well, too. Plus, people who are looking for a mentorship tend to be committed and passionate about their work, which is energizing and just plain fun to be around!

Marin: In mentoring another local writer, I hope to pay it forward. Like many, I’ve benefited from the eye and input of other writers, as well as librarians. As a former librarian, I am fortunate enough to have co-workers who are willing to read drafts in all their ugliness, as well as act as a sounding board for ideas. The same can be said for writers in the SCBWI community: those who focus on non-fiction are especially generous with their time and connections.

Mentoring is a great way to learn!

What are some challenges you have encountered in your writing/illustration

journey? How did you manage to survive through them and achieve success?

Clare: One of the challenges in writing nonfiction is that your story is based on fact, not from your imagination.  Careful research is key and that often includes interviewing people who know the subject you are writing about better than you do. One of my biggest challenges in my latest book project was being able to get access to interview the keepers and other zoo staff who helped raise Yola and her mother. The zoo wanted a commitment from a publisher ahead of time. But publishers don’t usually offer a contract without seeing a full draft first. So I had to write the story based on what facts I knew and use my writing skills and imagination to develop the story narrative in a way that would engage my target audience of 7-12 year old readers. That first draft along with a full proposal got me a publisher and access to the Zoo staff.  The short answer to facing these challenges is to be patient, determined, and never give up.

Laurie: The waiting is always the biggest challenge. It seems like EVERYTHING in this business moves at a snail’s pace… right up until it becomes an all-out sprint, at least! In addition to requiring inhuman amounts of patience, the waiting leaves a lot of time for self-doubt to grow while our confidence dwindles. Believing in the value of my work keeps me going even when I question my ability to actually DO it. (And yes, I still question it--every. single. day.)

Marin: Two areas of particular weakness are underwriting and narrative structure. I tend towards brevity, which can be both a benefit and curse. Crucial to my process is an editor who can eagerly ask follow-up questions. As for narrative structure, sometimes I get so caught up in research, I neglect to clearly connect the dots, leaving the reader unsure of what comes next and why. Flow is hard! With Stuffed, both of those challenges are in the back of my mind as I draft.

What advice would you give to your beginner self who is just starting out to make a creative career?

Clare: Do what feels right to you every step of the way. You need a good idea to start off with, and from there, be willing to put in the time and effort to finish your manuscript the best way you know how. Every story and every book is like your first book. Make sure you care enough about the subject to devote the time to make it great. Once your book comes out, put on your promotion hat to get your book out in the world and into the hands of kids and parents who will love it and want to share it with others. 

Laurie: First, you must be persistent. You will have to keep trying, learning, growing, and trying again, until you finally succeed. As long as you are making progress, no matter how slow, you are doing it right and you are on the right road. You just have to keep going, trust the process, and believe that things will happen when they are supposed to happen.

Second, you are going to have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. It’s not easy, but it is what will allow you to connect with readers, and thus what will open the doors to a career in the business. Don’t be afraid to show your authentic self and invite others along on your personal journey.

Marin: Get to know the business, from the craft of writing to the ins and outs of publishing. After going online and doing some basic research, treat your local bookseller and/or librarian to coffee and pick their brain. If there is a relevant book group at a school or library, ask to observe. Find a group of fellow authors or illustrators to meet with regularly, if for no other reason than accountability. Plus, read lots!

For more details of the mentorship program check here.

Clare Hodgson Meeker is an award-winning author of 11 published books for children including the Spring 2016 Junior Library Guild Selection Rhino Rescue! And More True Stories of Savings Animals, the Smithsonian Notable Book Lootas, Little Wave Eater and Soccer Dreams: Playing the Seattle Sounders FC Way. Her next book, Growing Up Gorilla, published by Millbrook Press, is scheduled for release in the fall of 2019.

Clare teaches writing in schools throughout the Northwest. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and will be presenting at the 2018 Southwest Washington Writers Conference in September. She is also a member of the literary nonprofit organization the Seattle7Writers.

A former software engineer, Laurie Ann Thompson writes for young people to help them better understand the world we live in and make it a better place for all. She strives to write nonfiction that encourages imagination and fiction that reflects universal truths, as seen in Be a Changemaker, an inspiring how-to guide for teens; Emmanuel’s Dream, a picture book biography of a man who changed perceptions of disability; My Dog Is The Best; and the upcoming Two Truths And A Lie series for middle-grade readers (co-authored with Ammi-Joan Paquette). Learn more at lauriethompson.com and on Twitter at @lauriethompson.

A self-described research junkie, J. Marin Younker worked as a public librarian for thirteen years, spending most of that time working with teens. Earning a degree in History from Western Washington University, Marin went on to graduate school for an MLIS at the University of Washington. Marin now lives in the Seattle area with her family and animal menagerie. Her first book, Bleed, Blister, Puke, and Purge exposes the dirty secrets behind early american medicine.

For more information, visit odddelights.com or follow her on twitter at @odddelights.