2010 is Page Ahead’s 20th anniversary. To celebrate, they have created the Page Ahead Best Books for Kids Awards. The award ceremony is Tuesday June 15, from 5:30-8:30 p.m. at the Library Bistro in downtown Seattle. There is no charge for local SCBWI members to attend.
For more information about Page Ahead, including a list of award nominees, visit their website
A big congratulations to COLUMBIAKids! The Media and Technology Committee of the American Association of Museums recently honored COLUMBIAKids with a SILVER award in the category of Community. This category recognizes “Web sites, moderated and hosted by a museum, that offer a virtual space for people to gather around a common experience, exhibit or interest, the way a bricks and mortar museum does.” The MUSE Award competition, now in its 21st year, recognizes excellence in media produced by or for museums.
COLUMBIAKids Editor Stephanie Lile says, "We’ve been fortunate to have numerous SCBWI and Whidbey Writers Workshop contributors over the e-zine’s first two years of publication. It’s largely due to their fantastic work that COLUMBIAKids won this prestigious award from the Association of American Museums."
Author / Illustrator John Abbott Nez shares his new book: CROMWELL DIXON'S SKY-CYCLE , June 29 from 7 – 7:30 p.m., at the Secret Garden Bookshop in Ballard.
Fun fact about John; He's done book projects with Mercer Mayer and Rosemary Wells, as a ghost illustrator. Check out more information on his website
Great post to check out on KidLit.com about copywriting submissions and agent plagiarism.
I found this through Twitter, where you can find many of our local authors, SCBWI fellow members, and several speakers from our April conference. You can find the SCBWI Western Washington here: http://twitter.com/scbwiwwa.
Lois V. Harris reads her new book, CHARLIE RUSSELL: TALE-TELLING COWBOY ARTIST, on June 13, 2010, 2-3 PM, at Darvill’s Bookstore, Eastsound, on beautiful Orcas Island. On June 19, 2010, she will read her Charlie Russell biography during “Meet the Author and Storytime” from 1-3 PM at Barnes & Noble, 4099 Meridian, Bellingham, WA.
On June 28, 2010 from 6:30-8 PM, Lois reads her MARY CASSATT: IMPRESSIONIST PAINTER book accompanied by an Impressionism art slideshow at the Mount Vernon City Library, 315 Snoqualmie St., Mount Vernon.
Children's book illustrator Craig Orback will be reading and signing copies of his new picture book "The CAN MAN", his 16th book, at Barnes & Noble in Bellingham, Saturday June 12, 11:00am to 1:00pm.
The story is about a young boy who to earn money decides to collect and redeem empty soft drink cans, but ends up giving away his money to help a local homeless man.
Craig will also be showing some of the original art from the book. Should be lots of fun! Craig teaches classes on children's book illustration at Bellevue and Whatcom Community Colleges. To learn more about his work visit Craig's website
Their mission statement; "From the Mixed-Up Files is the group blog of middle-grade authors celebrating books for middle-grade readers. For anyone with a passion for children’s literature—teachers, librarians, parents, kids, writers, industry professionals— we offer regularly updated book lists organized by unique categories, author interviews, market news, and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a children's book from writing to publishing to promoting".
Check out their blog, and enter to win nine middle-grade titles (because who doesn't love a chance to win free books?).
There's something so magical about Gail Carson Levine's stories. Her first, Ella Enchanted, reimagined Cinderella; in it, Ella is cursed to be obedient--an absolutely genius touch. That book won a Newbery Honor Book in 1998, and eventually became a movie starring Anne Hathaway.
You could call Gail Carson Levine the queen of fairy and princess stories. Later works include Fairest, a beautiful twist on Snow White, as well as several works in the Disney Fairies series.
But she often ventures beyond the world of fairies and princesses. Her seventeen books for children (see her full list at LibraryThing) include the historical Dave at Night,set in an orphanage for Jewish boys in Harlem. The Wish is a contemporary story about popularity in the eighth grade. She's written a picture book, Betsy Who Cried Wolf. And then there's one of my favorite writing guides: Writing Magic: Creating Stories That Fly.
She's prolific, too. Last week, her third novel from the Disney Fairies series came out. It's called Fairies and the Quest for Never Land, and was illustrated by David Christiana. And this fall, Betsy Red Hoodie will be published by HarperCollins.
Gail is one of the rare writers who can do it all, which is why we're especially lucky she'll be keynote speaker at the conference. In an interview on Bookbrowse.com, she gave some great advice to aspiring writers:
Save everything you write.
I think kids abandon stories all the time. They start stories and get frustrated or get a different, better idea. I think that it is more worthwhile to stick with a story and revise it and try to finish it than abandon ship. Revisions, for any writer, are the name of the game.
I want to write a book. In fact, that's kind of getting high on my list of things I want to do-- I want to write a writing book for kids.
I asked Gail a few questions to further whet our appetite for her keynote:
It took you nine years to get published and you faced rejection along the way. I read that you sometimes share a bit of your worst rejection letter with kids you visit. Could you share a bit with us?
Paraphrasing, the letter said that the manuscripts I’d submitted to this editor – all picture books at that point – lacked strong plots, developed characters, emotional resonance, and that a child wouldn’t be engaged enough to sit through a reading! Those are the highlights. The editor misspelled the title of my submission in the final paragraph.
It hurt, but now the letter is one of my most prized possessions.
What are some of the best writing lessons you’ve learned over the years?
When something is wrong I can’t paper over it. I have to fix, even if that means rewriting 300 pages. That every book is a new problem. I learn as I go along, but the mastery I thought I’d gained on the last book may do me no good at all on the next one.
Do you have a favorite character you’ve created? How did you create him or her?
Solly in Dave at Night, who is based on my friend Nedda, who’s since died. I wanted a salt-of-the-earth character, a mensch, and she provided the model.
Your stories have a timeless quality to them—even when you’re writing in a contemporary setting. How do you achieve that? Are there pitfalls to avoid?
Alas, there are telephone conversations in The Wish that probably wouldn’t happen in that way today. In general I stick to standard English and hope my word choices will take a while to get dated.
You have so much good advice on your blog. Does it help you to write it? Or are you just an insanely generous soul?
Depending on the question I’m answering, writing the blog can be very helpful. I also like reading the comments, and some of the questions have been great, and I’ve heard from people outside the states, which is fun. And I like to write about writing. And my publisher wanted me to do some social networking. And I’m insanely generous.
You’ve written one book with great advice in it for writers. Are you planning to turn your blog into another?
Yes. There will be a Writing Magic 2 based on the blog, and who knows, maybe there will be a 3.
For more from Gail Carson Levine, stop by her outstanding writing blog. Here are a couple of entries I particularly enjoyed:
After three years of working on the Chinook Update, I'm moving on to a new position on the advisory committee. I'll manage the Inside Story, and Rebekah Jensen will take over as editor of this blog and the calendar.
To send information about your news, classes, events, and to share helpful bits you find on the Internet, please e-mail jensenrebekah@ymail.com.
Thank you for reading the Chinook Update, and good luck with your writing and illustrating!
Here's the first in a series of posts designed to make you want to go to the SCBWI conference in L.A., where you'll meet and mingle with lots of industry stars. One of my favorites is Mac Barnett—and not just because he knows how to rock a five o'clock shadow better than that guy from Wham.
It's been said (just now, by me) that Mac is a picture book psychic, anticipating Twitter and its "fail whale" with his debut, BILLY TWITTERS AND HIS BLUE WHALE PROBLEM.
*** Spoiler alert ***
The problem is NOT that Billy Twitters has no business model. Nor is it that he didn't invest in a large enough server farm. Also, it's not the inexplicable popularity of Justin Bieber. Actually, maybe it is.
*** End spoiler alert ***
In GUESS AGAIN, Mac realized that my own children have a Grandpa Ned and needed to give him a really good present for his birthday. It's un-freaking-canny.
Finally, there's there's OH NO! I say this every day! (Learn more about the book from illustrator Dan Santat's blog.)
But Mac is not only a picture book author/psychic. He's also written the first books in the middle grade Brixton Brothers mystery series, and he's just released the bizarre and entertaining THE CLOCK WITHOUT A FACE, in which real gems have been hidden in mysterious locations around the country for readers much smarter than I to find them. (I read the book and it made me hungry for frosted pink donuts, which I did manage to track down. Hooray!)
Finally, Mac is a professional foot model. Or he has a pulchritizing fungus. Watch:
I was lucky enough to interview Mac, and I even embedded the clues to the location of a priceless gem in my questions. Will Mac figure it out? Read on!
Mac, I’ve hidden a priceless gem somewhere in this interview.
Oh, one of these treasure-hunt gimmicks. I hear everyone is doing one of those.
Your website says you’re a writer and strongman for hire. How much can you lift and what are your rates?
Back in high school I owned a weight bench but I never really used it. I can tell you from recent experience that I can lift an almost-new weight bench to the curb for a bulky trash pickup. That was for free, but only because my mom has been hounding me for years about coming and getting the thing out from behind her house. Normally my rates are outrageous.
You were No. 2 on the Time Magazine list for best children’s books in 2009. Do you have anything to say to Amy Krouse Rosenthal, the author of the book that beat yours? Oddly, Jon Scieszka and ROBOT ZOT didn't even make the list. Does that make you feel sort of guilty?
Just a couple weeks ago Jon picked up the Irma Black Award for ROBOT ZOT. BILLY TWITTERS AND HIS BLUE WHALE PROBLEM was an Irma Black Honor. So he flashes around his gold certificate whenever we hang out, and I can tell he feels just fine. As for TIME Magazine, well, second place can be all right: The other night I won second place in a beauty contest, and I collected ten dollars! This concludes the "Monopoly Joke" segment of this interview.
Wow! $10! And they say there's no money in children's books. You founded a store called Echo Park Time Travel Mart. What is your refund policy?
Refunds are made up 90 days before the date of purchase.
So, uh, Adam Rex. Do you guys have slumber parties or what?
I had a slumber party with Adam Rex a few days ago at a Double Tree in New Jersey! We were touring together and we were booked in a two-room suite, except one room just had a microwave and tiny couch, and the other room had both beds, which I don't think was really the intention. But we popped some popcorn and rented Grease and both of us stayed way past our bedtimes!
OK, where did I hide the priceless gem?
Martha, you're a priceless gem for interviewing me on this blog! That "you're" was supposed to be italicized for extra mawkishness but my email program hasn't been italicizing anything lately.
Christy Raedeke, one of our SCBWI colleagues from Ashland, Oregon, will be in town on Saturday to promote her new book, Prophecy of Days, Book One: The Daykeeper’s Grimoire.
You can catch her event at 5 p.m. at the U. Village Barnes and Noble. Learn more about the series at the official website. It looks really cool!
