Five-Minute True Stories: Animal Rescue, by Aubre Andrus, Scholastic, ages 4-8, Nonfiction, ISBN: 1-338-20006-2, released 03/27/2018
Toot Your Horn!
09 Friday Feb 2018
Posted in Writers Days
Author Archives: Sarah Parker-Lee
Great News!
07 Wednesday Feb 2018
Posted in Great News!
SCBWI loves celebrating our members’ successes and noteworthy news, and there are many! Read on to find out who’s got something to shout about. Digital high-fives welcome in the comments!
Hatching Chicks in Room 6 by Caroline Arnold was named a 2017 Eureka! Honor book by the California Reading Association. The Eureka! awards are for excellence in nonfiction.
#KT250 Winning Entries: 1st Quarter 2018
26 Friday Jan 2018
Posted in #KT250
Tags
agents, contests, fantasy, literary fiction, middle grade, mystery, publishers, SCBWI members, seeking publisher, seeking representation, The Last Bookstore, unpublished, YA, young adult
#KT250 is our first Kite Tales quarterly community contest! We’re proud to announce this quarter’s winners and share the first 250 words of their unpublished manuscripts. We encourage agents, publishers, and mentors to reach out to any winners whom they find intriguing!
To find out how YOU can enter for next quarter, check out contest info here. Entries are now being accepted for next quarter!
GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Continue reading
SCBWI Central Coast Regional News, First Quarter 2018
24 Wednesday Jan 2018
By Ann Rousseau Smith, SCBWI CenCal News Liaison
SCBWI Cen-Cal 2018 Mentor Program: Matching Successful PAL’s with Promising Writers
Our 2018 Middle-Grade Mentor is Mary Hershey.
About Mary: Mary Penney Hershey (a.k.a. Mary Penney) is the author of five humorous (and heartfelt, she hopes) middle grade novels. Her next novel, entitled Green Eyes & Ham will be published by HarperCollins in winter 2018. Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Education and is a certified personal and executive coach. She is a long-standing SCBWI Cen-Cal member and served on the board for our region for a number of years. She has taught workshops for Cen-Cal events and served on the faculty at SCBWI nationals. She is profoundly grateful for all the guidance she has received over the years from other writers and is thrilled to serve as our 2018 mentor.
About the Program: Continue reading
Having a Mentor Just Might Lead to a Manuscript That Sells
17 Wednesday Jan 2018
Posted in Contests & Grants, Mentorship Contest
Tags
Andrea J. Loney, Karol Ruth Silverstein, mentors, mentorships, publishing, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, Wade Bradford
by Karol Ruth Silverstein, Contest Coordinator
It’s common knowledge that having a mentor can impact your writing career in wonderful ways. Sometimes the impact is immediately apparent; other times it takes a while for the coaching a mentee receives to translate into career success.
My own experience falls into both categories. Continue reading
LitMingle Minute: The Birth of South Los Angeles LitMingle
10 Wednesday Jan 2018
Posted in LitMingles!
By Jean Perry, SOLA LitMingle Coordinator
*EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was accidentally emailed before Christmas, but was not scheduled to post on the blog until today. So just in case you missed it or were looking for it on Kite Tales… Here it is again!
Left to right: Karen English, Marjorie Smith, Jean Perry at Meeting #1
The idea for a South LA LitMingle was born where so many great ideas in Los Angeles are born: in traffic. When construction projects increased traffic congestion, my drive-time from South LA to Hollywood, as the then-Hollywood LitMingle Coordinator, went from thirty-five minutes to one hour. Returning time wasn’t much shorter. If it was too much of a commute for the coordinator, what about potential attendees coming from the same area? The answer seemed reasonable: set up a South LA Mingle.
I was surprised to find the shorter commute didn’t exactly bring in the minglers. Where did all the people go? My first meeting consisted of two friends plus me. The second meeting was me with a woman who wandered by during the last fifteen minutes. My third meeting is coming up on January 25th. One writer is interested in writing about her family, another about a trip to West Africa, another about a childhood experience. None have shown up more than once. Continue reading
HarperCollins Editor Karen Chaplin on Defining Voice, Trends, & Time Management
27 Wednesday Dec 2017
Posted in Editor's Perspective
Karen Chaplin began her publishing career at Scholastic. She was an editor at Puffin Books/Penguin Young Readers Group for six years before she moved to HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she is currently a senior editor of picture book, middle grade, and young adult fiction and nonfiction. Karen received her undergraduate degree in English from the University of Delaware, and her MA in English from Simmons College. When she’s not working, she enjoys spending time with her family, traveling, finding DIY projects to do, and dabbling in photography. She also has graciously offered to do a Q&A with us!
Sarah Parker-Lee: As an editor, it’s your job to take a writer’s labor of love and not just fine-tune it but take it to the next level. What are you looking for when you first begin this process?
Karen Chaplin: One of the first things I look for in a manuscript is voice. The voice of the story, of the main character, of all the characters, really needs to draw me in from the first few pages, and if that happens, then the author has got me hooked. Plot points, character issues, the ending—all of that can be modified. But the voice is difficult to accomplish, and if an author nails that, it’s a fantastic start.
SPL: Any advice for writers working with an editor, whether they are first-timers or old pros? Continue reading
Holiday Wishes From CenCal SCBWI!
22 Friday Dec 2017
Posted in Central Coast
For more fantastic content, community, events, and other professional development opportunities, become a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators today! Not sure if there is a chapter in your area? Check here.
Season’s Greetings from SCBWI L.A.!
20 Wednesday Dec 2017
Posted in Los Angeles
For more fantastic content, community, events, and other professional development opportunities, become a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators today! Not sure if there is a chapter in your area? Check here.
SAG Winner Karen Jameson on Getting Published & the Mentors That Got Her There
29 Wednesday Nov 2017
Posted in Author's Perspective, Contests & Grants
Tags
agents, Alexis O'Neill, Ann Whitford Paul, Dianne White, Karen Jameson, Lynn Becker, published, publishing, SAG, Sue Alexander Grant
By Karen Jameson
Sometimes the person who’s about to change your life has been there all along!
Children’s author and friend, Dianne White, and I met way back in 1996 when I joined the teaching staff at Peachland Elementary. A well-respected primary teacher with an encyclopedic knowledge of children’s literature, Dianne pursued her love of children’s writing after hours. Sixteen years later, when Dianne announced plans for an early retirement (and a move to Arizona), I knew that it was now or never. I finally summoned my courage and shared my own secret writing dreams. I never could have imagined what happened next!
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