08 Wednesday Apr 2015
Posted in Los Angeles
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SCBWI-L.A. blossomed with ‘firsts’ this Spring with the launching of a new Regional Mentorship Program with the fabulous Deborah Nourse Lattimore. Our first ever SCBWI-L.A. representation at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books takes place April 18th/19th. Please visit our booth #834 and show your support for our signing authors and illustrators – this could be you next year!
01 Wednesday Apr 2015
Posted in Writers Days
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This year’s SCBWI-Los Angeles Writer’s Days event was held March 7 & 8 at the beautiful Skirball Cultural Center. The event was well attended without being overwhelming, with plenty of opportunities to network with fellow SCBWI members. Just as I have at the end other SCBWI events I’ve gone to, I left the Skirball this weekend feeling motivated and inspired.
(Mary Ann Fraser)
25 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in Poet's Perspective
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If you want to know me, there’s one simple rule: Talk to the hand. I do not say that as an expression of contempt or disinterest. Rather, I say it an invitation. A call to engage my heart and learn the truth of the man who lies beneath. For while my mouth is stopped with shyness and doubt, my fingers speak to the soul of who I really am.
18 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in Volunteer in the Spotlight
My journey as a member of the SCBWI began in 1993. I savored the bimonthly Bulletin and dreamed from afar. Once I started attending events and joined a critique group, I was asked to be the Critique Group Coordinator for the Ventura/Santa Barbara Region (which includes Kern and San Luis Obispo Counties), now known as the Central-Coastal California Region, which was led at that time by our illustrious Regional Advisor Alexis O’Neill.
When I first joined the SCBWI, my interest was in illustration. As my visual exploits floundered, I began my voyage into poetry as an introduction to writing. Poetry soon became my mode of expression.
11 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in Industry News
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One great thing about the Internet is that you can subscribe to newsletters from the sites you like to visit, for free. Once you subscribe, their newest issues show up automatically in your email. You can create folders in your email to file the issues as they appear, so you can look at them later. You don’t even have to remember the URL or remember to look at your favorites. They just send them to you.
If you are ever stuck for ideas, these newsletters seem to arrive just in time with the solution to your story problem, or to jog your memory for a new story.
04 Wednesday Mar 2015
Posted in LitMingles!
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Welcome to Schmooze Land!
Once upon a time there were two SCBWI schmoozers who had a dream: Renee Carter and Saundra Davis imagined a schmooze centrally located in Los Angeles where fellow children’s book authors, librarians, and children’s literature fans could gather. Here they would exchange ideas to conquer the dreaded enemy, writer’s block, discuss the questions that plague many authors (to plot or not to plot), and munch on cookies. After all, Renee and Saundra had grown while attending the Westside Schmooze under its wise and creative coordinators, Rita Crayon Huang and Lee Wind. They had flourished under the the spunky and ingenious next team of Karol Silverstein and Charlie Cohen. Surely there were other children’s lit writers who could benefit from an additional schmooze.
25 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in Illustrator's Gallery
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Like most illustrators, my work reflects my personality and taste: colorful and contemporary with notes of nostalgia. Sweet (so they tell me) with a hint of edge.
18 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in Illustrator's Perspective
In art school I was trained in both traditional and digital painting; however, I was primarily a sculptor. When I decided in 2007 to pursue children’s book illustration, I was drawn to digital painting for some of the same reasons I enjoyed sculpting, mainly the freedom to edit for extended periods of time. In the past I was an edit addict with significant commitment issues (self-diagnosed, of course). The ability to edit and tweak a sculpture for days and sometimes weeks before committing to completion was greatly appealing to me, as was the seemingly endless edits of digital painting. The problem was, I could never fully commit to finishing a painting. I always felt the need to go back and alter some minute detail because I could. The clay never dried. After about three years working in digital painting, I had illustrated a couple of books and had received a lot of positive recognition, but I didn’t really enjoy the creative process anymore. So many of my fellow illustrators who work digitally have been able to achieve this beautiful easiness, flow, and character to their work that has always eluded me in that medium. My illustrations felt tortured. I felt tortured. Clearly, Photoshop and I needed to break up.
11 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in Industry News
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Schools need more books! Wouldn’t it be great if they had them? According to Daniel Rios, a tenured teacher of over 10 years and now Operations Administrator of the new charter school CALSTEAM in Encino, that idea is the very “core” of common core. With a focus on language and facts, literature becomes the best stage for teachers to develop focused and engaging lesson plans. 
04 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in Contests & Grants, SAG
Judges had a tough decision in selecting this year’s Sue Alexander Grant winner, which attracted more than 90 entries vying for a free coveted slot at the fall Working Writer’s Retreat.
The winner is a young adult novel by Kes Trester, an associate member (as yet unpublished). But with the promising manuscript Collision, we expect to welcome Kes to the ranks of PAL (published) members soon!
Kite Tales 