Tag Archives: authors

Great News!

18 Friday Nov 2016

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GreatNewsSCBWI 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!

 

 

Joan Bransfield Graham’s poem “Tuck a Poem in Your Head” is featured in former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate Kenn Nesbitt’s new poetry anthology One Minute Till Bedtime, which debuted on November 1st.

ambushBetsy Rosenthal’s An Ambush of Tigers was selected as a 2016 Notable Children’s Book in the English Language Arts and consequently, she has been invited to serve on a panel at the upcoming National Council of Teachers of English annual convention.

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Toot Your Horn!

16 Wednesday Nov 2016

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living-fossils-coversmLiving Fossils: Clues to the Past, by Caroline Arnold, illustrated by Andrew Plant, Charlesbridge, ages 7-10, Picturebook Nonfiction, ISBN: 978-1-58089-691-7, released 06/02/2016.

 

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Past PAL Mentors Praise Program as 2017 Selection Process Begins

30 Friday Sep 2016

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One year ago authors E. Katherine Kottaras and Catherine Linka answered our call for published members interested in mentoring. Since May, they have been working with their chosen mentees. As we now request proposals from next year’s potential mentors, Kottaras and Linka reflect on their experience of advising aspiring writers. Continue reading →

Interview with Booki Vivat, Author and Illustrator of Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom

28 Wednesday Sep 2016

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Frazzled hc cToday we’re talking with SCBWI member and former Angelino, Booki Vivat. Her illustrated middle-grade novel, Frazzled: Everyday Disasters and Impending Doom (HarperCollins Children’s Books), became available on September 27, 2016.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome! In this debut novel Abbie Wu, the middle child in her family, is about to enter middle school. What was your process as author-illustrator from idea to publication?

BOOKI VIVAT: Frazzled has a pretty unconventional origin story. It didn’t start with a traditional pitch or a query or a manuscript. It started with a doodle—or rather, a whole bunch of them. I kept a planner a few years ago to try and get my life in order, but it ended up becoming more of a creative outlet to channel all my feelings. Doodles literally took over the pages of my life! Continue reading →

Toot Your Horn!

09 Friday Sep 2016

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charmedA Charmed Life / Una Vida con Suerte, by Gladys E. Barbieri, illustrated by Lisa Fields, Arte Público Press, ages 4-8, bilingual picture book, ISBN: 978-1-55885-827-5, released 05/30/2016.

 

 

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Great News!

07 Wednesday Sep 2016

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GreatNewsSCBWI 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!

 

 

andrea-ellickson-scbwi-awardAndrea Ellickson is thrilled to sign with agent Tricia Lawrence at the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. They met through #DVpit twitter pitch that promoted diverse voices. Her novel, Blanca and the Ruins, also won for best YA manuscript at the SCBWI LA Writer’s Day 2016 conference. Continue reading →

LitMingle Minute: Hollywood

24 Wednesday Aug 2016

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June_2016_discussing_plot

Minglers discussing plot.

The SCBWI L.A. Hollywood LitMingle started humbly. For the past three years, Deborah Blum and Jean Perry (that’s me) have taken the mingle from a living room to the meeting space at the Hollywood Fairfax Library. It’s absolutely delicious to meet with other children’s writers. We who gather on those special Thursdays “get” each other. We find friends whose eyes don’t glaze over at the mention of plot and inciting incident. When we talk about crisis and climax, we can ask which is which. Picture book, middle grade, young adult, and new adult writers are welcomed to this free event every month. We usually start out full group, and then break into small groups based on genre, to get the specific support we need. Mingles are open to the public.

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Getting Your Geek On: Why You Should Check Out Comic-Con

19 Friday Aug 2016

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Author Tobie Easton signing "Emerge" for fans in the signing area.

Author Tobie Easton signing “Emerge” for fans in the signing area.

As a debut author, I have spent this year—and the time leading up to it—learning as much as I could about the publishing industry and about all the different ways to build a successful career as an author. One lesson that has stood above all the rest so far is that publishing is about finding your people. That team of people who really gets your writing—and who falls in love with it. It starts out with just you, then your critique partners, then (if you pursue traditional publishing) your agent, editor, and other members of the team at your publisher, then booksellers, and finally readers. No matter what stage of your writing career you’re at right now, here’s why conventions are so beneficial: They help you find your people. Continue reading →

SCBWI Community Corner with Deborah Fletcher Blum

15 Friday Jul 2016

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Deborah Blum_8087The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is a dynamic community of professionals and aspirings. Read on for a member’s story about how SCBWI has influenced their work and connected them to publishing professionals, life-long friends, and the tools they need to share their stories with children of all ages. Read on for former Hollywood LitMingle Coordinator Deborah Fletcher Blum’s story!

IMG_6077The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators launched my career as a filmmaker. It may sound odd to credit a children’s writers and illustrators group with this, but writing and filmmaking are integrally connected artistic disciplines. As an artist and English teacher, who wrote poetry and non-fiction, I embarked on a middle grade novel in the Summer of 2010 and joined SCBWI soon after.

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Volunteer Spotlight: Chester Perryess

15 Wednesday Jun 2016

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cspWe love our volunteers at SCBWI and couldn’t exist without them! “Volunteer Spotlight” is a great way to get to know them for yourself and learn more about what they do – and how you can volunteer. Now meet Chester Perryess, Central/Coastal CA regional Schlepper and Minion:

 

 

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narratingI’m an introvert. I’m happiest at home making those characters come to life, or sequestered in my “shedio” narrating audiobooks, or researching etymologies for Wordmonger, my blog about words. Still, I volunteer out in the Big Scary World and encourage my fellow introverts to consider doing the same.

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