30 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in Mentorship Contest
Tags
authors, Catherine Linka, community, E. Katherine Kottaras, mentors, mentorship, SCBWI members, YA, young adult
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
24 Wednesday Aug 2016
Posted in LitMingles!
Tags
authors, community, critiques, illustrators, middle grade, mingles, picture books, publishing, query letters, SCBWI events, SCBWI members, tools, volunteers, writer, writing tips, YA, young adult
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.
27 Wednesday Jul 2016
Posted in Volunteer in the Spotlight
Tags
community, Gina Capaldi, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, picture book, SCBWI members, volunteers
We 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 too. Now meet Gina Capaldi, Illustrator Coordinator for the SCBWI’s Inland Empire, also known as SoCal.
15 Friday Jul 2016
Posted in Community Corner
The 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!
The 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.
13 Friday May 2016
Posted in Community Corner
The 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.
I’ve been hearing the term “tribe” quite a bit these days. At a music festival I attended last year, everyone referred to their small communities as tribes. The festival even built a small village of Teepees and wooden shelters for people to hang out in. Then I noticed the term surfacing in magazines, online, and among the social groups I attended in San Francisco. “Find your tribe!” they said. What is this phenomenon, I thought? Have I been blind to it all along, or is it actually trending?
22 Friday Apr 2016
Posted in Industry News, Tips and Tools
Tags
authors, community, illustrator tips, illustrators, middle grade, news, nonfiction, picture book, published, publishing, SCBWI events, SCBWI members, volunteers, writer, YA
How do you get 150,000 dedicated book buyers to consider your book? How do you get 50 authors and/or illustrators together to sell their work to those 150,000 eager buyers? The answer is the Los Angeles SCBWI booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Continue reading
16 Wednesday Dec 2015
Posted in Volunteer in the Spotlight
Tags
When I joined SCBWI I was still a bit hardened from working the grind as an actor in Hollywood. Though it did have its good moments, acting really wore down my love for storytelling. I was desperate to find it again. I knew it was there. While working at Vroman’s bookstore I finally realized that writing for kids and teens was my medium.
The first SCBWI event I attended was LA Writer’s Day, and the warmth and support I felt from the get go was exactly what I needed (even though I’m pretty sure I didn’t speak to one person and was happy the outfit I chose matched the walls). Not long after that, the opportunity arose to become a co-editor of Kite Tales, the newsletter for the Southern California tri-regions. Continue reading
Kite Tales 