02 Wednesday Nov 2016
Posted in LitMingles!
Tags
community, illustrators, middle grade, picture books, SCBWI events, SCBWI members, writer, young adult
We at the SFV-Glendale LitMingle are dedicated to the pursuit of writing and illustrating children’s literature. We support, guide, and nurture budding authors and illustrators as well as established authors and illustrators. Our goal is to create quality works of fiction, non-fiction and poetry that educate, entertain, and inspire children of all ages. Continue reading
28 Wednesday Sep 2016
Posted in Author's Perspective, Illustrator's Perspective
Today 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
21 Wednesday Sep 2016
Posted in Illustrator's Gallery
Tags
awards, conferences, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, picture book, portfolio tips, portfolios, SCBWI members
SCBWI member Anne Berry is an illustrator living and working in Huntington Beach, California. She’s been doodling ever since she found paper and pencil, and could get her cats to sit long enough for a portrait. At the 2015 SCBWI Summer Conference, she won the SCBWI Mentorship Program award and the Portfolio Honor Award. Read on for her valuable tips about perfecting your own portfolio and to check out her awesome illustrations!
14 Wednesday Sep 2016
Posted in Tips and Tools
I’ve always wondered how artists and illustrators pay their bills and still have time to create. Some artists like myself, who need extra income, have little information on finding art and writing jobs other than by asking other artists/writers and checking newspaper job listings for part-time paid positions or freelance jobs. But the Internet is such a wonderful vehicle to use when you need to find information or even jobs that you wouldn’t be able to find locally, so the Kite Tales team and I decided to do some research.
09 Friday Sep 2016
Posted in Toot Your Horn!
A 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.
07 Wednesday Sep 2016
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!
Andrea 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
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.
10 Wednesday Aug 2016
Posted in Illustrator's Perspective
Lori Nichols is the author and illustrator of the award-winning picture book Maple and the Maple series. Her illustrated work can also be seen in the This Orq books by David Elliott, No, No, Kitten! by Shelley Moore Thomas, and Go Sleep In Your Own Bed by Candace Fleming (2017). In this “Illustrator’s Perspective,” Lori shares where she gets her ideas, how her process works, and ideas to keep your own ideas flowing.
I find my creative juices flow better when I have a fair amount of playtime. Right now, we are doing a kitchen renovation. Walls are being demolished and floors ripped up. My world has been turned upside down, so creative juices are not flowing– at least not until yesterday when I took a sharpie and started drawing on the exposed ceiling rafters and unfinished walls. That helped some.
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.
13 Wednesday Jul 2016
Posted in Illustrator's Perspective
Tags
Carl Angel, how-to, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, Julius Lester, local, picture book, SCBWI members, The Girl Who Saved Yesterday
Our local Angelino and SCBWI member Carl Angel is the illustrator of the beautiful new picture book, The Girl Who Saved Yesterday. In this book, Angel takes on the daunting task of illustrating Julius Lester’s poetic lines in a book that straddles myth, magic realism, and folklore. 
CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: Welcome! Please tell us a little bit about how you illustrated trees that talk, lights that felt “as thin as a raindrop,” and stones of the ancestors which “glow a pink as gentle and soft as a first kiss.”
CARL ANGEL: The poetic nature of Julius’s words resonates on both an emotional and literal level, and in such a way where both are equally appealing as imagery. As an illustrator, I chose to address, primarily through color and composition, the aspect on which to best focus for the image. The text is rich enough that some of the words, I felt, were beyond illustrating and were best left in the reader’s imagination, which only added to the depth of the book. The way Julius connected those two dimensions so delicately with such great lyricism was so inspiring that I wanted to share that with the reader visually. Continue reading
Kite Tales 