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.
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
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!
24 Friday Nov 2017
Posted in Toot Your Horn!
It’s Black Friday! Don’t forget that you can purchase books today, and small business Saturday, and cyber Monday! Here are some members whose books have recently become available!
Lint Boy, by Aileen Leijten, Clarion, ages 8-12, Graphic Novel, ISBN: 978-00544-52860-4, released 06/27/2017.
22 Wednesday Nov 2017
Posted in Great News!
Tags
SCBWI loves celebrating our members’ successes and noteworthy news, and there are many to be thankful for as Thanksgiving approaches! Read on to find out who’s got something to shout about. If you have something to be thankful for, kid-lit-related or otherwise, share in the comments! We here at SCBWI Los Angeles and Kite Tales are thankful for each and every one of you!
Rabbi the Rabbit, by Shireen Hakim, was published in the “Out of Many, One: Celebrating Diversity” anthology. It also won an award by the anthology publisher, Houston Writers Guild Press, on April 5, 2017.
18 Wednesday Oct 2017
Mary Ann Fraser is the author/illustrator of 60 fiction and non-fiction books for children. Her latest picture book, Alexander Graham Bell Answers the Call (Charlesbridge), was published in August.
Fraser is also the Regional Advisor for SCBWI’s Central-Coastal Region. She talks to Kite Tales about her prolific career and shares lessons learned over the years.
Erlina Vasconcellos: Congratulations on your new book, a nonfiction look into the childhood of Alexander Graham Bell. How did you choose him as the subject?
Mary Ann Fraser: First, thank you for the opportunity to share my journey toward this latest book. As always, I am so grateful for the support and encouragement of my friends and peers that make up this amazing community we call SCBWI.
In 2012 my husband and I visited the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site in Baddeck, Nova Scotia. I was amazed at Bell’s endless curiosity, inventiveness, and desire to help others, particularly the deaf, and was struck by how his life’s work seemed inevitable from the time he was a young lad. His mother was deaf and his father and grandfather were speech therapists. At the museum bookstore, I asked if they had any picture books on Bell. The cashier said they didn’t but wished they did. That’s when bells (excuse the pun) started ringing, and I realized I had my next project.
EV: After 60 books, how do you stay inspired and keep things fresh? Is your method for generating ideas different from when you began?
30 Wednesday Aug 2017
Posted in Toot Your Horn!
SCBWI members’ publishing news is something to celebrate here at Kite Tales. Check out whose book is coming to a platform near you! Leave a digital high-five in the comments!
Sleepy Toes, by Kelli McNeil, illustrated by Cori Doerrfeld, Scholastic, ages 0-5, Board Book, ISBN: 978-133-803-07-23, released 3/1/17.
A Squirrel in Trouble, by Farida Mirza, Oxford University Press, ages 4-6, Picture Book, ISBN: 978-0-19-940485-8, released 5/1/2017. Continue reading
02 Wednesday Aug 2017
Agent and author Kari Sutherland joins this year’s LA SCBWI Working Writer’s Retreat faculty. She was a Senior Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books before joining the Bradford Literary Agency in 2017 and she co-writes the middle grade Menagerie series with her sister, Tui Sutherland. She’s worked with bestselling and critically acclaimed authors on projects such as the #1 New York Times bestselling Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and the #1 New York Times bestselling Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard. Needless to say, she knows a thing or ten or about writing, editing, and publishing books, and she’s here to share some of that knowledge with us!
Sarah Parker-Lee: You graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in English and Psychology. Why do you consider this the perfect combination for working with authors on character and plot development?
Kari Sutherland: I’d say both fields help me pinpoint when a character is behaving in a way that isn’t authentic or in a way that may produce a reaction in readers that the author is not intending. Having studied the way minds work, it gives me insight into personality and character growth. With my English studies, I know how to catch and keep a reader’s attention through voice, sentence structure, and plotting. Psychology classes also prepared me to be an excellent listener and to help coax out what a person really wants to say – in this case, through their manuscripts.
SPL: Your Bradford Lit bio says you’re passionate about helping to polish each manuscript and equip your clients for success. What does that entail? Continue reading
17 Wednesday May 2017
Posted in Author's Perspective
Tags
agents, authors, Bill Contardi, Colleen Kong-Savage, contracts, Helena Ku Rhee, illustrators, picture books, publishers, publishing, The Turtle Ship
Jessica Echeverria (editor, Lee & Low), Helena, and Colleen Kong-Savage (illustrator)
Helena Ku Rhee is the author of The Turtle Ship, a forthcoming picture book by Lee & Low (Fall 2018). Helena, trained as a lawyer, followed an uncommon path by negotiating her own book deal. She tells Kite Tales about her debut and navigating publishing without an agent. Continue reading
12 Friday May 2017
Posted in Toot Your Horn!
SCBWI members’ publishing news is something to celebrate here at Kite Tales! Check out whose book is coming to a platform near you or around the world. Horn-tooting ad digital hi-fives welcome in the comments!
How the Stars came To Be, written and illustrated by Michael Bayouth, Self-Published, ages 6-10, Picture Book, ISBN: 978-0692711224, released 12/01/16. (Stars Photo)
Kite Tales 