Posted By Vonna on February 8, 2010

In just two weeks, the Houston chapter of the SCBWI will be having our annual conference. Besides the great speakers we have lined up, one of the great features of our conference is the amazing number of local authors who will be participating in the conference bookstore. For those of you who will be joining us, I want to give you a preview of some of our authors and their books. For those of you who can’t be here in person, I have linked many of these authors’ websites so you can check them out from afar.

First up is one of my critique partners, Varsha Bajaj with her award winning picture book, How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight? I’m excited that Varsha has a new book coming out later this year. I’ll do a post on that as we get closer to her launch.

Carmen Bredeson will be there with her book, After the Last Dog Died: The True-Life, Hair-Raising Adventure of Douglas Mawson’s 1912 Antarctic Expedition.

Shirley Duke will be bringing her playful picture book, No Bows!

Kathy Duval, another of my esteemed critique partners, will be there with The Three Bears’ Christmas and Three Bears’ Halloween. Next year Kathy has another book coming out with Disney Hyperion: I Think I See a UFO. I can’t wait to do a post on that book launch!

Laura Edge is presenting Locked Up: A History of the U.S. Prison System, along with her biographies of Andrew Carnegie, Stephen Spielberg, and Laura Bush.

Dotti Enderle will have Gingerbread Man Superhero, as well as her heart-wrenching novel, Man in the Moon.

Doris Fisher will have two picture books to present: Happy Birthday to Whoo? and My Half Day.

Debbie Frontiera will be showing Living on Sisu in addition to three books in her Eric and the Enchanted Leaf series.

Sherry Garland will have In the Shadow of the Alamo, The Lotus Seed, Children of the Dragon, and Voices of the Alamo.

Writer Illustrator Warren Hanson will be bringing his beautifully illustrated picture books, The Next Place, Kiki’s Hats, and Bugtown Boogie.

Illustrator Layne Johnson will have his newly launched picture book, Off Like the Wind as well as another book that launched last month, The Declaration of Independence A-Z, along with the School Library Journal’s Hot Pick: Farmer George Plants a Nation, and Damon, Pythias and the Test of Friendship.

Margaret McManis will have her local favorites, Ima and the Great Texas Ostrich Race and Wild Texas Stampede.

Jenny Moss, who has an upcoming release from Scholastic Press, Shadow, will be there with her debut novel, Winnie’s War, which is set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.

Anna Myers, who is visiting from Oklahoma, will have her latest novel, Time of the Witches, which was released in September. Several of her other  novels, including Stolen by the Sea, Assassin and Tulsa Burning, will also be available.

I was fortunate to see Joy Preble when her novel, Dreaming Anastasia, debuted. In her blog, Joy has been teasing us about impending news. Maybe by the time the conference gets here she’ll be able to spill the beans!

Vicki Sansum will be signing her charming picture book, Grandpa for Sale.

Pam Van Scoyoc will be selling her picture books Ballerina with Webbed Feet, Sparky and the Comet Caper, I Could Catch a Whale and Angel Wings. Check out her website for audio recordings of some of her books.

Mary D. Wade will have her latest books, David Crocket: Creating a Legend, David Crockett: Hero and Legend and Sam Houston.

Kathy Whitehead is bringing two of her books, Art from her Heart and Looking for Uncle.

We will also have books written by three special guests. Books available from our Central Texas celebrity and prolific author Cynthia Lietich-Smith include Tantalize, Eternal, Jingle Dancer, Rain is Not My Indian Name, and Indian Shoes.

Books from Lisa Ann Sandell, a senior editor with Scholastic, are Map of the Known World and Song of the Sparrow. Alexandra Cooper, a senior editor with Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, will have her picture book, Spin the Dreidel.

All of these great authors will be available to autograph your purchases. This is going to be a great conference, so don’t forget to bring a pen and notebook, your camera and your wallet! Blue Willow Bookshop will be running our conference bookstore, but if you can’t be with us, look for books by these great authors at your local Indie Bound bookstore.

ps. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!

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Posted By Vonna on February 1, 2010

Those of us who were in Austin this past weekend got lucky—the ALA announced the 2009 awards after the writers and illustrators had already agreed to attend the Austin SCBWI conference, Destination  Publication. So, we had both the author and illustrator for the Caldecott  Honor winner, All the World. We had the author of the Sibert Honor winner, The Day-Glo Brothers, and we had the author of the Newberry Honor winner, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. Of course, they might have chosen to attend the Austin conference instead of the New York conference anyway, because Liz Scanlon, Chris Barton, and Jacqueline Kelly are all from Texas. Yee-ha!

Liz Scanlon and Illustrator Marla Frazee gave an outstanding presentation on their collaboration for their beautiful picture book, ALL THE WORLD. These two women stole the show by sharing their emails from their editor, Allyn Johnston of Beach Lane Books, and their hysterical responses to her suggestions. If they ever gave up being an author and an illustrator, they could have a great career in stand-up.

Marla’s advice to picturebook writers was to write text that allows chemistry to develop between words and pictures. As an example, she played a fabulous slide show of her process in creating the illustrations for Seven Silly Eaters.

Jacqueline Kelly, author of the Newberry Honor, THE EVOLUTION OF CALPURNIA TATE, had this advise for writers who struggle with finding enough time to write: Keep a time diary for ten days. You will be amazed at how much time is wasted.

Chris Barton, author of the Sibert Honor, THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS, warned us all that to be successful writers, we need to be hard-headed, but in an educated way.

Kirby Larson, athor of the 2007 Newberry Honor, HATTIE BIG SKY was there to talk to us as well. Unfortunately, I had to be out of the room during her presentation. I’ll have to dig around in blogs of the other attendees to find out what she had to tell us.

Several other writers came to share their expertise with us. Jennifer Ziegler, author of ALPHA DOG and HOW NOT TO BE POPULAR, mentioned that when prewriting, it is helpful to note in your outline your characters’ moods at the beginning of the scene and at the ends of the scene.

PJ Hoover, author of THE FORGOTTEN WORLDS TRILOGY, suggested that when authors have school visits, they should take something more unique than bookmarks or postcards to hand out to the kids—give them something that has your information on it that they will want to keep.

Shana Burg, author of A THOUSAND NEVER EVERS, told us that in revision, it is important to make sure that each scene is creating an emotional reaction and that the action of the story is sequential.

Sarah Lewis Holmes, author of OPERATION YES! was there with her editor, Cheryl Klein. They gave a presentation on the author/editor relationship. Cheryl said that it was her job to be the readers’ advocate. She needs to identify what the reader wants to be feeling in each scene. Sarah  admitted that her revision letter was overwhelming at first because there was so much to be done. Her advice is to read your entire revision letter completely, go back and make notes in the margins, then put it away for a while. In the end, Cheryl said, it is not important if the problems get solved by the writer following the editor’s suggestions or if they get solved by the writer coming up with a new solution. All that matters is that the problems get solved.

Thank you to Mark McVeigh of the McVeigh agency for his riveting address, and thank you to Andrea Cascardi, Stacy Cantor and Nathan Brandsford for sharing their time and expertise with us.

And a big Thank You! to Tim Crow for organizing this wonderful event.

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Posted By Vonna on January 25, 2010

This past Friday night, I had an opportunity to hear Becca Fitzpatrick talk about her NYT Bestseller, HUSH HUSH. A standing-room-only crowd filled Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston to get a chance to hear Becca and have her sign their books.

I saw a few writers from Houston’s SCBWI chapter, and Becca recognized some of her Twitter and Facebook fans in the audience. She brought candy to bribe questions from the crowd, but this group didn’t need prompting. Her young fans were starry-eyed and eager to chat. Many of them wanted to know the backstory of  the secretive Patch, but Becca wasn’t telling. She hinted that they won’t find out more about this fallen angel in book 2, Crescendo, but there might be a book 3 and perhaps she’ll reveal more of his past then.

Becca let us all in on some of the trials and tribulations of bringing Hush, Hush into being. She said it took five years to write. At first she just knew that Patch had a big secret, but she didn’t know what his secret would be. At that time, she says she was a “pantser”, someone who writes without a plan. The book wasn’t going any where, so she shelved it.

Sometime later, she went to a writers’ workshop where she was introduced to outlining. With these new ideas, Becca went to work constructing her new plan for the novel. She brought along her stack of color-coded index cards (shown in the images to the left) to show us how much outlining she ultimately did for Hush Hush.

Another thing she shared with us that gave heart to the aspiring writers in the audience was the number of rejections she got from agents and publishers; almost 100! Most of the rejections were nondescript, but a few were harsh, such as “no one would want to read about a character as unlikable as Vee.” This caused several audience members to declare their love for Vee. Some one asked if she had ever met any of the agents who rejected her. Becca said she had never met any of them, but after the sale of her book was announced in Publishers Marketplace, a few emailed her asking, “Hey are you that girl who queried me…”

In addition to debuting at #10 on the NYT Bestsellers list, Hush Hush has garnered other awards and recognition, such as:

Included in the 2009 Association of Booksellers for Children Best Books for Children Catalog

Winter 2009 Kids’ Indie Next List Top Ten pick

CBC Favourite Children’s Books Top Ten Pick

Becca also brought her computer with her to show us some of the cover photo shots that did not get used. Fans of the cover will be happy to know about these awards from the Urban Fantasy Cover Art Awards, hosted by All Things Urban Fantasy:

Best YA Cover

Best Male Only Cover

Most Unique Cover

Best Debut Cover

I’m fortunate to live near an indie book store which hosts so many great Young Adult and Middle Grade authors. Next month I’m looking forward to their visit from one of my son’s favorite authors, Heather Brewer, who will be here promoting the latest adventure from the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod.

Congratulations to Becca Fitzpatrick on her success, and best wishes for a long and exciting career!

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Posted By Vonna on January 18, 2010

All of the sad talk about the current state of the publishing industry can make an aspiring writer wring her hands in dismay, but I would like to take a moment to point out something for which all aspiring writers can be grateful:  the many authors, editors and agents who so generously share their knowledge and experience with anyone who takes the time to read their blogs.

As I have mentioned before on this blog and in the comments I’ve left on several other blogs, I have found outlining to be essential to my ability to successfully complete a novel. Something even more important which I’ve never talked about, though, is structure. Without a good structural plan, the outline could still turn into another disastrous sERIESof uNFORTUNATE eVENTS. (I’m listening—I’ll wait for the groaning to die down).

A few wonderful authors out there in Blog Land have posted some excellent tips on creating structure. One which I have found to be true to my own style of plotting is Janice Hardy’s magnanimous posts on The Other Side of The Story, which start with this one: I Love it When a Plan Comes Together, Part One

I loved Janice’s book, SHIFTER, so I was delighted to discover that when I laid her structural plan over the outline for my WIP, it was nearly a perfect match. (I may be rushing my mid-point reversal, though. I’ll have to think about that.)

Over at brian’s blog: writer talk, Brian Yansky has posted his thoughts on structure, outline optional.

Charlotte Rains Dixon, at Word Strumpet, says that structure should be not be imposed on a story until the writer has completed as many “discovery” drafts as it takes to know the story inside out. In her post, Writing Fiction: The Two Nows Structure, she explains how to structure novels where the backstory and the current conflict are presented as distinct narrative arcs, each with its own conflicts, forward movement and mounting action.

In a post titled A New Plot Predicament, R.L. LaFevers blogged about the difficulties of planning structure in a book that involves a lot of traveling, in this case, the fourth book in her Theodosia series.

I know there are many more great posts about structure out there and I would love to read them all. If you can think of any, please let us know about them in the comments. Let us know what structural plans work for you!

Photo Credits: skeleton army: Balloon Artistry ; bag o’ bones: Oriental Trading Company

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Posted By Vonna on January 11, 2010

Last week, our Houston SCBWI group had Lucy Chambers from Bright Sky Press as our guest speaker. Lucy, an editor with Bright Sky, talked to us about the need for creative approaches to having a book published in these hard times. One of the case studies she talked to us about was Our Shadow Garden, written by Cherie Foster Colburn and illustrated by children at the Children’s Art Project. This picture book was released in September for purchase through the outlets of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. 100% of the proceeds benefit their program. In April, Bright Sky Press will take over distribution and Our Shadow Garden will become available nationwide.

Though Cherie donated this book to help the pediatric cancer patients at the M.D. Anderson, it has been a boon to her career, too. Bright Sky press will publish two more of Cherie’s books EZID: Texas Roadside Wildflowers, to be released Fall 2010, and Bloomin’ Tales: Seven Legends of Texas Wildflowers, illustrated by Joy Fisher Hein.

This was a rather remarkable example of a generous and creative approach to getting a book published. I’m not sure this would work for novels, but for picture books and non-fiction that is in support of a cause, this could be a a great platform for launching a career while helping others.

Update! I just heard from Cherie that she has a third book coming out with Bright Sky Press next year, a coffee table book on heirloom bulbs. Southern Living is also involved with this book. Go, Cherie!

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Posted By Vonna on January 4, 2010

The neighbor’s cat (I’ve dubbed him Snickerdoodle because his fur looks like a sugar cookie dusted with cinnamon) is stalking in my garden. He hasn’t been out for a while; probably been lying inside by the fireplace for the past two weeks, shirking his duties of keeping the lizard population down. Bad news, cat—the lizards are hibernating and the birds and squirrels are on to you, even though you have managed to shed your blue collar with the jingle bell.

I, too, have been sitting by the fireplace for the past fortnight, shirking my duties. It’s been a good two weeks. I only cooked two family meals and did two loads of laundry, yet we’ve all gained weight (cake for breakfast!) and have managed to find adequate, if not attractive, clothing. My WIP is coming along well, so writing has been fun. But starting today, the holiday is over. Real food, matching clothing, and…

SCBWI conferences!

I’ve sent in my pages for critique to both the Austin and Houston conferences. I’ve read lots of books by the authors, editors and agents who I will be meeting. The first conference isn’t until the end of the month so I have time to squeeze in a few more. I’ve been trying to find as many blogs as possible by local writers and have friended them on facebook so I will recognize a few people, if not by face then at least by name. Also I will know a little about them and they’ll know a bit about me.

I need to buckle down and start sending out queries on my two completed novels and I want to get my current WIP out to my beta readers by the end of the month. I’ve got sketchy outlines for a few projects that need to be fleshed out. I’m not sure I want to leave the world of my current WIP, so I might work on the sequel, then again, it might be time to try something totally new.

In my backyard, I see that the first cat has gone, but a rival cat has just entered and is checking out the same flowerbeds that Snickerdoodle already scoured. Now—oh, no.  The cat is eating the bird seed that I scattered this morning. At least he’s not eating the birds. It looks like that didn’t suit him, so he’s back to searching the shrubbery.

Trying something new in my writing like a different genre, or method of outlining is sort of like tasting exotic foods. It may not work out, but it’s usually worth a try. Since I need to start cooking dinner every night, I think I’ll pull out a few cookbooks and try something new. But tonight my family can relax and have tamales; I’ve got an SCBWI meeting to attend.

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Posted By Vonna on December 28, 2009

Over the past year I have attended several local author events. Some were at independent bookstores, one was at a library, two were held at school auditoriums, one was at a chocolate bar (!) and a few were at Barnes and Noble (the nearest Borders to my house closed this year). Except in the cases where the event was so huge it had to be held in a school auditorium such as the standing-room-only appearance by Rick Riordan, I was frequently disappointed by the turnout. And if I, a mere book lover who was not even related to the author, was disappointed, imagine how the author felt.

Part of this problem is communication. I live in a big city, so our SCBWI members are spread over many miles. It’s not that we don’t want to support our fellow writers, but it’s hard to keep track of who is signing books where. So to get the New Year off to a running start, I have agreed to write a monthly newsletter for my regional SCBWI chapter. One of my main goals is to let our members know when and where one of our own is having an event. It won’t be possible for every one of us to turn out for every book launch, but with a little effort we can greatly increase the crowd that shows up for these events.

Those of you who are not writers, but enjoy reading and wish to support authors and bookstores, please subscribe to your local indie bookstore’s newsletters, as well as the newsletters from the Big Book Stores, and mark all the upcoming author appearances on your calendars. Come and bring a friend!

If you are an SCBWI member from another region who will be appearing in Houston, check out our website http://www.scbwi-houston.org/ (information coming soon) to find out how to get your event included in our newsletter. Please note, only SCBWI members may have their event listed in our newsletter.

Happy New Year, everyone! And Happy Book Events!

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Posted By Vonna on December 21, 2009

Before I move on to this week’s post I want to show off my first ever blog award! Last week, the delightful Natalie Bahm gave me the Loyal Friend and Visitor Award. Since my blog has only been around since August, I think I’ll hang onto this award for a while before passing it on.  Thanks, Natalie!

Photo credits:

Kissing Camels: http://www.thisfabtrek.com/journey/africa/mauritania/20061106-nouakchott.php

Kissing Wolves: http://www.wolfpark.org

Little Boy: http://www.persiancatsforsale.net

Possum: Sorry, I failed to note the address when I first copied it then was never able to find this exact possum again.

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Posted By Vonna on December 15, 2009

Maybe it’s just that time of year, but a lot of my writer friends are taking stock of their careers and ambitions right now. Switching genres or age groups seems to be on everyone’s minds. Some who are successful picture book authors are considering working on a novel (or are already doing/have done so). Some are thinking of switching from children’s to adult’s literature. One who writes adult nonfiction and short hysterical stories is contemplating a career move to Stand Up.

Right now I am having a great time with my current WIP, a middle grade animal fantasy. My last two books were also MG—one fantasy, one fantasy/paranormal. I love writing for this genre and age group. The world is completely open. There are no rules, other than good writing.

Even so, I have three substantial YA projects in files on my desktop: a thriller, a humorous thriller, and a dystopian fantasy. But I also have files on three more MG fantasies.

In general, I find MG more fun to read than YA, so it stands to reason that I would find writing MG to be more enjoyable than writing YA. But when I come across something as unique as Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games or as charming as Laura Resau’s The Indigo Notebook, I realize that writing YA could be a lot of fun, too.

Hmm, these two authors both have MG and YA books out. Something to think about as I contemplate the upcoming new year. What new plans do you and your writer friends have for the new year?

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Posted By Vonna on December 7, 2009

Many years ago when I worked in Visual Merchandising, one of the things that always gave me a kick was planning displays, or even better, shop concepts, for an emerging trend. I loved being the first kid on the block (meaning either the first VM in my company or the first in my mall) to spot a new fad and run so fast with it that the others were left behind, yelling me, too! By the time they caught up, my store had moved on to the next hot thing while the others kept trying to beat one more mile out of the old horse.

The funny thing about fads was that they rarely started in the most likely places—the runways of New York, Paris and Milan. They started by people seeing something they like right here at home—at the cinema and on the playground.

I loved going to movies, and for many years, I loved my job. Combining the two was fun, fun, fun. Regardless of the setting of the movie, whatever clothing was portrayed in the big hits would be immediately in demand. This carried over into the home furnishings market as well. People didn’t just want to look like the characters in these films; they wanted that same mood in their bed linens and dinner plates. Of course, buyers and designers work so far ahead of the time when merchandise hits the sales floor that these kinds of predictions were hard to make, and surprises at the box office often ruined everyone’s hopes.

Nevertheless, after I saw a movie that had great crowd reaction, I’d pull together a shop concept from merchandise culled from all around the store, then back it up with supporting displays in each department. This was not something that many Visual Merchandisers had the freedom to do, at least not back when I was a VM. The floor space in department stores was as jealously guarded as the borders of warring countries. I was always lucky to work for a store manger who supported me in whatever I wanted to do (within my budget, of course, but sometimes they would surprise me by really loosening the purse strings to help me out with a particular idea).

Another fun way to guess which fads would be the hottest of the season was to see what kids were interested in. Which toys and cartoons generated the most excitement and the fiercest loyalty? Elements of these soon filtered into the children’s clothing lines. A season or two later, these same elements, slighted revisioned, would find their way into clothing for teens, then adults. Instead of waiting two seasons for the market to catch up, I’d seek out merchandise that had a similar feel and start putting up displays. By the time the trend hit the market, my store already had a reputation for being the go-to place for this look.

Now I’m in a new industry. My old techniques for trend spotting won’t work. I can’t look at what’s happening in the movies, because most movies came from books that were published years before. Also, getting a book written and published doesn’t happen overnight. By the time I wrote the book, the fad would probably be over. By the time the book was published the fad would be ancient history. When I was in Visual Merchandising, there were not many video games. Nowadays, toys are frequently linked to movies and video games which have their own line of highly commercial books, and they are all released simultaneously to get the biggest bang from the fleeting fad.

So I’m on my own. I must pull ideas from the little sparks that pop into my head. The work I do now of writing books for kids and teens may be the genesis of a new trend. Or not. When I start a new novel there is no way of knowing whether it will be a hit or a flop.

Visual Merchandising was fun—making something cohesive from the scattered ideas of others. But as much as I loved my job at the time, I love writing far more. It’s tough to beat the thrill of starting an idea from scratch and building it into a whole new world.

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