All the Ways You Can Be Featured On KITE TALES

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community, illustrating, inspiration, tools, writing

A week into 2020, are you still working on your goals for the year? If your goals include things like sharing your work/personal successes, being more active in the SCBWI community, increasing your online presence, or helping fellow writers/illustrators by sharing your expertise – then you should consider submitting to Kite Tales!

Here are some of the key ways you can be featured on Kite Tales.

‘Hippy Holidays’ from SCBWI-Los Angeles!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members

Why Enter the 2020 Writers Day Contest? Why Not?!

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awards, contests, middle grade, picture books, published, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, young adult

by Karol Ruth Silverstein, SCBWI-L.A. Contest Coordinator 

2019 Picture Book category winner Sue Schmitt. (Photo by India Schmitt)

The SCBWI-L.A. annual Writers Day will be held March 28, 2020 and, as usual, there will be a manuscript contest open to all who register for the event. Whether you’ll be attending the event for the first time or you’ve been to so many Writers Days you’ve lost count, entering the contest is a fun and valuable part of the experience.

Submissions will be accepted in four categories—Picture Book, Middle Grade novel, Young Adult novel and Other (which includes non-fiction and poetry). Instructions for entering will be included on the 2020 Writers Day event information page. The contest opens as soon as registration goes live, which will be sometime in December. Winners receive a free written critique from one of the Writers Day faculty members PLUS free tuition to Writers Day 2021 (or equivalent). 

In recent years, the Writers Day contest has been particularly prescient when it comes to recognizing promising work.

Toot Your Horn!

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middle grade, picture book, published, publishing, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, young adult

SCBWI members’ publishing news is something to celebrate here atKite Tales! Check out whose book is coming to a platform near you or around the world. Horn-tooting and digital hi-fives welcome in the comments!

What Are Kids Reading? Here’s What They Wish We’d Write

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Andrea J. Loney, Beth Navarro, conferences, Kelli McNeil, kids, LA Comic Con, SCBWI Panel, tips

by R. S. Mellette

On the last morning of the 2019 Los Angeles Comic Con, Sarah Parker-Lee saved the day. She handed out fliers to every kid in sight, begging them to attend our panel, “What Are Kids Reading? What Do You Wish We’d Write?”

Out of fifty or so invited, four kids showed up, along with a handful of adults. A fifth kid had to come because she was a friend of Andrea J. Loney, who was on the panel. The idea was, we authors would switch places with kids in the audience, to make them the panelist. If no kids showed up, I didn’t have a B-plan – so hats off to Sarah!

Once we had the bright, talkative, reading, kids on the panel, everyone knew we had to share their thoughts with Kite Tales readers. So, what are kids reading? What do they wish we’d write?

The 1, 2, 3’s of the SCBWI-L.A. Working Writer’s Retreat

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Jennifer Rawlings, networking, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, Sue Alexander Grant, Working Writer's Retreat

by Jennifer Rawlings, 2019 Sue Alexander Grant Award Winner

I remember where I was sitting, red club chair in my living room, when I opened the email from SCBWI-L.A. letting me know that I had won the Sue Alexander Grant. I cried when I read the email. I was so happy that someone liked the words that I had typed in secret. I had not told anyone, not even my husband, that I was writing a YA novel.

Needless to say, he was pretty surprised when I told him I had won an award for a book he knew nothing about.

Creating Magic with Juxtaposition

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Halloween, illustrating, Illustration, illustration prompt, illustrator, illustrator tips, illustrators, inspiration, Jessica Chrysler, tips

by Jessica Chrysler

Fall brings fond memories for me. Even though I grew up in sunny Southern California, there were a few special trees in the neighborhood that would change color and drop their leaves. I’d dreamt about how endless forests of these trees would look and had read fairytales about how spirits would change the colors of the leaves. I’d wonder how they’d lived with all the other creatures in the wood, and if they would all gather into little caves, sleeping together through the long, cold winters. For a kid that never experienced the seasons, this magic seemed so real, even if just beyond my reach. But I was able to capture some of that magic when it came time for Halloween.

Great News!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members

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!  

 

 

I Am a Thief! by Abigail Rayner, illustrated by Molly Ruttan, received a starred Kirkus review: “Hilarious and sweet, with a gentle, affirming moral.” Published by NorthSouth Books, it is now available. 

 

 

 

Secrets to Writing Rhymes that Sell

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Author Tips, Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh, picture books, rhyming, tips, writing tips

By Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh

Rhymes are naturally easy for the brain to process. Their innate musicality makes their messages easier to absorb. They have a calming effect because rhymes set up an expectation and fulfill it each time a verse is completed. And kids love them.

So why are rhyming books so hard to sell?

Well, there are common pitfalls to rhyming. But there are secrets to salable rhyme, too!

The pitfall: Something rhymes just for the heck of it.

“That’s the way” and “What a day” rhyme, but if they don’t tell the story, then the rhyme is doing what I call “treading water.”

#KTChat with Author Henry Lien: 7 Exercises to Generate Unique Story Concepts

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Author Tips, Henry Lien, Peasprout Chen, writing exercise, writing prompt, writing tips

by Henry Lien

Unique story concepts are some of the rarest and most powerful tools in a writer’s arsenal. As an author, I’ve focused my career on unique concepts. For example, my Peasprout Chen series is an Asian middle grade fantasy about a boarding school that teaches a sport combining figure skating with kung fu. The New York Times described Peasprout Chen as “Hermione Granger meets Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets the Ice Capades meets Mean Girls.”

Below are seven exercises that I use in my own writing, as well as in courses I teach for the UCLA Extension Writers Program and Clarion West Writers Workshop, to generate original story concepts. These exercises are intended to shock your subconscious out of learned behaviors, lead you into unmapped territories of your own creativity, and help you generate story concepts that only you could have come up with.