#KTWriteOn with Author Marilyn Cram Donahue: Character, Voice

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character exercise, Marilyn Cram Donahue, voice, writing exercise, writing prompt, writing tips

Welcome to the second installment of the Kite Tales Writing Prompt: #KTWriteOn. Each writing challenge is crafted by a kid-lit publishing professional to help spark ideas and creative energy. This prompt was created by author and SCBWI volunteer Marilyn Cram Donahue whose latest middle grade novel, When Crickets Stopped Singing (Boyds Mills/Calkins Creek), will be published on March 20.

By Marilyn Cram Donahue

Are you looking for a boost of creativity? All you need is a pile of old magazines, some tape, and a sheet of 11”x17” paper. This is the ideal size, but you can also tape two sheets of regular typing paper together.

Step 1: Open the magazines and choose pictures that speak to you. Don’t analyze. Just think “AHA! I like that.”

Step 2: Rip out the pages you like and use your fingers to tear around the edges of whatever part of the picture speaks to you. Why are you tearing?

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L.A Writers Day 2018 Recap: How Author Charlotte Offsay “Leveled Up”

By Charlotte Offsay, Author

My heart skipped a beat as I dashed in from the rain and joined swarms of writers checking in for SCBWI’s annual L.A Writers Day conference at the Skirball Cultural Center on March 3. As I gazed around the beautiful glass foyer, old friends embraced. Before I could wonder where to stand, friendly SCBWI volunteers and two other conference newbies greeted me.

My new writer friends and I made our way into a packed auditorium and looked over our schedules. Each event seemed more exciting than the next: keynote speeches, breakout sessions with agents, editors and authors, a book fair, pitch sessions, contests and prizes.

Scholastic Senior Editor Matt Ringler on the Goosebumps series, his love for revisions, and plot arcs in reality television

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Amar'e Stoudemire, Davi, Goldy Moldavsky, Matt Ringler, Mike Lupica, pitching, publishing, R.L. Stine, Scholastic, Sharon Robinson, Stephanie Kate Strohm, tips

SCBWI Los Angeles Writers Day faculty member Matt Ringler is a Senior Editor at Scholastic where he edits chapter books, middle grade, and YA fiction.

He got his start at Scholastic in 2001 as a summer intern during his freshman year of college and, minus a short stint as a freelancer, has been there ever since. He compares the internship to winning the lottery, landing him the opportunities to work with Scholastic Editorial Director and author David Levithan and to witness the height of Harry Potter domination.

His books include the Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, the Game Changers series by Mike Lupica, the STAT series by Amar’e Stoudemire, and Sharon Robinson’s middle grade novel, The Hero Two Doors Down. His YA list includes Kill the Boy Band by Goldy Moldavsky and It’s Not Me, It’s You by Stephanie Kate Strohm.

Matt talks to Kite Tales about his work and Writers Day in Los Angeles, taking place March 3.

Erlina Vasconcellos: Your books are so diverse and range from long-running series to debuts. How do you choose the books you edit?

Matt Ringler: A lot of that is a combination of luck and paying careful attention to the books I’m acquiring. With a long-running series, there’s always books to work on. That allows me to be really choosy with [the non-series books]. I always want to do something different from what I’ve just done. When I took over on Goosebumps, I sort of became the middle grade horror person. I like it, but I don’t always want to work on middle grade horror. The same thing happened when I acquired my first YA project—everything agents were sending me suddenly mirrored this one book I bought. But I like to read all age ranges; I read all genres.

EV: What are the elements of a strong series? And how should writers present that series to you? Do you want to see a whole plan?

SCBWI Events, Book Festivals, and Conventions Happening in 2018

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Andrea Custer, Book Festivals, Book Fests, Claire Moore, conferences, Conventions, Helena Ku Rhee, Jacob Gerhardt, Lynn Becker, PB Rippey, Sarah Parker-Lee, SCBWI Annual Summer Conference, SCBWI members, Summer Conference

Hone your craft and connect with other writers, illustrators, and children’s book industry professionals at this year’s book fests and events. Grab your calendars and mark these dates.

Here are the dates for SCBWI’s biggest events for 2018:

March 3
Writers Day
Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles
This is a full-day to immerse yourself in expert keynote speakers, manuscript critiques, and agent pitch sessions. This year’s event, themed “Time to Level Up!,” offers writers a choice of three different levels based on experience and goals.
Read PB Rippey’s writer’s perspective on 2017’s event. Last year’s event also included illustrators. Read Lynn Becker’s illustrator’s perspective.

Agent Deborah Warren on Character-Driven Stories and Making the Most of Your Writers Day Pitch Session

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Antoinette Portis, Deborah Warren, East/West Literary Agency, James Dean, Kimberly Dean, Kwame Alexander, Pete the Cat, pitching, query, Writers Day

Deborah Warren is the founder of East/West Literary Agency, which represents new and established authors and illustrators of picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels. Clients include Kwame Alexander, author of the Newbury Award-winning The Crossover, James Dean and Kimberly Dean of the Pete the Cat series, and Antoinette Portis, author and illustrator of books including Now, and Best Frints in the Whole Universe.

Deborah is a faculty member for Writers Day on March 3 in Los Angeles.  She talks to us about her agency, what makes a strong manuscript, and the Writers Day pitch sessions.

Erlina Vasconcellos: How did you get into the publishing business and what keeps you here? 

Deborah Warren: I started East/West Literary in 2000, but my career in publishing really began in 1980 at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (now Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), in San Diego. When I left, I was VP/Director of Sales, and I credit those years for being the best training ground ever. You see, we’re committed to the business of selling. And understanding the in-depth process of acquisitions, sales, and marketing helps the E/W team attain the stated goals for each of the agency’s clients: to close the best possible deal with the best possible editor at the best possible publishing house. What keeps me in the industry? The like-minded souls in children’s publishing, the fabulously talented authors, illustrators, and editors whose main goal is to create books that are both windows and mirrors for today’s young readers. We need these books more than ever!

EV: You have said that you look for character-driven stories. Anyone who has tried to craft one knows that’s not easy to pull off. When authors/illustrators fail to deliver on character in a manuscript, what’s usually missing?

#KTWriteOn with Editor Melissa Manlove: Non-Fiction Submissions

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Chronicle Books, Katherine Roy, Melissa Manlove, nonfiction, prompt, Roaring Brook / David Macaulay Studio, submissions, writing exercise

Just in time to help power your new year’s writing resolution, we’re introducing the Kite Tales Writing Prompt: #KTWriteOn. Each quarter, we’ll feature a writing challenge crafted by a kid-lit publishing professional. To kick things off, here’s a writing prompt created by Chronicle Books Senior Editor Melissa Manlove. As a bonus, Melissa is inviting submissions related to this exercise. Read on for details.

By Melissa Manlove

This writing prompt is for storytellers. Even those of you not interested in nonfiction—keep reading! We need you!¹

Author and Illustrator Mary Ann Fraser’s Lessons After 60 Published Books and Counting

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Book Launches, Charlesbridge, illustrator tips, Mary Ann Fraser, publishing, writing tips

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?

Working Writer’s Retreat 2017 Recap: Plot Problems and Muddy Middles

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Alyssa Miele, Bradford Literary Agency, Catherine Linka, Erin Murphy Literary Agency, Harper Collins, Judy Enderle, Kari Sutherland, Nutschell Windsor, Scholastic, Stephanie Gordon, Sue Alexander Grant, Tara Gonzalez

By Andrea Custer

Every year in September, a handful of writers lucky enough to have secured a spot at SCBWI LA’s Working Writers Retreat gather at a retreat center in Encino. This year it was my immense honor to attend as the recipient of the Sue Alexander Grant.

No one could have done more to set a positive atmosphere at the event, held September 15-17, than Co-Regional Advisor Nutschell Windsor, who began the opening session with this simple promise: all your needs will be met so you can relax and focus entirely on your writing. They delivered on that promise right away, assembling an outstanding First Pages Panel (authors and freelance editors Judy Enderle and Stephanie Gordon, and author Catherine Linka) who provided sincere praise interwoven with meaningful feedback.

Debut Author and Illustrator Jennie Palmer: A Speedy Path to Publishing

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Abrams, Jennie Palmer, Jessica Sinsheimer, Mary Ann Fraser, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, Summer Conference, Writers Day

The book industry is filled with tales of people who toil on a story for years before being published. Author and illustrator, Jennie Palmer, isn’t one of them.

Palmer had taken classes on the art and craft of picture books at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was an illustration major. After graduating, she put that knowledge aside when she became a production designer whose credits include work on the television show Blue’s Clues and 12 years designing floats and balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

And then came the idea for a picture book about witches – a glimmer of an idea that solidified as she was cleaning up after her family’s weekly pizza night.

In 2014, she attended her first SCBWI Summer Conference with an outline. She didn’t have a dummy or a portfolio, but three years later that story, The Wompananny Witches Make One Mean Pizza, would be published by Abrams.

Authors Judy Enderle and Stephanie Gordon on Founding the Working Writer’s Retreat, Making the Most of Critiques and Writing with a Partner

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critiques, editing, Judy Enderle, Little Zack?, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, Smile! Principessa!, Stephanie Gordon, Where are You, writing tips

Since they met during a UCLA writing class in 1979, Stephanie Gordon and Judy Enderle have led prolific careers as writing partners, publishing more than 20 picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels like Smile! Principessa! and Where Are You, Little Zack?  They have also published books individually and under the joint pen names Jeffie Ross Gordon and J.R. Gordon.

They were also the co-editors of the Fox Broadcasting Children’s Network magazine, Totally Fox Kids, and story editors and writers for the first season of the Fox children’s television program Rimba’s Island. They have been lecturers, teachers, and editors for Boyd’s Mills Press, and are still famous for saying, “yes.” Today, they also run the manuscript critique and editing business Writers Ink.

Enderle and Gordon have crafted writing communities, founding SCBWI’s Southern California chapter (which would later be segmented to include the Los Angeles Chapter) and were the first Regional Advisor Chairpersons, taking SCBW(I) from six chapters to sixty and international, as well as launching the Working Writer’s Retreat. The retreat returns this year, Sept 15-17, with Enderle and Gordon again serving as faculty.

We asked them about their careers, working with a writing partner, and making the most of a critique.