#KTChat with @KaylaCagan: Why the Stories We Read and Write Matter Today and Tomorrow

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activism, community, Kayla Cagan, Rising Strong, SCBWI community

By Kayla Cagan, Author of Piper Perish and Art Boss

On Twitter this Friday (9/21/18) from 4-5 PM PST, Kayla will take your questions and discuss why our stories matter, even when we think they don’t. Log into your Twitter account during our chat hour and use the hashtag #KTChat or @mention @KaylaCagan and @SCBWISOCALLA to join the discussion! If you aren’t on Twitter, leave questions in the blog comments before we chat! 

How do we, as writers and readers, make sense of the world when it no longer feels like it makes sense to us? When facts are questioned and questions aren’t answered, do words matter? More importantly, do stories still matter? And what are we doing to make sure we are sharing the stories that can make a difference in a reader’s life?

Reading and writing books are the most valuable arenas of space and territories of time we can occupy to process the noisy world around us. When readers tweet that they lost track of time because they were reading, what they are doing is engaging with a story that was necessary for them. In Brené Brown’s book, Rising Strong, she states, “Neuroeconomist Paul Zak has found that hearing a story — a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end — causes our brains to release cortisol and oxytocin. These chemicals trigger the uniquely human abilities to connect, empathize, and make meaning. Story is literally in our DNA.”

Simply, we need to read and tell stories not just to survive on a personal level, but to thrive as a world community. At first glance, some stories might appear as quiet or common. Maybe they even seem unimportant. The question may be asked: Why this story? Why now?

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Agent Lorin Oberweger on SCBWI-CenCal Writers Day, Editorial Agents, and What She Wants to Rep

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agents, Lorin Oberweger, Noelle August, SCBWI events

By Ann Rousseau Smith, SCBWI CenCal News Liaison

Lorin Oberweger, agent with Adams Literary, is on faculty for this year’s SCBWI CenCal Writers’ Day, Discovering Your Path to Publication, on October 13, 2018. As an agent with Adams Literary, Lorin is actively acquiring authors for her list. She has also served as a highly sought-after independent book editor, helping to shepherd hundreds of books — including many bestsellers — to publishing success. Lorin’s ghostwritten books have received glowing notices from the New York Times and Kirkus Reviews. And she is co-author of Boomerang, Rebound, and Bounce (Harper Collins) under the pen name Noelle August. She is a popular speaker at conferences around the country, including many appearances at SCBWI events. Teaching writing craft rates right up there in her list of favorite things to do. She’s agreed to answer some questions.

ANN ROUSSEAU SMITH: We’re very excited you’re joining us for Writers’ Day in October. How did you become an agent?

LORIN OBERWEGER: Becoming an agent was a natural offshoot of my years and years (and years) of experience as an independent editor, writing workshop director, instructor and traditionally published author. I was attracted to the new role because of the new challenges it represents, but much more so because it allowed me another avenue for helping writers succeed. I know that sometimes all it takes is that one person who really believes in you and can lift you up, and becoming an agent helps me to become that person for deserving writers.

Author/Illustrator Cassandra Federman on the Mentors and Digital Illustrations that Led to Her Debut Picture Book

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Cassandra Federman, digital illustration, illustrating, mentors, mentorship, picture books, This is a Sea Cow

Author/Illustrator Cassandra Federman was born and raised in Massachusetts where she spent her childhood reading comic books, playing action figures, drawing super heroes, and participating in all things nerdy. She graduated magna cum laude from Brandeis University and moved to Los Angeles, where she became a hand model. When she isn’t pretending to be famous people’s hands, she’s creating art and literature for children. She is the SCBWI Los Angeles 2017 Mentorship Contest Winner, Writing With The Stars 2017 Mentorship Contest Winner, SCBWI Central California ArtWorks 2016 Promotional Card Contest Runner-up, and her first book, This is a Sea Cow (Albert Whitman), is coming fall, 2019.

SARAH PARKER-LEE: A lot seems to have gone your way in 2017, leading up to your successes this year with a book deal. Congrats! Before you won all the awards, what were you doing that got you there?

Community Corner with Melody Mansfield: How Faeries (and SCBWI) Saved My Life

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A Bug Collection, cancer survival, Melody Mansfield, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, Sue Alexander Grant, The Life Stone of Singing Bird

When a rabbi-friend urged me to “share my story,” my heart sunk in my tumor-riddled chest. Did the world really need another story about breast cancer? And if I wasn’t willing to tackle this “important” topic, then why did I write, anyway?

Interview with Aaron Reynolds and Dan Santat

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Aaron Reynolds, After the Fall, Beekle, Bloomsbury, Brown Books, Caldecott Medal, Creepy Carrots, Dan Santat, Dude, illustrator, interview, Little, macmillan, Neal Porter Book, picture book, Roaring Brook Press, Scholastic, writer

In April, I had the pleasure of watching funny men AARON REYNOLDS and DAN SANTAT dazzle elementary school kids by acting out their new one-word picture book, Dude! Afterward, they graciously shared their wisdom and expertise.

CHRISTINE VAN ZANDT: What advice do you have for prepublished writers and illustrators?

Volunteer Spotlight: Lisze Bechtold, SCBWI-LA Illustrator Coordinator, Illustrator Events

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Buster the Very Shy Dog, Edna’s Tale, Illustration, illustrators, Lisze Bechtold, Sally and the Purple Socks, SCBWI events, SCBWI members

Lisze Bechtold is an animator as well as an author & illustrator of picture books and early readers. Her published works include Edna’s Tale, Sally and the Purple Socks (a Children’s Choice and Imagination Library book), and the award-winning Buster the Very Shy Dog series. She has taught workshops, reviewed portfolios, and studied writing with such luminaries as Myra Cohn Livingston and Patricia Lee Gauch. A long-time member and volunteer for the SCBWI, she’s co-coordinated several SCBWI Illustrator Days, sits on the L.A. Regional Board, and has quite a few ideas and events in mind for our region’s illustrators and author/illustrators. “What ideas and events?” you ask? We wondered that too, along with a few other questions you didn’t even know you wanted to ask. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with this installment of “Volunteer Spotlight.”

SARAH PARKER-LEE: Just in case anyone out there has avoided approaching you at events or something because of this, before we go any further, how do you pronounce your name?

LISZE BECHTOLD: “Liz” or “Lizzie”, if you need to pronounce all the extra letters.

SPL: Phew! We haven’t been saying it incorrectly! (Introverts worst nightmare.) With that out of the way… You’ve been an SCBWI volunteer for a long time, off and on, why did you recently take up the mantle of Illustrator Coordinator?

LB: I had too much fun coordinating the illustrator contests at the 2016 Writer/Illustrator Day and realized as an author AND illustrator, I have specific insight into the different needs and interests of each. I love connecting people who should meet, as well as the detective part of helping other artists — pointing out their strengths and the direction they are already taking that perhaps they themselves may not have noticed.

SPL: As an experienced illustrator and author, what types of workshops, exercises, or tools have helped you?

Paying it Forward: Going from Mentee to Mentor is Easier than You Think

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Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, mentor, mentoring, mentorships, Sherry Shahan, volunteering, writing exercise, writing tips

By Sherry Shahan

Elizabeth Van Steenwyk signs her new picture book Blacksmith’s Song. (Peachtree Pub.)

I was clueless about children’s books when I signed up for a writer’s workshop years ago with the prolific Elizabeth Van Steenwyk. Her credits: Seventy-five fiction and nonfiction titles. Impressive. But what struck me most was her generosity.

After reading my WIP, Elizabeth offered to send it to her editor at a school book-fair publisher. Willowisp Press became home for my first six middle-grade novels.

When our SCBWI region began discussing a mentorship program, I knew I wanted to be involved.

Helping Special Needs Kids and Breaking the “How to Get Published” Rules

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Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh, Mark Lumer, published, publishing, special needs

by Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh

Jamie Kiffel-Alcheh’s daughter

You may have heard these rules about getting published: Don’t pitch as a team with an illustrator. Don’t pitch directly to the publisher. And do not write in rhyme. I followed those rules until I didn’t. Here’s why breaking the rules was so good for me.

I started as a rule-follower. I joined SCBWI and formed a writers group. I read most of THE BOOK, SCBWI’s definitive guide to kid lit, agents, and publishers. I thoroughly researched agents and I penned cover letters.

Then I waited for responses.

Meet Your Audience and Help Kids Tell Their Own Stories

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kids, literacy, reading, reading to kids, SCBWI members, Susan J. Berger, volunteering, writing

By Susan J. Berger

SCBWI Members Help the Getty Bring Art and History to Life for Young Readers

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Abrams, Annie Won, Getty Publications, Janine Pibal, Julie Berry, Michelle Thies, Nick Geller, Scholastic Press, Viking Children's Books

Each year, the J. Paul Getty Museum hosts more than 100,000 children on field trips to view the vast art collection at its two locations: the Getty Center atop the Santa Monica Mountains and the Getty Villa in Pacifica Palisades. Add to that those who visit with their families and take part in family-centered events and activities.

The effort to make art interesting and digestible for children extends to Getty Publications, which in recent years has increased its efforts to publish for the youngest readers, said Getty Senior Editor Elizabeth Nicholson.

“The goal is to support understanding and appreciation of art for all audiences — art, archeology, humanities, ancient world,” she said.

Although some books are published to accompany a Getty exhibit, they’re all meant to be readable on their own.

“They’re not meant to be didactic,” Nicholson said. “They’re meant to be fun.”

The books, available through the Getty and also distributed by Abrams, range from picture books to young adult graphic novels. They include two picture books by SCBWI members: author Julie Berry and illustrator Michelle Thies.

Berry is writing the picture book Don’t Let the Beasties Escape This Book! to be published in conjunction with the exhibition, Book of Beasts, a major display of medieval bestiaries — illustrated volumes about beasts real and imagined. It will open in May 2019 at the Getty Center. Berry, has experience with history and research. Her young adult novel, the Printz Honor book The Passion of Dolssa (Viking Children’s Books), is set in the thirteenth century.

Thies, a background artist for the Cartoon Network show Unikitty!, illustrated the picture book Cleo and Cornelius: A Tale of Two Kitties and Two Cities. The book, co-written by Elizabeth Nicholson, Janine Pibal and Nick Geller, was published in conjunction with the exhibit Beyond the Nile: Egypt and the Classical World, currently on view at the Getty Center.

Berry and Thies answered our questions about their books via email. The interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

BRING ON THE BEASTIES

ERLINA VASCONCELLOS:  Congratulations on the Don’t Let the Beasties Escape This Book! How did you become involved with this project?