And the 2018 SCBWI-L.A. Mentorship Contest Winners Are…

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Andrea J. Loney, Jennifer Fitzgerald, mentors, mentorship, Monica Mancillas, picture books, SCBWI community, Wade Bradford

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

SCBWI-L.A. is thrilled to announce the winners of the 2018 Mentorship Contest. These two lucky writers will each enjoy a six-month mentorship with their respective PAL member mentors. To all those who applied but were not selected, please know that our mentors considered the competition very steep. Your applications definitely made it difficult for them to choose their mentees.

“I am so honored by and grateful for everyone who submitted to be my SCBWI mentee,” mentor Andrea J. Loney said. “Everyone put a tremendous amount of thought, passion, and heart into their applications and it showed. So I encourage everyone who submitted to keep going, keep writing, keep critiquing, keep sharing, keep networking, keep revising, and once again, keep writing. I’m looking forward to seeing your words in the world.

And now for our lucky winners:

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Community Corner with Author Ann Whitford Paul: Socializing with a Purpose

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critique groups, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, writing tips

By Ann Whitford Paul

*Editor’s Note: After a successful SCBWI Los Angeles Writers Day, whether you attended or not, we thought you might be looking for more ways to “level up” your writing, no matter the stage of your career, so we asked author Ann Whitford Paul, who belongs to a lot of groups, to share some community-building, group-oriented ways you can do just that for this quarter’s “Community Corner.” Read on for her fabulous insights!

You’re a writer. You prefer to be alone in the peace and quiet of your home, creating ideas, developing and revising them. Still you know you should (and you want to) make time to be with others, just not so much that it interferes with your writing. What about joining or creating groups that may take you away from your computer, but also enhance your career?

#KTChat with Author Danielle Davis: Navigating Your Writing Process and Valuing Your Work

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chat, Danielle Davis, Q&A, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, SCBWI members, Twitter, writing exercise, writing tips, Zinnia and the Bees

On Twitter today (Friday, 2/23/18) from 4-5 PM PST, Danielle will be taking your questions and discussing her article on the writing process, how to find value in your work, and ways to keep moving forward, even when you don’t feel like it. Log into your Twitter account during our chat hour and use the hashtag #KTChat or @mention Danielle (@writesinLA) to join the discussion! If you aren’t on Twitter, leave your questions in the comments before the chat begins! Find SCBWI-LA on Twitter: @SCBWISOCALLA

By Danielle Davis, author of Zinnia and the Bees

Process fascinates me, in part because I find it challenging. It’s tempting to focus on other things that start with p: publication, perfection, panic, pretzels (snacks, help, right?) and, of course, the desire to polish off a manuscript and be finished.

Before my debut middle grade novel, Zinnia and the Bees, was published, I always thought that I wouldn’t have that “second book problem” because I had two manuscript drafts I already planned on pursuing.

But then I did have that second book problem. I had it big time.

SCBWI Central Coast Regional News, First Quarter 2018

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mentorship, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, SCBWI members

By Ann Rousseau Smith, SCBWI CenCal News Liaison

 

SCBWI Cen-Cal 2018 Mentor Program: Matching Successful PAL’s with Promising Writers

Our 2018 Middle-Grade Mentor is Mary Hershey.

About Mary: Mary Penney Hershey (a.k.a. Mary Penney) is the author of five humorous (and heartfelt, she hopes) middle grade novels. Her next novel, entitled Green Eyes & Ham will be published by HarperCollins in winter 2018. Mary holds a Master’s Degree in Education and is a certified personal and executive coach. She is a long-standing SCBWI Cen-Cal member and served on the board for our region for a number of years. She has taught workshops for Cen-Cal events and served on the faculty at SCBWI nationals. She is profoundly grateful for all the guidance she has received over the years from other writers and is thrilled to serve as our 2018 mentor.

About the Program: 

Having a Mentor Just Might Lead to a Manuscript That Sells

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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.

LitMingle Minute: The Birth of South Los Angeles LitMingle

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SCBWI community, SCBWI events, SCBWI members

By Jean Perry, SOLA LitMingle Coordinator

*EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was accidentally emailed before Christmas, but was not scheduled to post on the blog until today. So just in case you missed it or were looking for it on Kite Tales… Here it is again!

Left to right: Karen English, Marjorie Smith, Jean Perry at Meeting #1

The idea for a South LA LitMingle was born where so many great ideas in Los Angeles are born: in traffic. When construction projects increased traffic congestion, my drive-time from South LA to Hollywood, as the then-Hollywood LitMingle Coordinator, went from thirty-five minutes to one hour. Returning time wasn’t much shorter. If it was too much of a commute for the coordinator, what about potential attendees coming from the same area? The answer seemed reasonable: set up a South LA Mingle.

I was surprised to find the shorter commute didn’t exactly bring in the minglers. Where did all the people go? My first meeting consisted of two friends plus me. The second meeting was me with a woman who wandered by during the last fifteen minutes. My third meeting is coming up on January 25th. One writer is interested in writing about her family, another about a trip to West Africa, another about a childhood experience. None have shown up more than once.

SCBWI Community Corner with Patrice Karst: Learning About Kid Lit After Becoming a Best-Seller

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Patrice Karst, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, The Invisible String

By Patrice Karst

I fell into the children’s publishing world by accident.

Doing well with my first two adult books, God Made Easy and The Single Mother’s Survival Guide, I had sold 70K copies combined and was a popular speaker in the self-help, spiritual, New Age world. But I was also a single mom to my special needs son.

Elijah was so sad when I had to leave him in the mornings, I began telling him about an “invisible string” that connected us all day long. It so comforted him that we told his other friends. When I saw the calming effect, I thought, why not “put story to paper?”

The LitMingle Minute: San Fernando Valley LitMingle Picks the Brains of YA Readers

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Author Tips, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, YA, young adult

By Karen Sampson (SFV LitMingle Coordinator) & Jennifer S. Pitts (former SFV LitMingle Coordinator, current LitMingle Meister) 

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of today’s Young Adult reader? The Minglers at the San Fernando Valley LitMingle did, which is why we invited five voracious teen readers to our June LitMingle to share what they read and why. As to be expected, their answers were as diverse as their backgrounds, but listening to them was extremely insightful. It would be impossible to summarize all the insight given by these bright young readers, but here are a few highlights*:

Social Media and Web

• Teens have Facebook accounts but prefer Instagram, YouTube, and Snap Chat.
• Adult discussions (rants) about politics and current events are of no interest to them.
• Popular YA websites include IndieBound (Kids Next), Epic Reads, and others that cater specifically to teen readers

What Draws Them to Particular Books?

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.

Author & SCBWI Volunteer Marilyn Cram Donahue on Community, Publishing, & Giving Back

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Marilyn Cram Donahue, SCBWI community, SCBWI members

By Marilyn Cram Donahue, Schmooze Coordinator for the Inland Empire

Once a month, I lead a group called The Saturday Morning Schmoozers in Redlands, for the SCBWI SoCal Region. Members share their manuscripts and we offer opinions and encouragement. I also volunteer as a career advisor for Pomona College, which connects me with aspiring young writers. And I work with a community group interested in memoir writing. A highlight of volunteering for SBWI was hosting a workshop on screenwriting techniques with Michael Mahin. I love this busy schedule! Writing can be a solitary job, and these volunteer activities keep me in touch with people who love pen and paper as much as I do.

When people ask me how I started writing,