‘Hippy Holidays’ from SCBWI-Los Angeles!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members

Holiday Wishes from SCBWI Cen-Cal!

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SCBWI community, SCBWI members

Image by Laura-Susan Thomas.

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!

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.

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. 

 

 

 

Toot Your Horn!

Tags

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

SCBWI members’ publishing news is something to celebrate here at Kite 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!

Great News!

Tags

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!

 

Joan Bransfield Graham’s poem Nurse: Healing Hand was featured in Lee Bennett Hopkins’ I Am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending, which debuted July 2. Kirkus called her poem a “standout.”

Too Much of a Very Good Thing? Or: The KITE TALES Team is Changing!

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Erlina Vasconcellos, Sarah Parker-Lee, SCBWI community, volunteering, volunteers

Sometimes doing a good thing, even a very good thing, is not necessarily the best thing for us. It’s hard to know when boundaries need to be placed, when risks need to be taken, when the unknown is better for us than the relative safety of routine. It’s hard to change. But as writers and illustrators, we must be protective of our time, our creative mental space, and recognize when a good thing, even a very good thing, could be getting in the way.

Peer2Peer Critique Day 2019: Leave Your First-Timer Worries Behind

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critique groups, critiquing, editing, SCBWI community, SCBWI events, writing

By Amber June Davis

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I walked into the Skirball Cultural Center on June 2, for my first Peer2Peer Critique Day. I’d been to critique groups and workshops over the years, but none with a professional reputation like SCBWI’s. My hands shook a little. Who would be there? Would they all be vastly more experienced than me? But I knew I was ready to take this step, and had six copies of a picture book manuscript I was proud of tucked under my arm. I pushed through the courtyard door.