By Renee Carter
It began at a chain restaurant. I was meeting with my writers’ group, munching on a salad when suddenly a woman approached.
“That’s me,” she proclaimed, tapping the front cover of the YA novel near my elbow on the table.
I looked at the image of a Latina, teenaged girl on the book cover and turned to the woman. She must have noticed my skepticism because she promptly turned the novel over.
“I’m Elizabeth Briggs,” she smiled. “Do you like my book?” Continue reading
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It was a spectacular Saturday morning. The temperature was in the low seventies and the sky blue. The 
After two-plus years as our marvelous co-coordinator of the Westside Writers Mingle, Lori Snyder stepped down in December 2017. We are so grateful for her invaluable energy and spirit, and her contributions to our group. She leaves us with these parting words: “I’m happy to say that it was really fun to do and to work with you, and I’m excited to get to come as a participant again.”
SCBWI members’ publishing news is something to celebrate! Check out whose book is coming to a platform near you or around the world:
Los Angeles Is…, by Elisa Parhad, illustrated by Alexander Vidal, Cameron Kids, ages 0-6, Board Book, ISBN: 978-1-944903-23-7, released 04/24/2018. 
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!
Shireen Hakim 
In 2010, I submitted the picture book Not So Loud, Natsumi! to the 
It’s time once again to polish up those manuscripts and submit to the 
ANDREA CUSTER: I workshopped it with my critique group as I was writing the first draft. They are an amazing group, quite astute, and so I had the benefit of their comments early on and had already revised the first half of the manuscript based on their feedback. Submitting it for consideration for SAG was actually a bit of an impulse! I saw the reminder on 
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.
*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!