September - October 2014 the society of children’s book writers illustrators New EnglandN& ews NESCBWI representatives at the Upcoming NESCBWI Events LA Summer conference in August. September 25 Read about it inside! “Creating Cross-cultural Books” Free - register at [email protected] Stacy Mozer, Assisitant September 27 (9:00 am – 4:00 pm), Encore! Regional Advisor & Critique Group Coordinator 2014, Rhode Island College, Providence RI. Kathy Quimby Johnson, Co-Regional Advisor Sold out! Denise Ortakales, Co-Illustrator Coordinator NESCBWI 2015 Conference April 24-26, 2015! 1 What’s Inside! The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators New England Who’s Who page 2 NESCBWI Resources page 3 The LA Story - the Summer Conference page 4 Updated Market Report page 6 The James Marshall Fellowship Inspires page 11 Mamber News page 12 Updated Critique Groups page 15 The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators New England Who’s Who Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/nescbwi NESCBWI C0-Regional Advisors Conference Directors [email protected] At-large & Conference Director Marilyn Salerno [email protected] Kristine C. Asselin 2013-14 19 Francine Drive Holliston, MA 01746 Natasha Sass 2014-15 Marilyn Salerno Co-Regional Advisor Southern NE (CT, RI) Sally Riley [email protected] Email List Organizer Sally Riley Central NE (MA) [email protected] Margo Lemieux [email protected] New England Illustrator Coordinators Northern NE (ME, NH, VT) Denise Ortakales Kathy Quimby Johnson Ruth Sanderson [email protected] NEWS Staff Assistant Regional Advisor Editor-in-Chief J. L. Bell [email protected] Margo Lemieux Box 583 Assistant Regional Advisor & Critique Group Mansfield, MA 02048 Coordinator Stacy [email protected] Market News Editor J. L. Bell [email protected] Assistant Regional Advisor & Webmaster Greg Fishbone Member News Editor Kate Lynch Assistant Regional Advisor [email protected] Francine Puckly Calendar Editor PAL Coordinator A. M. M. Childs Kristine C. Asselin [email protected] Marketing Coordinator Linda Crotta Brennan The NEWS is available to all SCBWI members through www.newengland.scbwi.org/ The Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators New England is a chapter of the international organization and divided into three regions. See scbwi.org for more information. Articles and events listed in the NEWS are for your information only and, except for SCBWI sponsored events, should not be considered an endorsement. The New England region is an all-volunteer organization. To volunteer, please email your regional advisor. Original artwork and articles are property of their creators and may be reproduced only with their written permission. 2 NESCBWI Resources Kathy Quimby Johnson Where to Find…. The web, the net, the interwebz—whatever you call it, it’s vast. That means it’s hard to know where to start when you want to find information (“What’s the theme for the next New England SCBWI conference?” or get the word out (“I’m doing a signing at…”). New England SCBWI offers multiple resources, but some of them have been around long enough that it’s worth a brief review. Social Media: • Facebook: “Like” https://www.facebook.com/nescbwi to keep up with official New England SCBWI events, from the annual conference (and the call for proposals) and Crystal Kite voting to retreats, workshops, Encores, etc. Newsletter availability is also posted here. • Twitter: @nescbwi and #nescbwi also offers information about events. The listserv: The New England listserv is one of the most interactive places for members. This is where you can post your writing events—signings, bookstore appearances—and make announcements such as agents acquired or books sold. It’s also the place to look for a roommate for or a ride to the New England conference or encore or a New England SCBWI workshop. • To join the listserv you will need to have a Yahoo account or a gmail address. Sign into Yahoo (yahoo.com) and go to: https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/nescbwi/info. The listserv is available in digest form, which minimizes the number of daily emails you receive. **If you are looking for a critique group, either email Critique Group Coordinator Stacy Mozer at [email protected] or visit nescbwicritiques.blogspot.com. To assure that you receive email announcements of the bimonthly newsletter and other occasional communications, make sure your name is included on our regional email list. The link for that is available on our website’s resource page: http://newengland.scbwi.org/ resources/ That brings me to the most important point of all: Visit us on the web. Nescbwi.org is available when you log in to scbwi.org. While you are at scbwi.org, please also take the opportunity to update your member profile, especially your email address. That way you’ll stay informed about what’s going on in our very busy region. You’ll find your region on your member profile page. One click and you’ll find yourself at the New England home page. Useful links are on the right, including one to “Resources,” where you’ll find more detailed information about many of the resources listed here. 3 LA Story—SCBWI 2014 Stacy Mozer, Denise Ortakales & Kathy Quimby Johnson Kathy: New England SCBWI was represented by Co-RA Kathy Quimby Johnson, IC Denise Ortakales, and Assistant RA and Critique Group Coordinator Stacy Mozer at the 2014 SCBWI Conference in LA. We spread ourselves widely in order to be able to report back as much as possible about the conference, but made sure to get together for our regional social, held in a green corner near the pool. (See Stacy’s section for details.) Highlights for writers included a number of inspiring keynotes (Denise covers the highlights for illustrators below). Meg Rosoff and Stephen Chbosky were both high-energy and touched on common themes that can be summed up best by Rosoff’s closing line: “Our job is to write the fiercest, strongest, most subversive story we can tell.” Chbosky would add, we should do so without thinking about the marketplace because the works that last are unique and may take time to find their audience—that’s certainly what happened with Perks of Being a Wallflower. Linda Sue Park offered tips for revision at the language level that apply to all writers, but are especially helpful for those who write picture books that must, as she said, “be worth reading 62 times.” The industry insights offered throughout the weekend can be summed up in these words from Justin Chanda: “We are all in this together.” In his overview of the state of the industry, Chanda also emphasized that whether we’re talking Common Core, the need for diversity, or rising picture book sales (again, see Denise’s contribution below), the story has to come first. Demonstrating negotiations between editors and agents, Alessandra Balzer and Steve Malk emphasized the importance of everyone feeling good at the end of the process, because all parties will be working together in the future, a point Deborah Halverson touched on in her Market Survey, who also noted that ebook sales are strongest in the YA market. I attended outstanding writing workshops, including Jill Santopolo’s on theater exercises that help writers assess if characters are fully developed and Arthur Levine’s on taking (and giving) critique—clear communication is key. Tim Federle offered great advice with his “Ten Things Nobody Tells You About Being a Debut Author,” as did Erin Murphy on “Navigating Your Publishing Debut.” As an added bonus for New England SCBWI, Murphy made frequent reference to Linda Mullaly Hunt’s One for the Murphy’s. Denise: Illustrators were well represented in Los Angeles with Judy Schachner and Aaron Becker as keynote speakers. One of the highlights was an insight into Judy’s brain and her use of a character bible--a sketchbook of character drawings that she collages random pictures into. When she’s stuck, the random collision of dissimilar imagery sparks her creativity. She has multiple character bibles she’s working on at any given time. We were able to question her more about it during her workshop “Putting the Kid in Kitten”. Aaron Becker gave several talks over the conference, giving us several vantage points into his process, from working on a wordless picture book to where he gets his inspiration from. Selina Yoon presented several workshops on concept books, and novelty and board books. Her dummies for her submissions were so impressive that she admitted some disappointment in seeing the final printed book. Laurent Linn, Art Director for Simon & Schuster, talked about illustrating for middle grade novels and showed examples of the projects he has worked on. You should definitely add him to your mailing list if you are interested in illustrating chapter books and middle grade novels. 4 The theme of the Illustrators’ Intensive was “From Admiration to Adaptation: Transforming Visual Inspiration to Expand Your Work.” Nick Clark, curator of the Eric Carle Museum, presented examples of children’s book illustration inspired from fine art. Pat Cummings gave a demonstration of her watercolor techniques, and Judy Schachner demoed her use of expressive line. Peter Brown talked about where he finds his artistic inspiration. The day ended with a critique of an optional assignment: an illustration created using an outside influence. A fun day of talking art with artists. The good news for illustrators that came from the conference is that picture books are seeing a steady rise as are heavy-illustrated chapter and middle grade novels. From the looks of the portfolios at the portfolio display, there are many competent illustrators to fill that need. Stacy The Regional Social and Taking the Conference Home On Saturday, Kathy, Denise, and I grabbed a spot by the pool in order to meet members from New England.