SCBWI report - Sunday morning

What are all these people lining up for? Is a big author signing books? Has Neil Gaiman been sighted in the lobby of the Century Plaza hotel? No, these folks are just trying to get up the very narrow escalator from the Grand Ballroom level. It took me a good 7 minutes yesterday.

Now it's Sunday, and I'm stretched out on the floor outside the Ballroom while hotel staff frantically convert it from audience-style seating to (as Lin called it this morning) the Chicken Room, i.e. our banquet hall. I'm not having chicken breast - we shall see what the vegetarian option will be. From previous experience, I'm predicting either pasta or grilled veggies or both. As long as there's a chocolate dessert, I'll be happy.

Lucky Dan Yaccarino to be such a fabulous, crowd-pleasing illustrator that he could have just showed us his presentation of artwork, commercials, and short films without saying a single word - and we would have been agog with admiration. But lucky us - Dan's verbal presentation was funny, self-deprecating, and perfectly illustrative of his message to us - keep saying YES to the opportunities that come your way (or that you create for yourself), even if they are scary and new. Here's something I didn't know about Dan - he created artwork and even short animated commercials for Gardenburger in the late 90's. Hey, maybe that's what they'll serve me for lunch today.

Ooooh - then came Holly Black. I don't want to say too much about her talk, which was called "Examining the Strange: The Basics of Fantasy Writing," because I want to devote an entire post in it in the near future. Let's just say that her points about the importance of using language to embue fantasy with a sense of the "numinous" were well-stated and thought-provoking. Fun fact about Holly - she grew up in an old Victorian house with a mom who encouraged her sense of the mysterious in life. Not only did Holly's mom tell her stories about the ghost in the attic with whom she used to dance as a child, but she also warned Holly never to astral project - after all, while your soul was off having adventures, something could crawl into your empty body and take up residence. Now that is good motherly advice!

Next up - the Golden Kite Awards Luncheon, an afternoon workshop (can't yet decide between Marla Frazee and Dinah Stevenson/David Wiesner), and Elizabeth Law on the changing nature of children's publishing.

SCBWI report - Saturday afternoon

This has been the SCBWI conference of f-bombs. Not only did Sherman Alexie apparently let off one on Friday, but Karen Cushman quoted him Saturday morning (after referring to an author who writes self-described "shitty first drafts," Karen said she was allowed to say that after Sherman said "F**k you" on Friday), Ellen Hopkins told us how she called her husband a f**cker (goodness!) after he challenged her to get serious about writing, and then one of the agents at the panel yesterday used the f-word as well. What IS the sweet and cozy world of youth literature coming to?

Now that I've gotten over my palpitations, I'll briefly recap the sessions I attended Saturday afternoon. Ellen Hopkins talked about her own slow and rocky climb to the top of "the Mountain" as she called that goal of becoming a successful writer. I haven't read Crank or any of her other books, but now that I've heard about their parallels to her own interesting life, they're on my must-read list.

A panel of 6 agents, ranging from the extremely gung ho and cocky to slightly more self-effacing, told us about their agencies, their submission policies, and how they see the state of the publishing business. The impression I got is that the bad economy has been rather good to agents - because very few publishers now accept unsolicited manuscripts from unknown schmoes like you and me, writers are forced to sign with an agent in order to have even the chance of an editor glancing at their work. So... writers are selling less work directly to publishers, but agents are selling more.

My favorite session of the afternoon was the talk given by Ingrid Law, the wonderfully down-to-earth and warm author of Savvy. It was called "Major Villains Need Not Apply; Writing Fantasy Without an Archenemy," and I have to say it got the long-dormant creative part of my brain all abuzz with possibilities. Ingrid asked her small but intensely interested audience to think about the conflicts and problems in our lives - the things that keep us up at night. Then she asked us if they involve any sinister archvillains (bosses and ex-husbands don't count, she said), and of course most of us were struggling with more everyday, if still serious, problems involving work, family, the environment, and so on. After talking a bit about metaphor and inner vs. outer conflicts, Ingrid had us do a wonderful exercise that involved different ways of re-writing the 3 Little Pigs, coming up with a conflict that didn't involve the Big Bad Wolf. What fun! Within 30 seconds I had written "1. Pigs in competition with each other to build best house. 2. Storm, instead of wolf, blows houses down. 3. Mama pig gets empty nest syndrome, visits all the pigs incessantly, and drives them crazy. 4. Pigs get homesick; want to go home. And folks shared many much better ideas, involving the housing authority and more.

Fantasy is what I love reading most of all, but my (extremely unpublished) manuscripts are middle-grade and YA realistic fiction - I just couldn't imagine being able to write fantasy that would be as good as the fantasy books I adore. But Ingrid Law managed, in the space of less than an hour, to cause an entire shift of perspective in my rusty writer's mind.

As I biked home, I kept wondering if perhaps it might be time to start writing again...

SCBWI report - Saturday morning

My colleagues and I always share a registration to the annual summertime SCBWI conference, which is conveniently held in Los Angeles - and this year I lucked out and get to attend both Saturday and Sunday! I've only been here a morning and already my blood is sizzling with inspiration and joy.

Arthur Levine moderated a panel of picture book authors and/or illustrators on the topic of "creating an extraordinary picture book." Arthur asked each panelist about a particular acclaimed, award-winning picture book that he or she had written, wondering if they thought this work was "extraordinary" and if so, why.

Eve Bunting talked about Smoky Night - after graciously explaining that she felt it won the Caldecott for David Diaz's amazing illustrations, she went on to say that this book came out of the strong feelings she experienced during and after the LA riots. As a resident of LA, she could smell the smoke and hear the commotion - and she wondered what the children were feeling amid all the hatred and violence and chaos. Eve feels that she was able to express these thoughts and feelings in a way that makes Smoky Night an important and enduring book.

Kadir Nelson talked about Moses. He felt a strong personal connection to Harriet Tubman, who reminded him of his apparently formidable grandmother, and this gave the story its heart and its strength. "As if you felt her hand on your shoulder while you were working on it," Arthur suggested. "Well...I wouldn't put it exactly like that," answered Kadir wryly.

Melinda Long discussed her fun How I Became a Pirate. As a child, she buried her mom's earrings in the backyard and marked the spot with an X, and as an adult she had fun writing about piratical adventures. She was quite firm in her statement that she doesn't feel funny books are at a disadvantage when it comes to being called "extraordinary" - and since I love funny picture books best, I applaud her certainty.

Two interesting tidbits from Kadir - he and his editors and designers were looking for a distinctive period look for We Are the Ship, which they felt they would achieve if the cover looked like a combination of an old Coca-Cola and a Hershey's bar. Cozy, attractive, and nostalgic..."spiffy," as one of his editors put it.
Also, Kadir told us that Michael Jordan's mom asked him to make a change in the artwork for Salt in His Shoes - because she didn't allow such things in her home, she asked that the Bruce Lee poster Kadir had depicted in Michael Jordan's room be changed to Roberto Clemente. Whether it was or not, I don't know (I'm writing this on the floor outside the Ballroom during the lunch break...).

And then Karen Cushman gave one of the those talks that makes you want to run home, rev up the old computer, and write a novel. As someone who always wants to add "once and future writer" after librarian on her nametag, I found this to be heady stuff indeed. Now, I wasn't sure what to expect, because once when Karen Cushman had won an award (the California Beatty Award, I think), she stood up, basically said "thank you," and then sat down. Does she not give speeches, I wondered?

She does, and how! I can't possible recap all the funny warm highlights of Karen's talk, but I will tell you that after she told us "don't listen to advice" about writing, she gave us these words - which she credited to someone whose name I didn't catch, darn it. The words of advice are these:
Show Up; Pay Attention; Tell the Truth; Let Go of the Outcome.
Good stuff, and equally applicable to parenthood, one's career, and any number of other important endeavors.

A couple of fun bits from Karen's speech - her daughter, who is a librarian in Oregon, dreams of opening a store that would sell books, chickens, and yarn. "Seriously," Karen says. And apparently her first drafts are "concise to a fault," a mere 50 or 60 pages that her editor Dinah Stevenson calls a "bouillon cube" of a book.

About that photo at the top - that's my pathetic view of Karen Cushman, as seen on the big screen. Notice all the heads in front of me. I seem to have surrounded myself with women in my life - as a children's librarian, I work with women and go to conferences (ALA, SCBWI, etc) where a good 80% of the attendees are women. What if I were a mathematician? How odd it would be to see all that short hair in front of me, all those masculine necks.

After lunch - Ellen Hopkins and more!

SCBWI - Los Angeles 2008

My colleagues in the Children's Services office split one ticket to the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators annual conference between the three of us, and I got to attend on Monday.

The highlight was most definitely Susan Patron's speech, the dessert of the conference and appropriately called "Endings: Surprising and Yet Inevitable." She riffed on the idea of euphemisms being soft lies, using as one example the term "pre-published" as being a polite but rather patronizing way of saying unpublished (as Susan said, "It's like calling me pre-thin"). Children more than anyone else need clear-eyed truth, not soft lies, in order to understand and come to terms with the world.

Susan also spoke of what seems to be an innate yearning for connection; it's a subtext in many books and a main theme in The Higher Power of Lucky. Great endings in books bring readers to the conclusion that is the best and truest, and thus helps them to make those satisfying connections (dopamine burst, anyone?). Susan finds it very cool that a novel, which is essentially the fabrication of an elaborate lie, actually leads readers to a greater understanding of the truth.

We lucky audience members were treated to the first paragraph of Lucky Breaks, to be published in March 2009, as well as a truly funny and moving summation of the meaning of the SCBWI annual conference that had us laughing and tearful at the same time. Major standing ovation for Susan Patron, who speaks for us all - but much more eloquently.

Connie C. Epstein gave her usual concise report on the state of the children's publishing market - picture books are slightly down, but the categories of middle-grade, teen, early readers, and graphic novels are holding steady or growing. But we knew that...

Four incredibly smart and gorgeous young editors - Gretchen Hirsch from HarperCollins, Amalia Ellison from Abrams, Namrata Tripathi from Hyperion/Jump at the Sun, and Nancy Conescu from Little Brown - were the panelists at a program called "Emerging Editorial Voices."

One question was "would you rather receive a manuscript that had a great voice but little plot, or a great plot with little voice?" Interestingly, the panel was evenly split, with Gretchen and Amalia saying that there was plenty of "voice" out there but few page-turners, and Namrata and Nancy maintaining that you can often fix plot but if the voice isn't there, you can't magic it into existence.

All four editors are clearly dedicated and professional - if they are any indication, the future of children's book editing is in good hands.

Speaking of plot, Bruce Coville had plenty of tips on what he feels makes a great story:

1. Ha!

2. Wah!
3. Yikes!
In other words, some laughter, some tears, and some surprises.

Bruce suggested that writers "take a character you like and get him in trouble" and then figure out what a character doesn't want and throw that at him. Above all, make sure the character needs to make moral choices - not necessarily between good and bad, but maybe between the lesser of two evils.

There's a new kid in town, namely Egmont USA, headed by Elizabeth Law, formerly of Viking and Simon & Schuster. Their first list will appear in Fall 2009 with about 11 to 15 titles, and when they are completely up and running, they hope to publish about 50 titles a year, mostly middle-grade and teen, but also some picture books. Look for new books by Todd Strasser, Walter Dean Myers (in collaboration with Christopher Myers), Mary Amato, and Janet Lee Carey, to name a few.

Finally, I waited in such a long line to get The True Meaning of Smekday (my current fave SF novel for kids) signed by Adam Rex that I missed the dessert buffet. Dang! Worth it, though. If you can drag your eyes away from Adam's adorableness, please note my Curmudgeonly Librarian t-shirt.