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I’ve read a lot of résumés over the years. I’ve read 35-page résumés from senior academics documenting every Rotary talk, guest lecture, and letter to the editor. I’ve read not-quite-one-page résumés from high school students giving their neighbors as references. In the process, I’ve come to think of résumé reading as an acquired literary taste, like flarf or fanfiction. And I’ve come to think of résumé writing as a unique genre with its own rhetorical nuances and conventions.
A while back I tackled the ticklish problem of how we present ourselves at readings, festivals, author visits - any time we are obliged to get out of our pjs and face the public. That post focused on women writers and their clothes dilemmas. With men writers, there are fewer versions of shirt/trousers, sweater/trousers, jacket/trousers to get wrong. But there is one thing - one vital decision - that I would like to address today - and that is ...
Nobody said being a writer was going to be easy - here's wishing you luck in your decision. P.S. Apropos of nothing writerly, I'm a big fan of this video too - Yo Mama. Joan Lennon's website. Joan Lennon's blog.
0 Comments on Problems of Presentation - Joan Lennon as of 2/19/2015 8:33:00 PM
TCEA is always a great conference to go to when you want to fill your head, knowledge, and devices with educational technology in action. From apps to Google everything; tools to pedagogy and everything in between, I absorbed as much as possible, hoping it will stick.
So, when I got back to work today, the first thing I did was start working with presentation tools in an amazing session I sat through in Library Academy. This is just one of the 10 a librarian from Clear Creek (Shirley Dickey) shared. It's called e-maze. So, if you're tired of the same old powerpoint or Prezi, try this one. It's a freemium, so you have access to it, you just can't download it (must have internet access). This is a presentation I'm doing with the choir teacher tomorrow to show them different types of video creators they could possibly use :) Love this site!!
0 Comments on So, what did I learn at TCEA? as of 2/9/2015 5:32:00 PM
The Artist Showcase from the NJSCBWI Conference continues with this wonderful illustration of the sand and the surf in Cape May, NJ by illustrator Colleen Rowan Kosinski. Colleen is an author/illustrator that has worked as a fine artist for over fifteen years and has artwork hanging in homes across the country. She is a member of the SCBWI and, along with writing and illustrating picture books, she writes MG and YA novels. She is a graduate of Rutgers University. Website: www.colleenrowankosinski.com
MY STATE OF THE MARKET REPORT and AGENT/EDITOR SURVEY CONTINUES BELOW:
Check back tomorrow for more from answers to question asked in the 2014 State of the Market Report I gave at the NJSCBWI Conference the other week.
I tell you, it’s so nice to revisit all the gorgeous artwork from the conference, Kathy :) Love this, Colleen! And I’m liking these comments from the agents and editors you questioned. Makes me feel hopeful about what I intend to work on :)
Carol Federlin Baldwin said, on 7/14/2014 9:35:00 AM
thanks for sharing all of this with the rest of the world! Colleen’s illustration is gorgeous.
Clearly you don’t want to write something so complex that it leaves readers perplexed and frustrated. At the other extreme, readers are quickly bored by a story that’s too simple.
Complexity, which is best understood as the degree to which there is variation in the results each time you sample something, is important in fiction only because the world in which we live is complex. Romance is a simple example of the complexities with which we deal: each time we interact with that certain someone we come away with a collection of indirect evidence that we’re rising or falling in his or her esteem but rarely anything definitive. Compared to the simplicity of species that go into heat or spawn at the same time each year, it’s a wonder we ever managed to reproduce.
In terms of plot, complexity is what makes books necessary: you don’t have a novel if you don’t need several hundred pages to fully understand what’s going on.
The art of the storyteller is to take what looks like a complex mess of unrelated threads and weave them into a tapestry that, when fully revealed, shows the reader how to make sense of it all.
It’s a topic to which I’ve devoted enough thought that I’m giving a presentation tomorrow (7:00 pm on Thursday, January 17, 2013) at the Pleasant Grove Public Library (Pleasant Grove, Utah) as part of their Professional Writers Series, titled, “Weaving a Complex Narrative: How to Write Like J.R.R. Tolkien in Three Easy Steps.” I’ve also made the presentation available online at http://prezi.com/gzcbq80jptly for those of you who may be interested but unable to attend.
Deren Hansen is the author of the Dunlith Hill Writers Guides. Learn more at dunlithhill.com.
2 Comments on Narrative Complexity, last added: 1/17/2013
Have we posted this before? Maybe, but it’s worth watching again: John Cleese’s wonderful talk on creativity (circa 1991 (?), and found on the Google+ profile of The IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan). It’s about a half-hour long, but you can play it in the background.
0 Comments on Have we posted this before? Maybe, but it’s worth watching... as of 1/1/1900
What a week! On Tuesday I visited with Atlanta International School via Skype. Technology is mind boggling. It was my first time using video Skype with anyone, let alone a classroom of youngsters. The video is pretty long in cyber time (a whole 10 min.), but is pretty interesting for those interested in conducting Skype visits. Thanks to Morris Gardner with the Auburn Avenue Research Library and Sharon Hermann, media specialist, at Atlanta International School for sharing this video!
And a special CONGRATULATIONS to my Visual Journalism class for being featured in this week’s edition of Baltimore City Paper. One of my sophomores, James Harper, even made the cover! Go MICA!!
What a whirlwind! Yesterday I visited students at Barrow Elementary School in Athens, GA. We had a great time. The kids even convinced me to draw on the spot for them! Here are a few pics from the event. Thanks so much to NBAF, Barrow Elementary staff and students, and Morris Gardner at the Auburn Avenue Research Library for such a wonderful time!
drawing Jermaine, who likes bikes!
Andy Plemmons, Barrow Elementary's awesome media specialist
Pre-K, Kindergarteners, and First graders at Barrow
0 Comments on Barrow Elementary School Visit as of 1/1/1900
3. A good book "Common sense should tell us that reading is the ultimate weapon—destroying ignorance, poverty and despair before they can destroy us. A nation that doesn't read much doesn't know much. And a nation that doesn't know much is more likely to make poor choices in the home, the marketplace, the jury box and the voting booth...The challenge, therefore, is to convince future generations of children that carrying a book is more rewarding than carrying guns." — Jim Trelease, The Read-A-Loud Handbook "Reading surrounds us, labels us, defines us." — Rich Gold, author
"When I have a little money I buy books, and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." — Desiderius Erasmus, classical scholar
"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." — Sir Francis Bacon, Renaissance author Take a bite out of Picture Poetry on Parade!
OR...Waiting to See the Principal and Other Poems,
I submitted a proposal to speak at the United Way’s Early Literacy Symposium here in Atlanta and they have accepted me! The symposium is on April 15th at the Loudermilk Center here in Atlanta.
The Early Literacy Symposium brings together more than 300 education professionals from early care and education through 3rd grade levels. The Symposium features the latest innovations in literacy instruction, research and practice to foster children’s early reading proficiency. Reading proficiency by the end of third grade is widely recognized as a critical educational benchmark. This year’s theme is Extending Conversations With Children – exploring ways that meaningful talk, while employing new words and concepts, can be intellectually stimulating to children of all ages and contribute to early literacy and academic success.
Who attends the Symposium?
Teachers of young children from birth through 3rd grade
Program directors and administrators
Early Reading First grant teachers and project leaders
Georgia Pre-K teachers
Curriculum and instructional coordinators
Early childhood specialists
University students in ECE and K-3 programs
Clearly I will be more along the lines of entertainment at this symposium, but as always, I will try and give my audience something they can use in their classrooms outside of what I do in my work. Hopefully my interest in visual communication will be of interest to the educators and childhood specialists in the bunch. My proposed talk will be given in two parts:
Visual Storytelling and Making Connections
Part one is about my work, process, and goals in creating images for picturebooks stressing the way I use of reference to support the ideas in my work; and part two will focus on strategies using visual aids and technology that teachers can implement in their classrooms to help enrich and support the learning process.
from my talk at the 23rd Annual Conference on Children’s Literature, “Framing Social Issues in Books for Children”
A special “thank you” to Jan Miller Burkins, literacy consultant and co-founder of Literacyhead.com for involving me with UWMA. It should be fun~
2 Comments on UWMA Early Literacy Symposium, last added: 3/6/2011
Wow! The last nine months have been surreal. Andrea has been nothing short of inspiring as she braved three surgeries, six rounds of chemotherapy and six weeks of radiation therapy (30 treatments in all). Through it all, we’ve been blown away by the concern and generosity of our online communities, particularly the people that we came to know and whom we apparently touched through Just One More Book.
Andrea harnessed that energy and generosity and turned it into a stunning five-minute lightning talk (called a JOLT!) at the recent PAB2010 conference. Her powerful and sincere presentation commanded a standing ovation which turned into a line of people waiting to give her a hug. There was nary a dry eye in the room.
Thank you to everyone in the JOMB community. You had a huge impact on our family. But don’t take my word for it. Watch the video to find out.
0 Comments on Contested Irrelevance (a JOLT! by Andrea) as of 1/1/1900
I have considered several styles of dummy for presenting to publishers. In the past I have done the labor intensive stitched kind, with heavy board covers and also the double stick adhesive type as well as accordion folds and taped together versions. For the book I am working on right now I used a new system that suited the style very well. Since I am able to hand deliver this one, it won't matter that it is a bit heavy. I took an older sketch book with hard board covers and used it as a base. Then I glued each page into the book on the empty pages. I had just enough leftover sheets in the sketch book to accommodate the dummy. Although this wouldn't be the best choice for one that I mailed on spec, it is a great way to showcase the sketches for this particular project. I was even able to slip a DVD with the PDF for the sketches into the book. The images are blurred for privacy of the publisher, but you get the idea. I liked the way the presentation turned out.
Because I have a nice new wide body printer I can actually print out the spreads up to 13 x 19 inches. I can make a dummy with those as well as this kind where I have to cut the pages apart to put them in order. Maybe variety is what I like when it comes to dummies. *:)
Hi Ginger - I'm in the middle of making some dummy books for the Bologna fair next March. Originally I thought it might be too expensive to print from a PDF - but shopping around I've found a printers who charge just a few pounds (about $8) for a very professional print from PDF.
Ginger! What a great post. I have not yet created a dummy so this is great information. Thank you for posting about it and how it seems to do the trick for your needs. I wish you the best as you present it to your client. And, I think the PDF is so awesome! Smart! Happy New Year to you - it has been so wonderful getting to see your work each week. I wish you peace and many great adventures in art in the new year!
Hi Ginger! Happy New Year! What a great, informative post. I've been researching different ways of doing a dummy. This is a great idea! Thank you for sharing! Love the CD Pdf idea too.
So my presentation yesterday at the SCBWI Oregon Spring conference went over nicely. The grandmas went missing just before I was supposed to go up and talk. I think they got lured into the tea room.
I was in extremely good company. Mark Fearing spoke just before me on Graphic Novels. He’s an amazing illustrator and also an animator (animators RULE). He’s got a graphic novel coming out in 2011, which sounds really promising - so look for it!
At the end of his talk, Mark said something really awesome. It was about rules and how he doesn’t like them when it comes to talking about getting your work sold.
You know how I am about rules. There are so many ways to approach any endeavor. People can have success with completely opposite approaches.
My talk was about not creating art in the computer, based on this blog post. The title sounds very rules-ish, right?
In fact, before,during, and after my talk I learned that at least three artists in the room (including Mark Fearing) create their art directly in the computer.
It’s a perfect example of not applying stuff people tell you (me included) about how to create your art. The rules are, there ain’t no rules.
I can talk on the blog and in my digital illustration course about my approach to creating digital art. It works for me. It’s a proven method and lots of people buy my stuff.
Regardless, if it goes against what works for you, then please do one of two things:
Ignore me. Move along, nothing to see here. Do your thing.
One of my grander plans for the digital illustration schoolis to bring in guest illustrators to demo their methods. There are as many methods as there are people and I think this would be a huge help to students - knowing that there isn’t just one way.
So my talk went well. People seemed genuinely interested in what I had to say and I think they were entertained. Here’s a sampling of some of the images I brought up to demonstrate my points…
My head floating out of a robot. At least they knew I would be weird right up front.
I used Jenni's bread to talk about illustration. Yep. Officially wacko.
I also used coffee to talk about illustration. Where was I going with this?
Believe me, I knew they were wondering.
It's a NASA flight control panel. If you weren't there, you wouldn't understand.
My first attempt at creating art in the computer. Hideous, scary, and really, really bad.
A recent illustration for Highlights Magazine. I eventually figured out a method.
The final pencil sketch for the Highlights High Five illo. It was "done" before I even went to the computer.
There was more to it than these slides show. I wish you had been there.
It was fun. People laughed at me (thank god).
I think the reason I felt good about it was that aside from the little slide show, I pretty much “winged” my talk. Sure, I knew where I was going, I rehearsed a few things. Mostly it was conversational and that made it much more relaxed for me and (I think) the audience.
I think I helped some people, which was the whole point of me standing in front of them and waving my arms around while talking about weird stuff like bread.
If I gave even one person in the audience a seed of an idea about how to use their computer to create illustration, then I succeeded.
If I made them hungry, then my plan for total world domination kicked off nicely.
0 Comments on They laughed. They cried. They wept. as of 1/1/1900
I suspect that every person has voices in their head that constantly throw out their opinion on everything. When you think you’re the one deciding what to wear, it’s actually the voices of conflict that live just under the level of your consciousness:
“Really? That shirt? The one with the spot you think nobody sees?”
“You look so awesome in that shirt, that spot ain’t gettin’ the attention, if you know what I mean.”
In my case, I have my two grandmas who have passed on but continue to advise me on all matters from shoe choice to freeway exits.
Grandma Dolores is the “Everything you do is art” voice.
Grandma Kernik is the “Are you sure you won’t get trampled by elephants?” voice.
They are pleased to meet you, I’m sure. In fact, rather than dialing down the volume on their voices, I’ve decided they should weigh in regularly on the blog. Okay, maybe it was they who decided to go public.
Get used to it. I’ve had to.
Some Stuff Happening in May
For me, May is shaping up to be massively busy and simply awesome.
One thing that’s keeping my beehive mind occupied lately is a guest speaking engagement. Here’s the announcement I posted in the May member newsletter I sent out last week:
SCWBI Oregon Spring Conference: May 17-19
I’ll be appearing as a Special Guest Speaker for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Oregon chapter Spring conference.
Wow. Say that five times fast. Or once. Slow.
I’m so excited to start sharing my digital illustration secrets with a live audience. I’m also giving every member of the audience a gift. I’m actually giving away the best digital illustration tool that technology has ever provided to every single person in attendance. Nope, no kidding.
If you’ll be in Portland May 17-19 and have an interest in children’s publishing, you can register for the conference here: http://scbwior.com
Am I crazy? I mean, seriously.
First, I’m presenting to a large audience of illustrators. It will either be twenty minutes of madcap fun where I educate talented artists on digital technique…
… or it will totally suck and I’ll be escorted out by security.
Okay, so I’ve done this before with my digital animation techniques in Los Angeles and Chicago. It went over well, no hissing or tomato tossing. So why am I worried now? This should be old hat, right?
Truth is, it’s never old and the Big Fear never ceases to lock my bowels in a tight-fisted grip as I wait in the wings. Is there a toilet off stage?
Second, I’m giving away stuff.
I’ve never given anything away before on this level. Yet here I go. One marvelous piece of technological gadgetry to every person in attendance.
The Grandmas weigh in:
Grandma K: Do you want some 7-Up? That will keep you from vomiting on the front row. You don’t want to do that, do you?
Grandma D: I’m sure you’ll be wonderful. You know, I remember when you gave that presentation a while back. You were so entertaining.
Me: Grandma, that was Thanksgiving 1974. I was putting tupperware on my head and pretending to be an astronaut.
Grandma K: I’ve heard that plastic absorbed through the scalp causes premature baldness. Do you think that’s what happened?
Grandma D: Well, I think you look very distinguished with that shaved head. Like a teacher.
Grandma K: Are you really just giving away those things to all those people? That sounds expensive. Can you afford it?
Like it or not, the grandmas will be at the conference. I hope they don’t embarrass me.
0 Comments on Speak… easy? The Grandmas weigh in. as of 1/1/1900
2008 CWIM Excerpt: Candie Moonshower on Dealing with Rejection...
In the 2008 CWIM, author Candie Moonshower (The Legend of Zoey) offers 10 (giant but essential) steps for writing and publishing your first novel. Here's her advice on handling an important step every writer must take: learning to handle rejection.
Part and parcel of the writing biz are the rejections. You will get them. In fact, you need to get them! Because after you've received a few rejections, it dawns on you that rejections aren't personal.
Instead of looking at rejections as overwhelming obstacles, try to view them as part of your development as a professional writer. New writers aren't the only ones who receive rejections. Published authors submit manuscripts that garner rejections, too. If you never submit out of fear of rejection, you'll never allow an editor the opportunity to call you with an offer!
Learn to deal with rejections by:
Not submitting manuscripts too early. Like fine wine, your manuscript isn't ready until it has been written, rewritten, critiqued, revised and polished. When you send in work that isn't ready for an editorial look-see, you're cheating yourself by knocking that editor off your list of possibilities.
Replacing worry with work. My mother always says that it's hard to worry when you're scrubbing a floor. I find it hard to worry about rejections when I have another manuscript ready to send out the door.
Starting on a new project as soon as your manuscript has left the building (again, you're replacing worry with work). Always have a new, exciting project going that will take your mind off your mailbox.
Never whining, ranting or crying about rejections except to your most trusted writing friends and, perhaps, your spouse. You, especially, never want to complain about rejections to those agents or editors who, potentially, might have one of your manuscripts in their hands someday.
For Moonshower's complete article, see the 2008 CWIM (page 25).
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I tell you, it’s so nice to revisit all the gorgeous artwork from the conference, Kathy :) Love this, Colleen! And I’m liking these comments from the agents and editors you questioned. Makes me feel hopeful about what I intend to work on :)
thanks for sharing all of this with the rest of the world! Colleen’s illustration is gorgeous.