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Before you go to a conference, make a list like this of reminders to yourself. 

http://yamuses.blogspot.com/2013/05/conference-commandments.html

Happy Monday! Here's my mishmash of thoughts:

1.  BEA  Woo hoo! I'll be at BEA Thursday evening through Saturday! If you're there, look for me at the Spencer Hill Press booth.

2.  Melinda's Museum Magic  I got the proof for my upcoming picture book, Melinda's Museum Magic this weekend. And even though I was sick with a fever, I made a video to share it with you.



3.  Advantage: Heartbreak releases tomorrow!  The second novella in the Game. Set. Match. Heartbreak series will be out tomorrow! And what's a release day without a giveaway? So here's what you can win.

Conferences can help move your writing career along, but make sure you keep your expectations in check. 

http://yamuses.blogspot.com/2013/05/managing-your-conference-expectations.html

Happy Monday! Here's my mishmash of thoughts:

1. BEA  I'll be signing copies of Stalked by Death at the SHP booth (#2567) on Friday, May 31 from 9:30-10:30am. If you're there, come see me!
2. Field Day  I helped out with field day at my daughter's school last Friday. She had a blast, and I loved getting to see her with all her friends.
3. My dying Kindle  I had one good week where my Kindle worked great and now the big black bar is showing up across my screen again. :(
4. Editing  I'm editing again all week. :)
5. Runes Trailer and Giveaway!  I'm participating in the trailer reveal for Ednah Walter's YA paranormal, Runes.  

On Friday, May 3, I taught a Situational Time Management workshop at the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Conference. This post contains information related to the writers and people I referred to during the workshop and is here for the benefit of participants and anyone else who is interested. The author materials are listed in the order they appeared in during the workshop.

Francesco Cirillo,  The Pomodoro Technique

Ellen Sussman, A Writer's Daily Habit: Four Steps to Higher Productivity, Poets & Writers, Nov./Dec., 2011

Herbert Benson, The Breakout Principle  Article about: Oprah

Dorothy Duff Brown  Post about with links to videos: Original Content

Betty Friedan, The Feminine Mystique

Kelly McGonigal, The Willpower Instinct  Articles and book excerpts  Psychology Today blog

Timothy Pychyl, The Procrastinator's Digest  Psychology Today blog

Alan Lakein, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life  About the Swiss Cheese Method of Time Management

Susan K. Perry, Writing in Flow

Frank Gilbreth Lillian Gilbreth  Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, Cheaper by the Dozen

Hersey Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory

Charles Duhigg,  The Power of Habit

I am leaving in a few hours to attend the New England Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators regional conference, where I will be running a workshop this afternoon on situational time management. Sometime this weekend I'll be putting up a post dealing with references for the workshop. Beyond that, I don't expect to be active here.

I guess I'd better go finish getting ready.

[Conferences] are not mini-lectures but the working talk of fellow writers sharing their experience with the writing process. At times, of course, they will be teacher and student, master and apprentice, if you… Read More →

The second portion of the Choice Literacy workshop, Coaching the Common Core was led by Heather Rader. Heather is the author of Side By Side: Short Takes on Best Practice for Teachers and… Read More →

Check out some of our past posts about all aspects of conferring.

Check out some of our past posts about all aspects of conferring.

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of presenting with author Ashley Hope Perez at the McConnell Conference in Lexington, KY. I always enjoy this conference and this year was certainly no exception. OK, yes I was disappointed in the lack of diversity, both in terms of presenters and participants, but the librarians who attended did not hesitate in asking for titles for their students and patrons of color and in engaging in library and literary conversations. Yes, it was good to be part of the conversation about young adult lit.

No doubt, attending conferences is expensive! Living here in the Midwest, I don’t often have the opportunity to enter the varied discussions about young adult literature that take occur in places like New York and Los Angeles, but there are some more local opportunities that provide relevant opportunities.

If you’re an author, librarian or teacher in the Midwest who is looking for nearby conferences, I have the following.

(No, I don’t live anywhere Mexico City. IBBY is just the one I really want to attend.)

Northern Illinois University Children’s Literature Conference 15 March Tom Angleberger, Lisa Yee and David Lubar

Kent State University’s Virginia Hamilton Conference 4&5 April Angela Johnson, Gary Schmidt and Yuyi Morales

Children’s Literature Association Conference Biloxi MS 13-15 June

ALA Annual Chicago 27 June-2 July

Children and Young People’s Division of the Indiana Library Federation   Indianapolis  25-26 August

Indiana State Reading Association Fall Conference 29-30 September  Linda Hoyt, Cris Tovani, Barry Lane, David Greenberg

IBBY Regional Conference St. Louis, MO 18-20 October

Ohio Kentucky Indiana Children’s Literature Conference 2 Nov Candace Fleming and Steve Jenkins

IBBY Mexico 10-14 September 2014

What should you do or not do at a writers' conference. 

http://annerallen.blogspot.com/2010/08/writers-conference-tips-10-dos-and.html

 Nominations for  the Agatha Awards have been announced and I gotta tell ya, I'm pretty much thrilled to bits to see Stephanie Jaye Evans in the Best First category!  And what LOVELY company she has there!

Agathas are part of the Malice Domestic convention, a convention for readers of traditional mysteries. It's a wonderful event, held every year around the same time, near Washington DC.  If you love to read delicious cozies, wickedly charming procedurals, and just good books in general you'd have a good time here!  (This isn't a craft conference--no panels on how-to. It's just your favorite authors and more!)



Best First Novel: 
Faithful Unto Death by Stephanie Jaye Evans
 A Killer Read by Erika Chase
 A Scrapbook of Secrets by Mollie Cox Bryan
 Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown
 Lowcountry Boil by Susan M. Boyer



Best Novel:
The Diva Digs Up the Dirt by Krista Davis
A Fatal Winter by G.M. Malliet
The Buzzard Table by Margaret Maron
The Beautiful Mystery by Louise Penny
The Other Woman by Hank Phillippi Ryan



Best Non-fiction:
Books to Die For: The World's Greatest Mystery Writers on the World's Greatest Mystery Novels by John Connolly/Declan Burke

Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen, 1947-1950 by Joseph Goodrich, Editor

More Forensics and Fiction: Crime Writers Morbidly Curious Questions Expertly Answered by D.P. Lyle

Double Cross: The True Story of the D-Day Spies by Ben Macintyre

The Grand Tour: Around the World with the Queen of Mystery Agatha Christie by Mathew Prichard, Editor

Best Short Story:
"Mischief in Mesopotamia" by Dana Cameron (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine)
"Kept in the Dark" by Shelia Connolly (Best New England Crime Stories 2013: Blood Moon Anthology)
"The Lord is My Shamus" by Barb Goffman (Chesapeake Crimes: This Job is Murder)
"Thea's First Husband" by B.K. Stevens (Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine)
"When Duty Calls", by Art Taylor (Chesapeake Crimes: This Job is Murder)

Best Children's/Young Adult Novel:
Seconds Away by Harlan Coben
The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George
Liar & Spy by Rebecca Stead
The Code Busters Club, Case #2: The Haunted Lighthouse by Penny Warner
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Best Historical Novel:
The Twelve Clues of Christmas by Rhys Bowen
Dandy Gilver and an Unsuitable Day for Murder by Catriona McPherson
Murder on Fifth Avenue by Victoria Thompson
An Unmarked Grave by Charles Todd
Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear

Last weekend I went to New York City for the SCBWI conference. It was an amazing weekend. I'm just now able to start wrapping my head around everything that happened. As promised, I'm going to give you a recap of my weekend, but it's going to have to be in a number of blog posts because so much happened! 

I know I’m a little bias, but this is one of my favorite conferences. It is a little like summer camp for teachers. I think the reason why it’s so great is because… Read More →

 Backspace is offering three scholarships to attend the upcoming May conference!

The contest to win the scholarships is called

The news is now far and wide, but we want to officially say– yahoo!  This past weekend in Seattle at the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association, six of our titles were honored by awards committees and we are beyond bowled over with excitement and pride.  Congratulations to all– to the authors, editors, fans, and champions of these books.  Every Midwinter we are so grateful to be reminded that the community we book-people live and work within is vibrant, supportive, and very, very much alive and kicking. We are all in it together.

• Newbery Medal Winner: THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN, by Katherine Applegate. (see our previous post about IVAN here, and our discussion guide here)
• Caldecott Honor: EXTRA YARN, by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Jon Klassen.
• Printz Honor: DODGER, by Terry Pratchett (see a special note from Terry about Dodger here)
• Schneider Family Book Award: A DOG CALLED HOMELESS, by Sarah Lean
• Geisel Honor: PETE THE CAT AND HIS FOUR GROOVY BUTTONS, created and illustrated by James Dean, story by Eric Litwin
• Morris Award Finalist: THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, by emily m. danforth

All of our award-winning books living together in harmony.

Newbery Committee member Susannah Richards placing IVAN’s shiny sticker!

EXTRA YARN co-editor (VP and co-publisher of Balzer + Bray) Alessandra Balzer doing the honors!

Printz Committee friends giving DODGER their love.

Schneider committee and A DOG CALLED HOMELESS editor Sarah Shumway celebrating.

And Amelia Bedeila (did you celebrate AMELIA BEDELIA DAY?) wanted in on the fun, too!

Congratulations to all authors and illustrators honored with 2013 awards, and the biggest and humblest of thank you’s to the awards committees for their hard work, dedication, and the countless hours they spent this past year reading and discussing books.  Now we wish we could fast-forward to June and our official ALA celebrations!

The Shoreline Arts Alliance, home to the Tassy Walden Awards, is sponsoring a one-day workshop for writers and illustrators on January 12th. That's only a little over two weeks away. Note that the deadline for registration is next Wednesday, January 2nd. There will be two morning workshops and a networking luncheon as well, as an optional afternoon prep workshop for people interested in preparing manuscripts or portfolios to submit for the Tassy Walden Award.

The day starts at 8:30 AM, costs $65, and will be held at the Guest House Retreat & Conference Center in Chester, Connecticut.

Among the workshop presenters are Lynda Mullaly Hunt and A.C.E. Bauer. I actually know Lynda and have met Alice. In fact, I may have met other writer/presenters for that workshop and apologize, if I've forgotten.

If this isn't the first Connecticut writers' conference of the year, it's very close.

A couple of weeks back my writing buddy, Carol Baldwin, and I headed south to Greenville, SC, for a one day writers' workshop "Show, Don't Tell," sponsored by the Greenville Emyrs Foundation. Author Hester Bass led us through techniques used by actors to create their characters - techniques that are equally useful to writers. It was great fun and we both gained some insight into improving 

Poetry Conference

POETRY IS PRIMARY CONFERENCE

A conference to highlight how CLPE poetry projects have engaged children as readers, writers and performers and to share how you can involve your whole school community in poetry. The conference will also showcase the new Poetryline website, which is packed full of free resources for teachers.
Date: Thursday 25 October 2012, 9.30 - 3.30
Venue: CLPE, 44 Webber Street, London SE1 8QW
Cost: £225 (lunch included)
Booking: email sharon@clpe.co.uk

Listing, by month, of SCBWI regional events around the world. 

http://www.scbwi.org/Regional-Events.aspx

Going to a writing conference is a wonderful way to make a personal connection with and have the opportunity to submit to editors. 

http://vonnacarter.com/wordpress/?page_id=6213

If you were a newbie writer getting ready for a one-on-one 10 minute critique session with an agent at a conference, would you come in with a list of questions, or just with an open mind and a pencil to take notes? I'm going to my first conference next week, and I would like to make the most out of it.

You're asking whether you should come prepared or just wing it?

Let's take a vote about which answer gets a resounding YES!




(pause for counting fins)



Yes, come prepared.
Type out the list of questions.
Make TWO copies.
Give one to the agent, and keep one.


That way the agent can see ALL your questions, and can answer the ones s/he feels are most urgent first.



One of the questions should NOT be: can I send you my book.

New library in Levin, NZ

I took gobs of photos in New Zealand with both my iPhone and my unwieldy quasi-prosumer Kodak (sometimes cantankerous, sometimes great photos). But except for the rare Antipodean posting, only in the last 24 hours have I moved these pictures from devices to cloud storage, and at that, with only the barest metadata and organization. Flickr is yet to come (bar for the one picture included here, from a library in Levin).

New Zealand was wonderful, and all there were amazing. I was treated to astonishing hospitality by absolutely everyone, from the conference organizers and attendees to my open source colleagues at Catalyst, as well as Jane at Booklovers’ B&B (tearing through her final edits on a book even as she tended her brood of B&B’ers). As I was cautioned, there was Much Singing, in fact, at the end of every major presentation the entire conference broke out into song, in Maori no less — an experience at once impressive and touching and sui generis.

I returned to plunge back into a deep work zone–the usual stuff, with an additional helping of Many Focus Groups for our architectural program, and a top-secret project that has involved many hours of research and study, thereby neatly consuming all available “off-time.”

I had to fly to LA six days after I returned for a SCELC board meeting, and I remember nothing of the ensuing weekend, other than sleep.For several weeks after my big-trip-followed-by-little-trip I was tired, time-addled, and haunted by a persistent tummy bug no doubt picked up from “airplane air” on the gruesomely long flights to and fro (though Air New Zealand is a gracious courier). I wanted to sit somewhere for at least a half-day and think about New Zealand, but hurtling as I was through my own private Fall Funnel of Fun,  all I could do was slip my hand into my slowly-dwindling supply of licorice allsorts and have a quiet nibble (once my tummy was again up to having licorice).

Now the licorice is gone, the focus groups are over, I feel the antic nature of the first 2/3 of the semester yield to the quieter pace of November (for the library, anyway), and this morning I have a tiny bit of time because we were asked to close the library and stay away from it this morning while wiring was completed. NO PROBLEM, I said.

So in this brief interlude let me back up a little and provide the highlights of experiences and discoveries:

Licorice is well-regarded in New Zealand. Because of that, turnover is vigorous, which means I had the freshest licorice I have had in my entire life. (I picked up the licorice habit from my dear departed dad–he taught me to like even the serious stuff, that hard Danish licorice with a dash of salt in it.)

Hokey pokey is a flavor.  It seems to mean something like butter brickle, only with a stronger caramel flavor. (Now my NZ friends are asking, “What’s butter brickle?” To which I respond, “it’s like hokey pokey, only milder.”) Hokey pokey is found in ice cream but also as an addition to chocolate.

English is not an official language of New Zealand, which like Oz is a country that appears to have acquired a respect and appreciation for its multicultural heritage. Note: English is spoken universally as far as I can tell, but it’s not a designated official language of NZ.

Wellington is like San Francisco (is like Melbourne, is like all my favorite European-feeling cities…). Hills and gardens and a bustling downtown and a gorgeous waterfront and people with important expressions striding to work in dark clothes and pointy shoes, and good beer in many places.

McDonald’s sells lamburgers.

Cell phone plans are ridiculously expensive–and I don’t mean temporary plans for travelers (see below, connectedness), I mean cell phone coverage, period.

I saw a brand-new library two days before it opened (in Levin, a suburb of Wellington)! Can’t wait to share pics.

Lamingtons are served with an exaggerated wink. The conference fed us nonstop and Lamingtons were featured at one break, and I was told it was on my behalf! Think very upscale Sno Ball (but without marshmallow).

I was able to get by for a week with two wifi-enabled devices and a hodgepodge of free and pay access, but I have become so accustomed to being fully connected that it was disorienting to wayfind through a strange city with static maps. Where was my blue Google Maps dot to guide me? I found myself under- or over-estimating walking time and distances and walking in strange loops (in other words, my pre-device life).

Whitebait fritters, rocket salad, and a Epic beer on draft: oh yeah!

LIANZA has absolutely the best conference banquets, ever: costumes and skits and games and dancing and great food and FUN. I apologize in advance to any NZ librarians who have to attend a library conference banquet out of country and find themselves nodding to sleep over plates of tepid chicken-with-a-pile-o’-rice while dignitaries drone. DISCLAIMER: I am sure some banquets are fun. I speak only from personal experience.

Pavlova! Why don’t we serve that more often in this country? (Hmm, perhaps because Americans are as conflicted about meringue as they are about licorice?)

Palmerston North was its own fine introduction to New Zealand, considering I was tired, jetlagged, and preoccupied with a conference. The conference took place at a racetrack during the off-season, and every morning we were treated to a view of horses being exercised on a racetrack against a backdrop of colossal mountains.

Te Papa is like the Metropolitan Museum: you cannot see it in one, two, or three visits. Amazing and infinite. Thanks again to my Catalyst friends who scored me a private tour.

My first night our conference hosts had us to one of their homes for a home-cooked meal. It was a great way to ease into the trip.

The last meal I had with colleagues was with developers. I had forgotten how endearing they can be.

I’ll do a photo essay before Thanksgiving and talk about what I learned about libraries and librarians (other than we are a magnificent bunch).

Bookmark to:

It's that time of year when we take a hard look at what we've done and assess how we want to improve and move forward. This is something I'm doing constantly, but it does seem important to take a moment to write it all down, especially since I feel like I have learned a lot about myself this year, and especially this past month or two.

I started out 2012 miserable and full of self-doubt. It was a long-time coming. These feelings had been building for a couple of years, so I declared 2012, the year of re-evaluation. I had to figure out what made me happy. More specifically, I had to figure out if writing still made me happy or if I was done, ready for a complete change of career and life focus.

I went back and forth, up and down about this. I'd spend a month deeply in love with storytelling and then three months hating every word I wrote or hating myself for writing. I felt like I'd finally gotten on the right track again in September and then had an absolute breakdown, my biggest crisis of faith yet in November, which I documented in this piece for Rookie--possibly the best, most honest, real and in-the-moment piece I've written for Rookie.

In July, I decided to go back to therapy for the first time in roughly nine or ten years. I was deeply depressed and anxious, especially about writing, and I couldn't do the re-evaluation thing on my own. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Not only did I benefit personally, I figured out a lot about my own writing. I put all the writing tips I gleaned from my therapist in this YA Outside the Lines post.

Perhaps the most important of those tips was be grateful for and recognize my accomplishments, big and small. So here's what I've done in 2012

• Knitted one hat and one scarf for my mother, and one hooded baby blanket for my friend's first child. Started my first knitting project for myself, a skirt.



• Taught 16 students in a Young Adult Fiction class at Columbia College and read well over 1000 pages of their work.
• Grew lettuce, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans, many varieties of peppers, many types of herbs, quite a few flowers.



• Made countless vegan meals, tried and even invented several new recipes.
• Got my eleventh tattoo. (It's Latin for "breathe.")

• Joined my local library board.
• Tended bar three nights a week and briefly made a tumblr about my adventures.
• Visited my favorite place on earth, Seattle.



• Saw (and met!) Mark Lanegan (whose music inspires my writing big-time), as well Garbage, Social Distortion, and several amazing bands (and legends like Iggy Pop!) at Riot Fest.
• Hosted a college friend for about half the year and went on adventures with her like to my first Renaissance Faire.



• Visited with several other friends from out of town, reconnected with my childhood best friend/sister after she moved back, spent as much time as I could with my amazing teenage niece who is my heroine, and made the ultimate birthday package for my BFF to celebrate eighteen years of friendship.
• Went to my first Comic Con where I met people like the stars of one of my all-time favorite shows, Twin Peaks.



• Went to my first RT convention, participated in a panel about boundaries in YA and in Teen Day. Met Francine Pascal, author of the Sweet Valley series that ruled my childhood.





• Watched the last five seasons of Buffy for the first time, all five seasons of Angel for the first time, and most recently, watched all of the first season of Game of Thrones in 3 days.
• Turned old t-shirts into new shirts, and in one case, a dress.



• Celebrated my third wedding anniversary in Portland, Oregon. We also visited the gorgeous Oregon coast and met up with one of my best writing buds, Tara Kelly, who took this photo of us.

• Nursed my elderly cat/best friend of 17 years, Sid, for several months and then said a sad but beautiful farewell to him the weekend after Thanksgiving and wrote him a tribute.
  
• Wrote 17 columns for my local newspaper, the Forest Park Review.
• Wrote 20 essays, some deeply personal, others pure fun, for Rookie as well as countless reviews of books, movies, TV shows, music, hot chocolate, candy, and electronic items that do and should exist.
• Wrote my first essay for Ms. Fit Magazine, a real world feminist fitness magazine that will debut in January of 2013.
• Made zines with my niece and her BFF at a Rookie Road Trip event.

• Took part in an amazing reading to celebrate the release of ROOKIE YEARBOOK ONE.
• Did a vlog to celebrate the release of the DEAR TEEN ME anthology, which features my letter to my teenage self about an abusive relationship.
• Researched (both by visiting the library and sneaking into a cemetery after hours) and wrote my first short story in umm... eight years? It's a ghost story--my personal twist on a local urban legend about a hitchhiking phantom flapper--which will come out next October in an anthology called VERY SUPERSTITIOUS published by Month9Books.
• Went on a writing retreat in Arizona.



• Wrote about 50,000 words of one YA novel (ie. the Modern Myth YA)
• Wrote about 60,000 words of another YA novel (ie. the Contemporary YA)