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By Candy Gourlay So aside from watching lots of Making Of documentaries while waiting for comments on my manuscript, I've also been binging on podcasts. Listening to a podcast about the making of Les Miserables the movie, I kept discovering things that resonated with writing. The cinematic version of The Glums, as people fondly call it here in England, is not everybody's cup of tea - on the

I recently took Marjetta Geerling’s SCBWI Workshop, How to Appeal to Children and Adults When Writing Children’s Books, and can't wait to share the fantastic info with you!

Children are like us, but inexperienced.  You don’t dumb down or talk down to them.  Never condescend, oversimplify, think the audience is ignorant, or take conscious superiority.  Kids immediately realize this!  Children and teachers don’t want a book that screams ‘here’s something you should know.’

When you write a children’s book, you must first appeal to an adult audience.  Children won’t be the first people to read your book.  There are often over ten layers of adult readers…critique groups or writing mentors, agents, editors, marketing people, art directors—and this is all before the book goes into print!  Then, there are reviewers, award committees, booksellers, and then parents, teachers, and librarians that we hope will be so excited by the books we write, they’ll want to share it with all the children in their lives.

Many writers think they need to find a way to get by the ‘gatekeepers’ but in reality, they’re just as much a part of the children’s literature audience as the children themselves.  Think about this…if a child falls in love with a book and asks to hear it every single night—who is doing the reading?

How do we appeal to children and engage our adult audience at the same time?  Marjetta read the book PARTS by Ted Arnold.  I have to admit that I smiled the second I saw it.  My daughters and I absolutely LOVED that book, even after reading it together a zillion times.  In fact…I still have most of it memorized!

I remember the humor and fun illustrations the most.  It takes a few reads to get past the humor so we can analyze it and see all the brilliant layers.  It has some amazing lessons about life for kids and adults…in a way that doesn’t feel preachy at all.   

·       When digging deeper, you can see that both children and adults can relate to the theme—nervousness.  It definitely has un

Click here to learn more about the Golden Coffee Cup.

Yay! It's fab fun to have a goal. It's exciting. You are feeling the euphoria of a new journey. I say feel it down into your bones! Today I'm shouting out for one of my favorite reads of 2010, Kathleen Duey's book Sacred Scars was a fabulous book.

I love it.

Today's "teaching us the way it is" high five is from Kathleen Duey. I love it when an author so moves me into a book that I wish I could be a character in it. I wish I could hop into the pages of Sacred Scars and throttle, yes!, throttle Somas. Ooh, I'm so mad at him. (I can't use the words that I am feeling toward Somas because I'm going for a G-rating.) And poor Sadima, I just want heap good stuff on her. She deserves a million good things to just flood her life. (Uh, oops, she not real. I keep forgetting that.)


I hope that you will seek to create something that will upturn cages and get your readers into the light. Today be as honest and as real as you can. We hide inside ourselves and it's really sad. Have you ever let yourself tell the whole truth about a thing? Will you stop holding back? Let it all go, folks.

Seize the day! See you tomorrow for more of the Golden Coffee Cup. :)

Your love has done me more good than you can possibly imagine. Sadima in Sacred Scars by Kathleen Duey.

I feel lucky to live in an area where there are so many supportive writers!  I took yet another amazing workshop with Joyce Sweeney, and I’ve already been able to strengthen my middle-grade novel, Mom Wars, thanks to the new insight I’ve gained from these exercises.

Thanks Joyce, for letting me share this incredibly helpful info with my online friends!    

Readers really don’t get to know a character from a physical description—it’s always shown through dialogue.

·       The main character is basically the most like you—should have your heart and soul.  He or she is a disguised part of you.

·       The conflict the main character has should be something you have gone through and understand...or hope to understand. 

·       The better you know yourself, the better you’ll be able to make your character.  Make sure he or she has flaws—you can’t just paint the character in a good light.

Exercise 1: In about 75 words, describe your main character in a way that lets us see his or her built in flaw.

The plot can have four big turns, where the reader sees something change the character or make the character understand better. 

Plot turn 1: The first quarter point where readers get sucked into the story.

Plot turn 2: Midpoint.

Plot turn 3: Climax (can be close to the end).

Plot turn 4: Resolution.

Exercise 2: Write out the four plot points for your character—list the emotion next to each point.

Wow, this has been the most incredible and intense round of revisions ever. I've received such fantastic advice and feedback from an amazing agent, and it really has helped me dig deeper than I ever thought possible. I'm almost finished working two new goals into my middle-grade novel, and then I'll go back to the beginning and work in more of the great suggestions I received from an editor who critiqued it at the Orlando Workshop. And I have more character interviews to do. (Yes, I keep gushing about Kathleen Duey's interview exercise--I'm still in awe of the way my characters spill their secrets, hopes, and fears when I sit back and let them talk).

I'll post about the Picture Book Track at the FL SCBWI Mid-Year Workshop soon. :)

Check out some of the conference, market, and good news info I included in my most recent FL SCBWI listserv post (if you love children's literature and want to receive the full posts by e-mail, you can sign up using this link: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FloridaSCBWI/).

Hi everyone. Wow, the 2010 FL SCBWI Mid-Year Workshop was a huge success—with 200 attendees! That says so much about our amazing Florida events. Thanks Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld (Regional Advisor), Michelle Delisle (Assistant Regional Advisor), Adrienne Sylver (Critique Coordinator), Flora Doone (for multiple duties, including updating our website), the incredible faculty, and all our wonderful volunteers who worked the registration desk, picked faculty up at the airport, loaned us Power Point projectors, and went out of their way to make this event so incredible.

Here are a few things people said after the 2010 Mid-Year Workshop:

I just got back from my first SCBWI workshop in Orlando. I had a great time, met many nice people, and learned a lot. After the first page critiques, my heart swelled to be among so many talented writers. --Susan Banghart.

I was SO impressed with the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop. It was truly one of the best conferences I've attended. The Novel Intensive was AMAZING. Everyone was so friendly and gave the writers/illustrators so many gems of information. –Karen Strong

I'm thrilled I attended! The event was a superb learning experience and wonderful place to develop new friendships. In the Middle Grade Workshop, Kathleen Duey and Alvina Ling provided invaluable insight to the development, refinement and submission processes. But more inspiring were the many 1st Page readings presented: I was overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of talent I was amid... I was also getting seriously petrified that my work would be put to shame by these other works. But, based upon the enthusiastic response by both panelists, I have regained my confidence to submit my tweaked manuscript. -- Curtis Sponsler

Here are more great comments we received:

I just had to write you and say thanks for putting together such an awesome conference! I was in the MG series track and I learned SO much.

It was a successful gathering - extra energy this time, I think. Tammi and Dan did a super job on the picture book workshop. Dan, especially, gave me stimulating new info (making a trailer in iMovie and more) and I usually feel I have heard it all.

From one of the speakers:

I had a fabulous time; it’s clear Florida got the lion’s share in talented writers.

JOIN US IN MIAMI FOR OUR NEXT AMAZING CONFERENCE!

Our 10th Annual SCBWI Florida Regional Conference will be held on January 14-16, 2011. We have a fantastic faculty lined up. I'll fill you in on the details in my next listserv, but so far, we have five agents and editors coming. Here's another reason not to miss this event—one of the agents is closed to submissions...unless you see her at a conference.

GOOD NEWS!
Congrats, everyone. :)

BOOK CONTRACTS, RELEASE

I feel so lucky to live in Florida, which has two amazing SCBWI events every year. The 2010 Mid-Year Workshop was incredible! I came home with so much information, inspiration, and enjoyed spending the weekend with people who love children's literature as much as I do.

On Friday, I attended the Novel Intensive led by Stephanie Owens Lurie (Disney-Hyperion), Alvina Ling (Little, Brown), and author Kathleen Duey. The three of them worked so well together, I've seen people refer to them as The Dream Team.

I can't give away all their secrets, but here's some of the things we discussed:

*During query critiques, both editors liked hearing that someone is an active SCBWI member, but including a list of specific conferences could make it sound like you're still in training. I was a bit surprised that magazine credits didn't impress them—they're more interested to hear about a promotional vehicle, like a blog, that shows a person is willing and able to do self-promotion.

Stephanie Owens Lurie
• Your character needs an inner conflict, and at least one outer conflict (it can be several).
If you stray too far from the outer conflict, you'll have a tough time creating an elevator
pitch for your manuscript.
• The typical picture book structure could help with novel structure, too.
• When sending a query, make sure the author shows why the manuscript is right for the Disney-Hyperion list. She wouldn't mind knowing how something ends. She loves having a one sentence description of the manuscript that she can use during the acquisition process.
• She likes to know important background info, like working as a librarian, before seeing publishing credits in another genre. She also likes to see that readers of ____ will enjoy a manuscript (make it current, but not too popular, like Harry Potter). And she'd like to know what led you to write the book (that was the first thing she asked me during her critique of my middle-grade novel).
• Does not want vampire or werewolf stories.
• Needs middle-grade books and series.

Alvina Ling
• Character is: Voice, belief, background.
• Use the point of view that is the least noticeable, so the reader can really get into the book.
• Buttering up the editor isn't a bad thing—it shows you did research (of course, you don't want to take it too far).
• She likes a query/manuscript that is familiar yet fresh.
• She doesn't like to know the ending before reading a manuscript.
• Would like a sci-fi space opera (like Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica)—but remember that she prefers literary manuscripts.

Kathleen Duey
• Observe kids the age that you write for (try to sit by them without being noticed).
• If you meet people with interesting professions, say you're a writer and might want to ask them questions about their job in the future—don't forget to ask for a business card.
• A good exercise is to have a secondary character think about the main character and write a paragraph or two about him/her.
• It's a violation of viewpoint if a character suddenly notices familiar things, but you can have a character notice the difference between the way things used to look and how they look now.
• Spend words on things the reader won't assume (the tiny details can be more interesting).
• Reading non-fiction history is a great way to help create a fantasy world.
• Don't go looking for a basic plot formula—it doesn't exist. Try different things to see what works with your story.
• When plotting, she searches for milestones that have to happen before she reaches the ending.
• Keep the spotlight on your main character in a query or synopsis.
• Make

This past weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop. It was FABULOUS. Did I say it was FABULOUS?! Hands down best conference I’ve been to this year.

Attendees posted live tweets throughout the conference, so if you missed any of them, you can go to the Twitter #scbwifl thread to get the highlights.

The Novel Intensive was also AMAZING. I think with the smaller number of attendees (limited to 25) and of course having the dynamic trio of author Kathleen Duey and editors Alvina Ling (Little, Brown) and Stephanie Lurie (Disney/Hyperion) for the whole day dropping gems of knowledge also made it a great experience.

Okay, let me just take a brief moment to talk about Kathleen Duey. I’ve written on my blog about how phenomenal and down-to-earth she is — but ya’ll I’m telling you this writer shares so much great information and life experience from an artist’s perspective — and she has a gift of looking at a first page and/or query and making it better. I was very impressed with her suggestions — it was something to see. So if you have a chance to see this author present a workshop or critique pages at a conference, please try your best to do so. I’m just saying.

I also met some great writers in person that I’ve met either here on the blog or via Twitter like Sylvia, Harley, Medeia, and Larissa. It was great to meet them in person! So if you don’t already follow them on Twitter or read their blog you really should start. They are talented writers to watch.

Overall the conference was everything I hoped it would be. I also had a MAJOR epiphany at the conference so my summer revision is already kicked up a notch and I’m fired up to implement this new strategy to my WIP.

Here are some highlights of some of the great things I learned this past weekend from the authors and editors:

When you think of voice, think of voice per book not necessarily a voice per author - Kathleen Duey

A good entertaining story is always what editors are looking for - Stephanie Lurie (Disney/Hyperion)

Character is voice, beliefs, and experiences - Alvina Ling (Little, Brown)

Don’t stress about the query letter. Focus on the novel - Brian Farrey (Flux)

You have to decide whether you want to put art before commerce. As a writer this is a choice you have to make - Kathleen Duey

You have to know your character before you can introduce them to others - Stephanie Lurie (Disney/Hyperion)

Make a list of things most people have done and then a list of things most people haven’t done. This can be a starting point for your character - Alvina Ling (Little, Brown)

The most important relationship you’ll ever have as a writer is the relationship with your editor - Brian Farrey

The rest of the week I’ll continue to share highlights from the conference. On Wednesday, I’ll share information about query letters and then on Friday, I’ll share what the authors and editors said about the First Page critiques — hopefully they will be as helpful to you as they were for me.

Stay tuned!

5 Comments on 2010 SCBWI FL Mid-Year Workshop: Highlights, last added: 6/7/2010

I'll never forget my cave-writing years. I learned everything I could through SCBWI materials and every writing book I could get my hands on. Then, I heard about the NY Winter Conference and thought it sounded great. But scary. At the time, I only wrote picture books, and felt like I needed to have more than the five I had been working on. I needed months. Maybe a year. And then Hubby looked at me and said I should go. Thanks Hubby! It was the absolute best thing I ever could have done for myself and my writing career. I was so inspired that in the weeks before attending the conference, I wrote the first draft of a chapter book and started to write a second as well (both of them are now middle grade novels). I never even considered writing a novel before the conference...and came home so inspired that I started typing away, and realized when I hit 10,000 words that I was actually writing my first novel. Now, I've written at least a first draft of six middle grade novels and two young adult novels...and I can't even count how many picture books I've written--I'm guessing in the thirty range.

I love going to my local conferences--our RA, Linda Bernfeld, always does an amazing job. And I've been to the Poconos Retreat four times, Rutgers One-on-One Plus twice, and Chautauqua. The faculty for the Orlando Workshop is amazing--I hope you'll be able to join me there! Here's the link to our website: http://www.scbwiflorida.com/details.htm. The hotel is on Disney property, so it's the perfect excuse for a family vacation. :)

I had such a hard time choosing, but decided to take the Novel Intensive with the incredible Kathleen Duey (who gave me so many helpful gems at the Novel Intensive in Miami), and editors Alvina Ling and Stephanie Owens Lurie. I can't wait to take the Picture Book Track with Tammi Sauer, Dan Santat, and their editor, Frances Gilbert. I'd love to take the marketing track with Cynthia Leitich Smith--her blog and website are filled with a wealth of information and I really hope I'll be able to take a workshop with her once I have books to promote. I also love Danielle Joseph's novels, and know she'll do an amazing job with the YA track. Wow--what a hard choice!

Here's a peek at the amazing line up.

Picture Book Track
with author Tammi Sauer, illustrator Dan Santat and Frances Gilbert, Vice President and Editorial Director of children’s publishing at Sterling Publishing.

Middle Grade Track
with author Kathleen Duey and Alvina Ling, Senior Editor, Little Brown.

Young Adult Track
with author Danielle Joseph and
Brian Farrey, Editor, Flux.

Series Track
with author Terri Farley and
Stephanie Owens Lurie, Editorial Director, Disney – Hyperion.

Marketing Track
with author/blogger Cynthia Leitich Smith, author/social media consultant Greg Pincus and Ed Masessa, author and Senior Manager Product Development, Scholastic Book Fairs.

I hope to see you there!

Tonight’s chat was our busiest yet, thanks to the participation of super-editor Emma Dryden of drydenbks (@drydenbks) and a topic that hits a lot of buttons for #ScribeChat participants. It seems that we’re not only fascinated by flawed characters but passionate about them, too, and this can only bode well for the stories in gestation. Participation [...] Related posts:

1. TOPIC: The Unique Appeal of Flawed Characters
2. TRANSCRIPT: What Is The Source Of The Enduring Appeal Of Fantasy Literature?

WARNING: The following review contains spoilers of Skin Hunger, the first book in this series. If you have not read Skin Hunger, dash off to your local library as fast as you can and read it! Then you may read this review, and subsequently Sacred Scars, at your leisure.

When we left Sadima at the end of Skin Hunger, she, Franklin, and Somiss were in a cave with several orphan boys, kidnapped from Limori. Sadima is miserable living in the cave. She feels the fear and loneliness of the trapped boys, whom Somiss forces to learn how to copy the Gypsy symbols. Somiss is even more reclusive- and yet somehow even more frightening- than before. Worst of all, Franklin is gone all night, stealing food, and asleep all day, so Sadima has almost no time with him. As more and more time passes, she realizes that maybe he doesn’t even love her anymore. And slowly, she realizes something she knew all along. She cannot stay in this cave. She must escape.

Hahp, at the end of Skin Hunger, had made a pact with his roommate Gerrard to destroy the academy at all costs. They both realized the danger of their agreement, and as their fragile almost-friendship teeters on the verge of breaking, it seems to Hahp that Gerrard isn’t keeping his end of the deal. But that is far from being the boys’ only problem. As their lessons become more and more difficult, life becomes more painful. The wizards are acting even more strangely. Hahp’s sleep is haunted by dreams that blur the lines between fantasy and reality. Worst of all, the safety of all the boys is threatened by the violent, unpredictable, and dying Luke. As the pact between Gerrard and Hahp expands to include the rest of the boys, they are forced to make the most difficult choices of their lives. And as the connection between the story’s two plots becomes more apparent, the eternal question still nags at the reader: where is Sadima?

This book most definitely lived up to the precedent set for it by Skin Hunger. Although Sadima’s story lagged somewhat in the beginning of the book and at certain points throughout, most of that plotline, and all of Hahp’s, moved at a fairly brisk pace. There were numerous plot twists and unexpected events sprinkled throughout to keep the story moving.

Hahp’s story was definitely the more engaging of the two plots. There was so much story material there, weaving a rich, detailed plot, and as always, Hahp is a realistic and dynamic character. But this should not be taken to mean that Sadima’s story was not also compelling; on the contrary, since the action progressed somewhat more slowly for most of the book, it provided a nice complement to the tension of Hahp’s story, building up to the dramatic climax and cliffhanger ending in both cases.

Overall, Sacred Scars is a fabulous second installment in the Resurrection of Magic trilogy; I’m anxious for the conclusion. Four and a half magical daggers.






Yours in suspense,
Tay

Yeah, I know that title doesn't belong to me, but it fits so I'm using it. I mean, wouldn't you rather be hugging Bruce Hale (Mr. Chet Gecko himself!) instead of doing laundry? But sadly, laundry is my reality.

After the collective high of being surrounded by so much creativity and energy and success, it's hard to come home to wash dishes and clean up dog barf. I'd rather be writing. But the kids want my attention, the house needs my attention and it might be a while before I get to hole up with my WIP and apply some of the wonderful thoughts that filled my brain for the last four days.

I'm grateful that Team Blog provided crib notes on some of the workshops I wanted to attend. There was so much great stuff to choose from, sometimes it was hard to decide where to go. And sometimes I just had to find a place to chill. Information overload can be harmful to your system (or maybe that was just an excuse to get away from the crowds and hang out with some of the great people I met!)

In the final speech of the conference, Kathleen Duey had these recommendations for preserving the best of SCBWI-LA at home (and of course these would apply to any type of writing event you're at):

Write down important conversations.

On the back of business cards, write down how you met the person. (I saw Rachel doing this days before Kathleen Duey's speech =)

Annotate notes (or blog about them!).

Contact everyone who gave you a business card.

Put the gems that people said on the wall.

Take a few days before you jump in to where you were and experiment with some of what you learned.

Try hard to hold on to the validation of your art.

Announce your renewed serious intent and explain it to family and friends.

Kathleen Duey on the benefits of SCBWI...

The give-and-take of SCBWI is epic, and it has grown. It's gone from a family to more like a small village. It's given us a place to send all the people to ask us how they can publish. Membership in SCBWI makes editors know you're serious about writing. You can make connections.

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

Kathleen is telling us that the first thing she does after a conference is write down her conversations.

Next, she goes over and annotates her notes--you'll never remember more about this than you will in the next two days.

Then she goes through her business card. When she accepts then she writes a note on them saying why she took them. If you haven't, go home and write notes on them.

Contact everyone you took a card from. Send a thank-you to editors and agents who took the time to talk to you.

She asks, how many of us are not on Facebook. To everyone who raised their hands, she says: "Shame on you."

Kathleen is talking about the marvels of Twitter, that people were tweeting on the streets of Iran after the election. That there are writers chats on Twitter. And that she's writing a Twitter novel.

The amazing Kathleen Duey is offering the final keynote session of the 2009 SCBWI Summer Conference.

Lin Oliver says she'll "Send us out on wings of inspiration."

Kathleen has published more than 70 book and was nominated for a National Book Award last year for Skin Hunger.

Kathleen starts out by saying how much SCBWI has done for her. SCBWI, she says, raised the bar and changed the business.

POSTED BY ALICE POPE

"Art and craft have to hold hands."

Duey doesn’t outline and doesn’t plot.

She suggests, ask yourself what the character would do next. Ask your character the questions, like: “So when you got home, how’d it go with your mom?”

Duey will sometimes sit down and think of the milestones in the story. They could be two chapters apart, or twenty. But she usually has an end in mind (although not always).

Now chatting about the importance of being on Twitter! She has challenged all who are not on Twitter to sign up.

Kathleen has two blogs. She is on Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. Awesome!

POSTED BY JOLIE STEKLY

Don't neglect that initial spark. We can get so lost in craft (and all the things we’re told) but we lose the spark.

Duey's intent is to bend and blend genres. YA is one of the places this is happening.

Duey suggests that when you meet interesting people that have interesting jobs, write it down. Get their business card. Anybody you meet with a profession could be the source of your twist some day.

"There is a book in almost anything."

"Don’t lose site of artistic experiment."

“I have learned ways over time to not lose the spark as the wheels start to
grind…as I'm putting the rivets in to build the story.”

Visit Alice's CWIM Blog for Alice Pope's exclusive interview with author and Summer Conference keynote speaker Kathleen Duey, the latest in our TEAM BLOG keynote interview series (with more to come!).

Kathleen offers lots of great advice for conference goers and talks about, among other things, fear (and why it's good for you).

Three more days until the Summer Conference Blog-apalooza!


photo: Sonya Sones

Exclusive SCBWI TEAM BLOG Interview: Kathleen Duey...

Kathleen Duey has published more than 70 books for readers of all ages with a focus on historical fiction and fantasy. Many of her books are titles in her middle grade series: American Diaries; Survival; The Unicorn's Secret; and Hoofbeats. The Faeries Promise, a four-book set for young readers, will be out in 2010. Skin Hunger—first of a dark YA fantasy trilogy—was a 2007 National Book Award Finalist. Sacred Scars, the second book in the trilogy, has just been released and Kathleen is writing the final book now.

Other projects in the works include Free Rat, the near-future odyssey of a damaged and unwilling hero; A Virgin’s Blood, a thorny and complex love story; and Russet an ongoing Twitter novel, written in 140 character bursts. She's also written several terrific pieces for past editions of CWIM (which always makes this editor terribly excited).

Here we discuss--among other writerly topics--FEAR.

How long have you been attending the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA? Where were you career-wise when you first attended?

Hmmmm. Wow. About 14 years, I think. I have missed a few national conferences over that time, not many. I had published three books before I discovered SCBWI, but it was still like stumbling into a gold mine posted with signs that read: Take what you need. Come back often.

You say on your blog that “dark, atypical fantasy” is your new love. What’s atypical about your current work, the A Resurrection of Magic trilogy?

There is little that IS typical. There are two stories that go back and forth, every other chapter. There are two protagonists. One is written in a first person voice, the other is in third person. The stories happen about 200 years apart and the first story causes the second one. By the end of the trilogy, in the first story, almost 200 years pass. In the second story about 8 years will have passed.

The setting is the city of Limori. Because of the time span, the culture the characters live in has changed. Because it is a fantasy, a few of the characters are alive in both stories. Magic is a burden, a blessing, a secret, a cause for revolution, abuse of power—all things human are included. It is a very realistic fantasy.

The second book in your trilogy, Sacred Scars is an August release. Will it be available in the conference bookstore so I can get a copy? Would you tell me and my readers a little about the book?

Sacred Scars is out now and will be at the conference. I think they will have Skin Hunger (first in the trilogy) as well and a few of The Unicorn’s Secret (for 2-4th graders) too.

This is all I can say about Sacred Scars without spoilers: The stories of both characters absolutely astounded me as I wrote the second book. It is almost two hundred pages longer than the first book. Hahp’s sheltered life is far behind him now, he has to face choices no one should have to face. And Sadima’s kind heart leads her into terrible danger.

At the SCBWI Summer Conference you’ll be offering a breakout session on building a novel. Who should attend and what do you hope your attendees come away with?

Thanks for asking about this. Anyone at any level of skill who is writing novels for any age group should consider coming. I want to walk through novel structure in a different way, one that includes art and heart, not just craft. Competent novels are harder and harder to sell, in large part because of SCBWI’s wonderful resources, more and more people can write pretty well. But I think too many of us learn the rules—which are far more “teachable”—and lose the spark—which is more “discoverable”.

To move from my very competently written paperback series to the kind of books I am writing now, I had to recover the deeper parts of my own artistic process. It was tricky at first. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I set it aside and why, and I very purposefully set out to get it back. I hope to help others avoid the same detour.

You’ve said that your Twitter novel Russet has given you a creative jolt of “raw fear.” Why is it important to experiment and delve into things that are a little scary?

I have written three answers to this and erased them. Here is the real one: I remember standing on a stage in high school, shaking, holding my guitar, taking a deep breath and forcing myself to sing to an auditorium full of my peers. I didn’t think I would live through it. And when it was over, they clapped and cheered and I was happier than I ever remembered being in my life. I went home and wrote three songs, each one better than I had ever written before, many journal pages, and I practiced harder for months afterward.

Writers don’t get that performance jolt often, if ever. Our writer-friends and editors help us, we rely on extensive revision, and, in addition to all that, most of us adhere to pre-defined, marketable forms. I wanted the jolt back; I wanted to perform. And in order to complicate my life further, I decided to do a kind of literary improv. Every time I add text, I am scared to death. Once I post it, I don’t touch it again. I don’t plot ahead or outline. And I am very happy, awake, and alive artistically just now.

Tell me about that experience of writing Russet. How have readers responded? (Feel free to answer in more than 140 characters. Or not.)

I need more than 140 for this: The Twitter format was largely accidental. I had signed up for Twitter a year prior, but hadn’t done anything with it. One day I got a little e-notice that someone was following me. Following what? I had never posted. I couldn’t imagine writing anything of interest in 140 characters or less. I would rather spend my time writing stories than figuring out how…hmmmmm. It hit me: Weird format, real-time, no story in mind, just character channeling, online and live, very public…and it could blow up in my face a hundred ways. My heart started to thud. Perfect.

Russet’s audience is expanding rapidly. People write to say they love the story. Me, too. The whole text can be found here. It’s about 100 pages of story compressed into 23 pages of tweets.

And speaking of fear, attending an SCBWI conference for the first time can be a little scary. What advice can you offer conference attendees (particularly first-timers) on getting the most out of the event?

Before you go, decide what areas of your writing or art need the biggest boosts. Look at the workshops with those areas in mind and choose accordingly. If I am not sure of a session, I often stand at the back so I can slip out without disrupting anything and go stand in the back elsewhere.

Collect attendees’ and whoever else’s business cards and jot down who/why/what on the back. LOTS of people put together critique groups that last for years from conference acquaintances. Make sure everyone understands copyright and swears never to forward your work to anyone else without your permission. (Which you should never, ever give them.)

Eat well and get to sleep at reasonable hours so you can make the most of the conference. (With the exception of Saturday night. We must dance.)

Make use of conference attendee gatherings to learn how to critique and be critiqued. Both are important. If you see me walking past, invite me. If I can, I will join you.

Will you be formally critiquing manuscripts during the conference? Critiques, too, can be scary for new writers. What’s your advice on getting the most from a critique meeting?

I am critiquing. I almost always do. First, remember this: It is your book, your story, YOURS. Second, remember this: Because it is yours, you have almost no chance of seeing it objectively. None of us can. So listen carefully and with an open mind. Ask questions, take notes. You can winnow it all out later and use what seems right as a starting point for your own re-evaluation, and toss what doesn’t. This was a huge realization for me: The fix might best be made by making small changes over thirty (or forty or two hundred) pages, before or after the page upon which the problem was spotted.

Your keynote address is titled “Transmutation: Books That Matter.” Why transmutation as theme? How does this word apply to your career?

Well, I love that word, the old meaning of turning base metal into gold. For me, that describes the process of writing a book. And I think it applies to everyone’s careers. Especially now. We are at a turning point for books, for literature, for mankind, womankind, childkind. If we want literacy to survive, we need to make it indispensible to the next generation. And to do that we need to write books that really matter. And for screen culture kids, that will take art in its biggest, baddest, broadest sense, as well as craft.

You’re giving the closing address of the conference. Do you feel pressure to end with a bang? (And is going last scary?)

Pressure? Yes.
Scary? No. Terrifying!

Skin Hunger, the first book in the Resurrection of Magic trilogy, tells two stories, centuries apart but mysteriously linked. The first is the tale of a rural teenager named Sadima, who lives in a world where magic exists but true magic is forbidden. At the time of Sadima’s birth, a “magician” assisting with the birth stole her family’s valuables and left her mother to die. As Sadima grows, she discovers a talent for speaking to animals, but conceals it for fear of arousing her father’s bitterness towards magicians. One day, an enigmatic visitor to Sadima’s family’s farm, introducing himself as Franklin, recognizes Sadima’s ability and offers to take her away to the city, but Sadima, frightened, declines. Secretly, though, Sadima yearns for freedom, and years later, she decides to seek Franklin out.

I award this wickedly clever book four and a half scintillating daggers.

Do you like listening to author and illustrator interviews? I do. They’re often interesting, with bits of wisdom and great writing advice woven throughout. That’s true with the interviews Susan Raab, book publicist and author of An Author’s Guide to Children’s Book Promotion, did at the Bologna Book Fair.

Susan Raab interviewed 16 people related to children’s literature. The interviews include children’s and YA author Kathleen Duey; YA author Susan Beth Pfeffer; YA author, book reviewer, and creator of YA Book Central Kimberly Pauley; children’s author and illustrator Marla Frazee; children’s illustrator Nancy Devard; some publishers; and more.

You can listen to the interviews online; they’re interesting.

Thanks to Kathleen Duey for the link.