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Explore the mermaids amongst the ocean waters, swimming and resting with their fish and sea life companions. Let the bright and bold colors sweep you away into the underwater imagination of watercolor fantasy artist Sara Burrier.

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Un altro assaggino :D

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Friday August 8, 2014 7pm
Gayle Forman
If I Stay
Barnes & Noble Americana
The Americana at Brand

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Hello, summer! It's hard to believe that half the year is already behind us but summer is here and it's going strong. Lots of really cool events this July, including signings by Maggie Stiefvater and the Fierce Reads Tour. Alethea and I (Thuy) will be at Comic-Con in San Diego as well. If you see us, say hi, cause we'd love to meet you.Saturday July 4, 2014 5pm
Ed Brubaker
reads and signs Velvet
Skylight Books
1818 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
event page

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Tuesday June 10, 2014 700pm
Jillian Cantor
Searching for Sky
Mysterious Galaxy San Diego
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Ste 302
San Diego, CA 92111-1040
event page

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• Part One: The Portable Office 
• Part Two: Getting Organized

Once your work space is organized, you'll want to organize your work life and your projects.

It helps to think of a writing project as a job. Not the boring 9 to 5 kind, but rather a totally awesome job with the hours that work best for me. And, being a mobile author means I can write wherever I want to. I can write in an office or den if I want to, and that's often the best place to do it. But, if I want to, I can also go to a cafe or coffee shop, or I can work from a hotel room, or on the plane, or a train. I'm mobile; I can do what I want.

A calendar, a notebook, and a task manager should give you everything you need to stay on track.

Calendar

If you treat writing as a job, you'll want at least the basic organization tools. A good calendar is a must.

There are many calendar apps, many of them free. You might be happy with the one that came on your phone or tablet, or you might want to experiment a little with other apps until you find one you like better. As always, check reviews and feature lists to make sure the calendar you choose is going to work for you.You'll want to make sure your calendar can sync with the calendar for your day job, if you have one. You'll also want it to sync with your personal calendar, like a Google calendar or iCal.

Use your calendar to schedule deadlines, even if those deadlines are no more than personal goals. You can also use it to remind you of local writing events, conferences, signings, and presentations. If you are in a writing group, you might use your calendar to keep track of your group meetings, with reminders to prepare your chapter for critiquing. A shared calendar, like a Google calendar, used by all members of your group, is perfect.

Notebook

You're also going to want a good notebook. My definition of a good notebook is one that you like to use so much that you actually do.

For me, that means having the ability to keep multiple notebooks so I can place certain types of notes in the right notebook. It also means being able to search the notes so I can find what I want. Finally, I prefer a notebook that syncs across devices without me having to remember to copy my notes. Or having to remember to do anything at all, really.

I find it useful to keep two kinds of notebooks, a fancy robust one for serious note keeping and a lighter notebook for quick notes. Kind of like a composition book and a stack of stickies.

One of the most popular apps in all of appdom is Evernote. Evernote is one of those rare apps that has the ability to be almost everything for almost everybody. You can store ideas and notes, write a whole scene, store photos, record voice notes, draw diagrams--you name it, you can do it in Evernote. Evernote lets you create your own organization style, with notebooks for each project, for your ideas, or whatever you need your organizational style to be to actually stick with it. And of course, everything you put into Evernote is automatically available everywhere you have the app, as well as on the computer in your home office. You can put an icon or widget on your device for easy access. And it's available for Android, iOS, Windows, and Mac. And it's free, although you can also pay for additional features and more storage space. You want this app.

If you have a recent version of  Microsoft Office, you likely have Microsoft OneNote, which is very similar to Evernote. I use both, although I tend to use OneNote more for my day job. If you have it, use it. It works well, and has a handy app for most major devices.

There are many other note apps, so if you want to try another one, check out your app store. You might want something that looks more like a paper notepad, for example. Many notebook apps let you save to Dropbox or Google Drive so your notes are available wherever you need them.

In addition to a robust notebook, I like having a second app for quick notes. Although you can use Evernote or OneNote, I find it convenient to use a smaller notebook. The iPad and iPhone come with a good note pad, but Android somehow neglected to add one. The recently released Google Keep fills that hole. I use Keep for short reminders, pictures, or short voice notes. Notes are stored on Google Drive, and are synced with any device where I've installed the app. It can't compare to Evernote or OneNote for sheer awesomeness, but it's a good part of my mobile writing toolkit, and it's a perfect app for that smart phone you always have with you.

Just remember the number one requirement that I mentioned above: a good notebook is one you like to use so much that you actually use it.

Task Manager

The third app you'll want is a good task manager. You could use your notes app for tracking tasks. Evernote and Google Keep are both good for checklists of tasks.

The best task managers, though, give you more than a checklist. The ideal task manager lets you create and track subtasks, the many little tasks that need to be done to complete a larger task. It also syncs with your calendar. Of course, it goes without saying that you can access your lists from anywhere and from any device. And, it's a joy to use, so you'll use it.

Two of the most popular task managers that meet my criteria, both available for Android and iOS, are Wunderlist and Any.Do. Both are free.There are many others, so find the one that does what you need.

For a task manager that goes beyond to-do-lists, especially if you are visually oriented, you might try Trello, which I've recently discovered. Think of it as a bulletin board (or as many bulletin boards as you need) where you can pin cards for each task or group of tasks, and move the cards around as you work on them. For example, if a card is in your to-do stack, you can move it to your Doing stack while working on it, and when you finish that task, you can move the card to your Done stack. If you are collaborating with another author or an illustrator, or want to review your plans with your writing group, Trello includes collaboration features that let you share and work on your boards with others. Trello works on pretty much anything, either through the mobile app or a web browser. You'll see this app mentioned more than once in this series.

By the way, your smart phone is a great place to keep your task manager. Most task managers don't require a large screen, and you probably have your phone with you all the time.

Next Step

Now that your portable office is ready and you're set up to manage your projects, you can start to plan your story. Come back next week to find out how to use your mobile device as a convenient story planning tool.

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Giving and receiving critiques on your writing is one of the most helpful and necessary parts of the process. I value my critique group beyond any other writing tools I have. They let me know what works and what doesn't, when something I thought was crystal clear is not, and when my characters are acting out of character. They offer encouragement and cheerleading.

Not only has constant critique made me a better writer, it has made me a more professional writer. When I receive notes from agents, editors, and other professionals, I am able to receive the notes with a professional calmness. I don't get defensive. I get revising.

I hope everyone who writes is able to find a group or a few trusted beta readers who can offer valuable critique, but I know that there are quite a few writers in our SCBWI region (Utah and southern Idaho) who may not even know any other writers in their community. Or perhaps they don't know how to get a group started. Or have never critiqued anyone else's work and feel inadequate.

That is why we started a region-wide event called The Great Critique. We give you the opportunity to meet with other children's writers in your area and critique away. On one day, August 9, we all meet throughout the region, helping each other become better writers (and illustrators--they get to participate as well!). During the summer, you'll receive excerpts from manuscripts by the others registered in your area. You'll read them, prepare comments, and then meet in August for live critiquing. And if you don't have a meeting close by, we offer an online location as well. This event is FREE, and we hope you take advantage of it.

In addition, if you wish to have a critique from a publishing house editor or an agent, you can register for that through our web site. And for an extra bonus, you can get a professional query critique.

You'll find all the details on our registration page. So there are no excuses. Sign up NOW. Registration is open until June 15.


by Neysa CM Jensen
your regional advisor for SCBWI
(I live in Boise, Idaho, but don't hold that against me.)

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Happy May! Apologies for the slightly late posting of this event calendar. All of us have been very busy here at RNSL headquarters. As you can see, May has a lot to offer for author events. The Ontario Teen Book Fest especially looks like it's going to be really fun. Alethea is definitely going and I am a maybe. If you're in the area, you should totally check out the fun, free event.

Gabrielle Douglas
Raising the Bar

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Jessica Brody
Unremembered Launch Party
Tues March 5, 2013 730pm
Mysterious Galaxy Redondo Beach
2810 Artesia Blvd., Redondo Beach, CA 90278 ~ 310-542-6000
event info

Shannon Messenger
Let The Sky Fall Launch Party
Tues March 5, 2013 7 pm
Mysterious Galaxy San Diego

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Hi, everyone! Wanted to give you a heads up that Darren Shan, author of the popular Cirque du Freak and Zom-B series will be having an event on on Thursday, Feb 7 at the Central Library in downtown Los Angeles. The event is free, so please come and show your support. Darren's new book, Zom-B Underground came out last month. So support Darren (and zombies) and come out to the signing. Full details below.

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Hi again! January really flew by. Things seem to be picking back up event-wise as stores and publishers gear up for their new spring releases. As always, we try to bring you the most up to date info on events in the SoCal area. But if we miss anything, please let us know and we will add it to the calendar.
See Brodi Ashton (Everbound), Cynthia Hand (Boundless), Tahereh Mafi (Unravel Me) and Veronica Rossi (Through the Ever Night) on tour!

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Calendario 2013

Calendario 12 mesi
edizione limitata di sole 50 copie
Carta patinata, 34x32,5 cm

Monthly calendar, limited edition of 50 copies only
Matte Finish paper, 13.39x12.8 inch. Only italian language.

Price € 20,00 + spedizione (shipping)

Shipping/Spedizione
Italia                           raccomandata   € 3,00
Europa                       priority mail (not registered)   € 7,oo
                                    registered mail  € 9,50
for more info contact: [email protected]

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Hi again! Looks like we forgot a few events on our last calendar update. We don't want you guys to miss out on any of the great events in the So Cal area so here are all the details. As always, let us know if there are any mistakes or if we have missed and event. Cheers!

BFF Tour 2012
with Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (Burn For Burn)

Tuesday September 18th at 7PM
Mysterious Galaxy (San Diego)
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92111

Wednesday September 19th at 7PM
Barnes & Noble
189 The Grove Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90036

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It's time again for another event post. It's really amazing how quickly the year is going by. We're already in September which means back to school. Well none of us are in school anymore but it does mean great fall releases and fall weather. There are lots of great events this month including two Bridge To Books events. We'd love it if you could make it to these events. There is a lot of hard work that goes into B2B and the only way we can keep the great events coming is if people continue to come and support these awesome events. We have some great lineups and I don't think you'll be disappointed. Now, on to the events!

Melissa Marr

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Hello again! Wow, July really flew by. Last month was jam packed and this month looks like it's going to have some great events as well. I know Kimberly and I will be hitting the Kendare Blake & Co signing at Mrs. Nelson's on the 16th and Alethea will be at the Fat Kid screening the same day. Wish I could make Cassandra Clare but, alas, I am working. Hope to see some of you at these events. Let us know if you're going and we'll keep an eye out. If we've missed any events, just let us know in the comments and we'll add them in. Happy August!

Mysterious Galaxy
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd., Suite #302