The Lost Notebook

I'd lost part of my conference notes. That's the only reasonable explanation I could come up with. Because I knew I'd written down the address for Beach Lane Books (the new S&S imprint being run by Allyn Johntson and Andrea Welch). In my mind's eye, I could see Allyn at the podium giving the address--see myself writing it down--checking with the person next to me to make sure I'd spelled the street correctly--AND YET, it was no where to be found in my legal notepad.

Granted, my notepad was falling apart.

Barely held together with two staples, and missing the cardboard backing, it was highly possible that I'd lost a few, if not several sheets of paper, during all of the moving and shuffling of August. As it was, some sheets were already not part of the whole.

But then, I took a day to clean my office. Go through the tote bags that were left on the floor, sort through the piles piling on my desk, and I found it. The OTHER CONFERENCE NOTEBOOK. The one I'd taken to other conferences earlier in the year and had taken to SCBWI-LA to completely fill up, lest I waste paper if I left the end papers empty. I'd forgotten about it.

Hallelujah!

There was the address for Beach Lane Books, along with notes from other speakers (some of which I posted about last time from memory).

So, here are a few more tidbits from the conference.

Diane Muldrow of Golden Books said she is actively looking for manuscripts that fit the Golden Book style (age 2-5, light on text, depicting lively stories that convey the wonder of everyday experiences that are new to a child.) Golden Books is now a part of Random House. She mentioned the Little Boy with a Big Horn, The Pokey Little Puppy, The Seven Sneezes, Cowlick, The Donut Chef, and Lucky New Year.

Two other books mentioned by Allyn Johnston were Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes. She mentioned writers Deb Fraiser and Cynthia Rylant. Andrea Welch mentioned Officer Buckle and Gloria, Black Beauty, and Because of Winn Dixie.

Regarding the sometimes tortuous path to publication, writer Paula Yoo said, "Do you want to be published or do you want to write? Do you want to get married, or do you want to be in love?" which I thought was really cool.

Abigail Samoun from Tricycle Press didn't really see her imprint as a small press. They are growing. She said her list of PB to YA titles has grown to 18 books/year, which has tripled since 2000. They are an editorial-driven house, and encourage 1st time authors. Books she mentioned are G is for Googal, Hey, Little Ant, Yesterday I Had the Blues, and Urban Babies Wear Black.

So there it is. If you saw the state of my conference notes, you'd understand why it's a good thing I'm not a secretary to the president.

Summer Conference Recap

Whew!

Well, I have finally made it back from my coast-to-coast tour, after starting in Los Angeles on July 31 and leaving New Hampshire on August 26. Actually, I didn't really travel through all the states in between -- I only hit two others and those were Pennsylvania and Delaware. Such is the power of air travel!

All in all, it was a fun month, with the SCBWI conference in LA kicking things off (more on that later). And I survived a speeding ticket I hardly deserved. (As far as I'm concerned, when you're driving downhill, the laws of gravity and inertia prevail--that's physics 101!! But apparently, this course was lost on the powers-that-be who set speeding limits.) But I digress. I also outsmarted ticks looking for a way out their briny coastal wetlands and thunderous waves that wanted to thrash me around in their undercurrent.

On the brighter side, I got to run along the shore every morning in Delaware with the riplets of waves splashing around me, while enjoying the company of dolphins, pelicans, and these cute little shoreline birds I must track down the name of.

In New Hampshire, Lake Winnipesaukee treated us right. The relentless summer rain gave way after we arrived and treated us to a week full of sunshine. We waterskiied, tubed, sailed, swam, shopped, canoed, fished, .... it was a blast. But now I'm home and facing a yard and garden in dire need of attention. It's so scary and overgrown, I'm afraid to go outside. Which is probably why I'm in here in my office catching up on my blog.

The only bad thing I seem to have brought back with me from vacation is a swollen ankle. Consultations with highly qualified people like my mother and a couple friends indicate I may have a stress fracture from all that running on the beach. I suppose I should have stopped running after it started hurting the first day around mile three. Wearing footwear might also have helped. But the coast was so beautiful and inspiring, I just couldn't think of doing anything but run every morning. (Plus, the au naturale pedicure (sand, salt, water) was a bonus for the whole deal. As far as I was concerned, each step forward was a step toward baby-buff skin.) And then, when I was in NH, I had to keep running with my daughter and her friend to help them stay in shape for soccer (coach's orders). But now, here I am, with my foot propped on my desk, wondering when I should call the doctor for an appointment. I'm thinking if I stay off it for a while, it might get better. Then again, I've been popping motrins like they're candy for the past two weeks. ..... Oh well, first things first. Blog. Lawn. Writing. Garden. Soccer games. More yard. Sleep. Repeat. Along with a list of a thousand other things that need to get done.

But anywhoooo, the conference in LA was fabulous! I made some great friends, and heard from lots and lots of talented writers and editors. Perhaps one of the more entertaining, enlightening, and table-turning (not quite a word, but I'm using it anyway) was from Arthur Levine, VP at Scholastic, Inc. and Editorial Director at Arthur A. Levine Books. According to his tallies, contrary to what the publishing industry has been saying for the past few years, the picture book is NOT falling.

In fact, the picture book has been doing quite well, at least, as well as it always has done in the past. The biggest challenge for sales of picture books, however, are the depressingly high number of independant book stores that have closed. 2,840 since 1996, to be exact. That's scary.

Lesson? Buy local. Support your indies!

Those independant booksellers play a big role in hand-selling titles, especially new picture books.

Throughout the conference, numerous editors highlighted favorite books or wish lists. Of course, some of those editors are only taking submissions from agents or conference attendees, but the information may be useful to those wondering what's new, hot or wanted in the market at large.

Dianne Hess with Blue Sky Press. Loved getting the mss for Henry's Freedom Box and Adios, Oscar.

Debra Dorfman with Scholastic. Likes funny, laugh-out-loud, high concept series, like Hank Zipper.

David Gale with Simon & Schuster. Greek mythology, SF, page turners, horror (or so it seemed).

Elizabeth Law with Egmont. Mentioned the Moffats. Cheaper by the Dozen. Penderwicks.

Brenda Bowen with Bowen Press. Herbert's Worm Hole. Fresh, unusual, emotional response.

Allyn Johnston with Beach Lane Books. Looking for mss for very young "readers." Mem Fox is a favorite author.

Nancy Conescu with Little, Brown is "always looking for character driven chapter book series. She mentioned a book, This is What I Did. She likes untraditional writing styles, edgier YA with strong voice, and steers clear of quiet literary reads. She also talked about Living Dead Girl, The Patron Saint of Butterflies, and Wave. She said she'd like a YA about living in a cult.

Gretchen Hirsch with HC likes smart, sexy chick-litty novels and offbeat, funny PBs.

Amalia Ellison with Abrams is new and still developing her editorial voice. She mentioned Holes by Louis Sachar, Twilight by Stephanie Meyer, and Goosegirl by Shannon Hale.

Namrata Tripathi with Hyperion looks for voice. She mentioned John Rocco's Moon Powder, Julian Hector's The Little Matador, and a nonfiction picture book, One Thousand Tracings.

We also heard from other authors, who were all entertaining and inspiring. Here are a few tidbits.

Leonard Marcus said that in stories, it is the emotion that is important. As he shared the letters written by Ursula Nordstron from his book, Dear Genius, he showed that everyone has had self doubt, even Maurice Sendak. His advice for finishing a novel was this (or maybe it was Ursula's): write a catalog copy. What does the book say or do when the reader is getting to the end?

Alan Katz, author of OOPS! and other books, advised writers to take poetic license and make up words to make rhymes work.

Bruce Coville, author of numerous books, including My Teacher is an Alien, said the best endings turn on a moral choice between two mutually exclusive goods--not between good and bad, or between 2 mutually exclusive bads. And the choice has to be difficult for the character to make. Also, write your story by asking questions and then inventing scenes that answer them.

Rachel Cohn, author of many YAs, including the soon to be released as a major motion picture, Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist, said she asks and answers three questions in her stories. What does the character want? What is in the way of them getting it? Do they still want it after they get it?

Margaret P Haddix, author of the Missing series, asks this important question in her critique group. Why? What is your character's motivation for doing that? (and her personal real-life-nightmare is a computer hooked up to a piano keyboard that could only use the letters A thru G.) funny!

Quotable quotes...............

"If you feel like you're taking a flying leap, I guarantee you that you are." Mark Teague

"To act from joy takes more courage than to act from fear." Bruce Coville

"The first audible sound we make is through tears. The first comprehensible sound we make is laughter." Bruce Coville

"Slow down, and be patient. Become an expert in your field." Steven Malk

Lastly, from Susan Patron, author of The Higher Power of Lucky: "We, our books, are doing good in the world, and that is a fine thing."

Cheers and Other Bits, like What Makes Your Character Special?

Summer has been on its crazy roll. I've been out and about with the family through three different states the past few weeks, so that explains why it's been a while since my last post. Our first stop was in Cedar City for the Utah Summer Games where my daughter competed in a soccer tournament. Her team did well with a win, a tie, and a close loss, but the highlight was seeing Jo on the front page of the Daily News on day 2 of our trip.




Here's the photo that was published with her (in orange) running down the ball (and winning it from the opposing team).




She plays sweeper and forward, and does a great job getting the plays done in both positions. (That's me -- the proud mom!)


While tracking down this photo for my post, I also found another shot of her on The Spectrum website, which was taken during the same game.
















After we returned from Cedar City, my husband announced we should plan a trip to Yellowstone. The fact that he wanted to take this trip the following week didn't seem like an insurmountable problem to him. Then again, he wasn't the one who would take the task of planning it. I was. So, I spent the next couple days figuring out the wheres, whats, and hows of making a few days with the whole family a reality.


As it turned out, planning a trip on short notice wasn't such a big deal, especially since we would be camping. We spent a couple days in Teton National Park, then a few days in Yellowstone, and had a blast horseback riding, hiking, boating, and yes, camping. The weather couldn't have been more perfect for mountain camping. The days were warm and the nights cool, but not unbearably cold.



Speaking of "unbearably" -- we did see a bear. Two, in fact. Little black bears, about 2 years old. One in the Tetons and one in Yellowstone. They looked so cute and cuddly, they seemed practically pettable, as in, "Wouldn't it be cool if we could pet them?" No. Not. I'm not that silly. We kept our distance for the most part, and kept our food properly stored at night, far away from our tents to keep wandering bears from getting any sort of ideas that our tents held a smorgasbord of flavorful offerings.


En route to our camping site, my ten year old tried to convince me that letting him "mark his territory" around the tent was a good idea. ...... Marking as in . . . ? Let's not go there. ..... Needless to say, I thought NOT, and nixed that idea in the bud, and told him that Wandering Bear might turn into Snarling, Growling Bear if he started sniffing around and found that there was a territory worth fighting for. Boys. They never cease to make me smile.



All in all, I'm happy to say we are pretty much home-bound for the next month, so I'll be able to work on my novel, and get a few other things done like, mowing the lawn and tending to the vegetable patch, which is looking a little worse for the wear in some parts. Usually I spend a Handful of Saturdays at the Cache Valley Gardeners Market selling my bounty of produce.


One customer from Arizona who spends his summer here actually called while I was driving from Cedar City and asked when I'd be back at the market with my gooseberries. Since I'm one of the few that grow and sell them here in the valley, and since they are worth their weight in gold as far as taste in Gooseberry Pie and jam goes (Snow White really did know what she was doing when she won over those dwarves), I assured him that from one gooseberry-lover to another that I'd be back in July. That's right around the corner!











Oh, and I wanted to share the good news! Have you heard about the book, Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys by Janet Kay Jensen? Janet was my co-author for The Book Lover's Cookbook, and her novel has been snagging all sorts of awards and recognition. The latest award was given at the Book Expo in LA for best new religious fiction. I couldn't be happier for her. Hooray! Check out more for yourself at her blog, where you'll find lots of good posts, and other news and tidbits, like her cool new book trailer.

As for the rest of what I've been meaning to post, I wanted to write about characters. All my driving/traveling of the weeks past gave me lots of time to think and mull, and basically I decided that when it comes to writing, one of the most important questions you need to ask and answer before you start writing is, "What makes your character special?"



While it's true that characters can be anyone or anything, the truly captivating ones are those that have something special about them. When we first meet Harry Potter we see that not only is he an orphan, but he's an orphan with a mysterious scar and strengths/powers yet to be discovered. Primrose Squarp from Polly Horvath's Everything on a Waffle is also an apparent orphan, who believes to her core that her parents are still alive--despite the fact that everyone else believes they are dead. She also has a penchant for interesting recipes. And Joey Pigza, a likeable boy with a sense of humor, in Jack Gantos's Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key, cannot, cannot sit still no matter how hard he tries. The list goes on and on, but I'll stop there. I mention it here because this was something I struggled with in beginning my latest novel--trying to figure out what was missing--and with my latest drive-time/down-time, I think I've worked it out.






Have a great day!