Whoa May, Slow Down

Ok, May starts tomorrow so I was taking a good look at my calendar. IT IS SO FULL! Whoa. 

Now that it is getting nice weekends are bound to disappear before we even get to them (full of fun things of course.) But, it seems as my weeks are terribly busy too. More so then usual. 

Here's what's coming up this month:

This is the extent of my doodling.
I should write a story about a snail...

May 1st-May 31st is Doodle Day May. I am not an artist, nor do I claim to be, but this has the potential to get some more creative juices moving and I can involve the kiddos! Can't get much better then that right?

May 1st-May 7th is NaPiBoWriWeek or National Picture Book Writing Week. The challenge here is to attempt to write 7 picture book drafts in 7 days. I have my list of ideas ready and I'm hoping they are ready to be written. Sometimes those ideas can be quite stubborn and the first drafts are SUPER bad, but a draft is a draft and the habit or writing a bit every day would be a great one to develop.

May 1st - July 31st Cheerios Spoonfuls of Stories Contest is open to New Authors. They pick 3 finalists and then in early November he public votes for their favorite. The winner gets their story in a whole bunch of cereal boxes and in the hands of millions of little readers. Not to shabby!

May 13th -May 19th is National Children's Book Week. Their about the week page says "Established in 1919, Children's Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country." How awesome is that?!? Go kid lit!

May 18th is the Gaithersburg Book Festival where they are going to have an awesome amount of stuff going on. Jon Scieszka, Mac Barnett, and Christopher Myers caught my eye quickly! I'm volunteering for the morning of the festival and hoping to be in the children's area to rub a few elbows!

May 19th is a Picture Book Panel at Politics and Prose in Washington DC. Part of the panel are Neal Porter (editorial director of Neal Porter Books) and authors Mac Barnett, Meg Medina and Jon Scieszka and author/illustrators Christopher Myers and Laura Vaccaro Seeger. I'm hoping to meet up with a few other SCBWI members before hand too! 

SO! That's just the picture book/writing/creative bits on my calendar this month. I hope baby #4 likes to go because we are going to be doing quite a bit of it this month. With tee ball, swim lessons and (what we like to call) "Mom's Stroller Workout" during the week and the end of trimester two coming up fast, I'm hoping I have time to sleep!

I'll apologize for the state of my house now, I won't be bored enough to clean it. :)

The Helpful Speed Bump ( aka Finding my Path)

There are two things I wanted to be when I grew up: a mom and a writer.

As other SAHMs (that would be: stay-at-home-moms) will tell you, it is the greatest and hardest job staying home with your kids. Some days are full of fun, laughter, and seemingly unending joy. But other days it can be hard to make it to bedtime. It can be terribly lonely if you don't seek out other adults, but these kiddos are endless sources of energy and boring is NEVER how I would describe my job.

Thank goodness for Spring!

It has taken me a bit longer to realize that being a writer was at the core of everything else I thought I wanted to do professionally. Before working at a television station in college, I was sure that's what I wanted to do. I was going be the next Katie Couric. But, that career ended before it began. The three years I did television in college were the only three years I had anything to do with television production.

From college, I volunteered for six months with Boys Hope Girls Hope in Detroit as a house parent for five teenage girls. This volunteer opportunity opened my mind to a career in non-profit and after a few months as a substitute teacher, I joined Talbot Mentors as the Program Coordinator. I loved the freedom to create new programs and monthly newsletters. I loved working with the elementary and middle school students after-school with homework, projects and other educational enrichment. After the Politician was born, no longer wanting to work full time, I signed on with Caroline County Recreation and Parks as a middle school After-School Coordinator.

Then came PT and with two little ones at home, I took on full time, stay at home mom status. Lots of play groups and story times. And along came the Enforcer in 2011. By then I was really looking for something to call mine, again. Ok, and a way to get rid of some baby weight. :)

So, 2012 was my year of running. With the three little ones at home, I relished the short time away to have something I needed to do alone. Each month I conquered another race. One was a half marathon! I loved the community, the commitment, the determination, and the persistence that running asked of and provided to me. As 2012 came to a close, I was already planning my racing calendar for 2013.

Enter baby number four and my running came to a screeching, stalled out, halt. Our new addition will be arriving late into the summer and has changed all those plans I had for 2013.

I wanted something like running. Something that required so much of me, but brought me so much in return. Something that got me out of my house and even though I could share it with my kids there was much I would need to do on my own. Something with a wonderful community and a way to grow and evolve in many different ways. I found just what I was looking for in writing.

I've always had journals and stories floating in my head, but I finally feel like I have taken the path I was supposed to take. Just like any crossroads in life, without a speed bump (mine is growing daily :) ) I probably would have missed the exit and passed right on by. For so many reasons, I am thankful for my children, but number four will always have a special place as the one who helped me realize a dream I had forgotten.

Many thanks to everyone in the Picture Book Community. Through 12X12 and the PBA (Picture Book Academy,) I have felt right at home and surrounded by amazing, intelligent and like minded people. I look forward to what is in store for 2013 and beyond!

I would love to hear your journey! Have you had a helpful speed bump?

Newbie Writer Goes to a Conference

First, so sorry I'm a bit behind. I had every intention of writing this post a week ago, but ah well. My darling helpers kept me quite busy all week! But, here we are my first writing conference overview and synopsis! (It's a long one, so go grab that drink and relax!)

To start, I want to second what I read on a new writing friend's blog last week: if you can go to a conference, go. If people ask what you want for your birthday, tell them you want to go to a conference. BEST GIFT! Not only do you get all the amazing information from the speakers, have the opportunity to meet with other wonderful people who share a love that you have, but you can have a day or two that your only responsibility is what you want to be doing. I had so much time in the morning since the only one I needed to get ready was me. Such a difference I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself!

Beautiful view from the Conference Center!
When there was no wind it was comfy too!

On to the conference! The MD/DE/WV SCBWI Conference was held just outside of Fredrick, MD on March 23, 2013. After the light breakfast and a bit of mingling, we hopped right into the day which was jammed with great speakers. Writers and illustrators from nine states plus DC were in attendance for the day: MD, WV, DE, PA, VA, NY, NY and NM. Quite a list!

Starting the day off in a great way was T.A. Barron. His talk was inspirational to many as evidence by the fact that all of his books sold out of the book sale area!
A few tidbits that stuck with me:

• There is always more to learn, more to explore and more to create.
• "Just the right word" is what we all strive for
• Place must rise to the height of character.
• It is just as important and should be treated as such. 
• Not consumers, be creators.

Up next was Jill Santopolo, an Executive Editor at Philomel Books, who focused on the importance of a great main character. She suggested we ask ourselves these four questions about our main character:

1. How are they interesting?
2. How are they imperfect?
3. How are they vulnerable?
4. How are they kind?

Oh and all of these should be answered by the end of your first chapter! She also talked about "What does this character want?" and can it be achieved through the plot. Action plot and heart line (or emotional) plot are both important to the character's journey and tie into each other, she said. There is a character's controlling belief that connects these two plots and it is this belief that moves the story. One of her suggestions was to get to know your character outside of the story and she offered a handout with some great questions to answer as your character. Such a great resource!

Ammi-Joan Paquette, an agent with Erin Murphy Literary Agency, talked about beginnings, how they are read and the expectations of the readers. She started right at the top with the title that must entice you and hook you into opening that cover. Then the first sentence which must pull you in and get a sense of what your are getting into! And it continues on up: first sentence gets you to read the first page which gets you to read the first chapter. Hopefully, by then the reader is hooked in and asking for more. Since the first chapter is likely to be what will be seen in submission, a writer needs to make them ask for more!

One of the co-founders of SCBWI and current society President, Steve Mooser, was our next speaker and he was a treat! I admit I didn't write many notes during his talk because I was so interested in what he was talking about.  His talk focused on the changes to children's book in the upcoming years due to digital technology. He shared a number of statistics that made us all cringe, like there are over 4300 new ISBNs created everyday and the average American reader only reads 17 books a year. So how, in this new digital world do we get someone to read our books? Chance plays a gigantic role in which course to take, he said. While explaining his website based on his book Class Clown Academy, he offered a few suggestions on how to bring our stories into the digital age and perhaps push some traffic to our books:

• Turn your story into a mini-movie via You Tube
• Website about book character or world
• can it attract advertisers?
• store with books and merchandise links

Paul O Zelinsky was up and he shared some insight into the illustrators world. And it is fascinating. He commented on how technology has changed how books can be illustrated and he even used a handy tablet during his presentation and created some simple pictures I wouldn't be able to do if I tried. It was fascinating to learn his process on illustrating the book "Z is for Moose" (which I was lucky enough to get signed by him for our three!) "Nonsense has to be logical," he said. This makes so much sense when you think about it. If it was just nonsense with no sense it wouldn't be very interesting. 

Sylvie Frank, an associate editor at Paula Wiseman Books,  spoke about ways to write a picture book that is "not quiet." One that would not get lost in the pile. She explained the importance of plot in picture books. If your story has a plot, you will always have the answer to "What is your story about?" She cautioned everyone to remember the audience and when possible use real kids as test subject for our stories. Format of picture books is also very important. "Something new must happen on every spread" with new action on each page. "Has this been done?" is what she told us to ask ourselves. And if the answer is "no," why hasn't anyone? 

A little aside: "Picture books are a form not a genre,"was another tidbit Sylvie Frank shared that has stuck with me.  It definitely got me thinking. Within the form of picture books, there are fiction, nonfiction, humor, educational, the list goes on and on. They are our children's first interaction with books and they reflect so many of the interests we have as adults. 

Evelyn M. Fazio, an award-winning publisher and literary agent, spoke about writing believable dialog within a middle grade and young adult novels. She cautioned us all to make it believable and authentic, but to many monosyllablic words in a row becomes hard (and boring) to read. "Show, don't tell," she said. It's not a big difference, but it makes a difference. 

More tidbits on dialog:

• Use contractions
• Be realistic about profanity
• Use a thesaurus
• Read it aloud and record it to play it back to yourself
• Don't interupt dialog to explain something
• get all of the explaining out of the way before(or after) the dialog.
• Follow patterns of award winners. 

This was a theme through out the day: look at those who have done it well and follow their path and patterns. 

I have to say it was a great day. Made me want to come back for another! Meeting wonderful people and having someone else make lunch is good by me anytime! haha.  Sadly, this maybe my one and only this year, with a young one on the way at the end of August fall conferences are a bit out of reach I think. Maybe I'll make it to the one in Northern VA in October, we'll see as we get closer to that though!

Happy writings!