After a long, busy week, I finally have a chance to post about last Saturday’s Shop Talk. We had another great turnout, though we missed our fellow writers who couldn’t make it. Again, there was a mix of longtime members and newer writers – I hope that everyone was able to take with them a piece of information or inspiration that can serve their writing in a positive way.
After everyone introduced themselves and told a bit about where they are with their writing, Shop Talk leader Kim Sabatini led a brief discussion of the prize-winning books that were picked to read in the past month – the Caldecott-winning wordless picture book, “A Ball For Daisy,” by Chris Raschka, and the Newbery Award-winning middle-grade novel, “Dead End in Norvelt,” by Jack Gantos.
“A Ball For Daisy” is the story of a little dog who becomes attached to her favorite toy – a red ball – only to sadly lose it when another dog tries to play with it and pops it. Many of us who “read” it (maybe “viewed” is a better term for a wordless book!) agreed that it was an interesting way to tell a story, with pictures that followed an emotional arc, up until the end when Daisy gets a new ball to replace her broken one. Some thought that there were many picture books published in the past year that were more artistic and worthy of winning the Caldecott Medal. And we were reminded of another wordless picture book that won the award 20 years ago – “Tuesday,” by David Wiesner, a surreal tale of a day when frogs rose up out of their pond to fly through the sky on lily pads. And Kim said that she thought that both books encouraged children to make up their own way of telling the stories that they see in the pictures.
“Dead End in Norvelt” is Jack Gantos’ humorous and semi-autobiographical story of his summer in his small hometown of Norvelt, Pennsylvania, when he was eleven years old in 1962. Though the characters were odd and quirky, and the events seemed larger than life, the historical details of the town that was founded by Eleanor Roosevelt and the relatable voice of young Jack made the story seem realistic and enjoyable to many of us. I said that it drew me to Wikipedia to look up the real-life history of Norvelt. And Kim said that it reminded her of the holiday movie “A Christmas Story.”
Kim spoke about conferences, the topic for March. She told the story of attending her first Mid-Hudson conference as a fledgling writer in 2007. She didn’t know anyone, and was glad that she ran into Chris Schave, a fellow teacher who she’d worked with, and got to hang out with him for the day. She also met Laurie Halse Anderson, that year’s keynote speaker and one of Kim’s favorite authors – when Laurie asked Kim what she was writing, it made Kim feel validated as a true writer.
We talked about the difference between the smaller regional conferences, like the Mid-Hudson conference that’s slated for next summer; and the large annual international conferences, like those in New York City and Los Angeles. The smaller conferences feel personal and intimate; and the excitement and huge turnout for the international events gives a sense of perspective of the scope of SCBWI and of children’s and young adults’ writing.
We mentioned some upcoming conferences that aren’t too far away – like the New England conference in Springfield, Massachusetts and the Pocono Mountains Retreat in Pennsylvania (both on the weekend of April 20 – 22) and the June 8 – 10 New Jersey conference in Princeton. More information on them can be found on the regional events section of the SCBWI website (www.scbwi.org).
Kim will be attending the Poconos retreat – she’s been to it several times and especially likes it because it’s three days long and small enough that the guest writers, agents and editors are accessible. She said they even have dinner with the attendees. She told the story of meeting one of her closest writing friends, Jodi Moore, who she’d known from the Verla Kay Blue Board, a great online resource and community for children’s and YA writers, named for its founder, an award-winning historical picture book author (http://www.verlakay.com/boards/index.php). Kim and Jodi weren’t able to sign up for critiques that year, so they just talked and critiqued each other’s writing. Since then, they’ve become critique partners and have seen each other reach their goals of publication – Jodi has published her picture book “When a Dragon Moves In” (Flashlight Press) and Kim’s young adult novel, “Touching the Surface” will be released in October by Simon Pulse. Kim said that the friendships that you can make are as important and meaningful as anything else at a writing conference.
She gave her tips for anyone interested in attending a conference for the first time:
Bring business cards (Vistaprint www.vistaprint.com is a good and affordable source) to pass out to new writing friends, and make sure to collect theirs – that way, you’ll be able to stay in touch with everyone you meet.
Dress in layers – business casual or dressy jeans is usually the dress code – because you never know what the temperature or atmosphere will be like in the building. And wear comfortable shoes – you’ll be on your feet a lot.
Plan to buy the guest authors’ books, or bring the titles that you already have so you can get them signed. And make sure to bring a sturdy tote bag for them.
Bring a notebook and a camera – especially if you have a blog. A good write-up with pictures is a great way to share the conference experience with your blog readers, and friends and family, too.
If you’re signed up for a critique, be open-minded and remember that critiques are subjective and just one person’s opinion. Don’t get hung up on a negative critique – it doesn’t mean your writing is bad, and you can even learn something good from it. Kim once pitched an early draft of “Touching the Surface” to an agent at a NYC conference – she described it as being about a girl who had died for the third time and is at a center where she can learn from her past life, but the agent said that “dead girls are out” and she should just put her story away for the next ten years. But instead of taking that advice, Kim thought that she should change her pitch, to better reflect the depth and heart of her story – “Life-altering mistakes are meant to alter lives.” That pitch helped her get her agent, and is now the tagline for her soon-to-be-published book.
Another published author, Julie Chibbaro, attended our meeting – her historical YA books are “Redemption,” (2004, Atheneum/Simon & Schuster) and “Deadly” (2011, Simon & Schuster). She’s a member of SCBWI and it was great to have her participation in our Shop Talk – she shared her experience of finding success through a writing conference.
Julie said that though she’d written for about ten years, she didn’t know about the YA genre – she had thought of herself as an adult novelist, and had sent many queries out and went to a lot of conferences. At a conference in Squaw Valley, CA, Julie had a critique with an editor who referred her to an agent that she knew, Jill Grinberg – the editor thought she would like Julie’s story. Jill Grinberg liked Julie’s manuscript right away, and within a few weeks Julie signed with her. But the agent thought the story could be a YA story. Julie said that she was resistant at first – she’d wanted her book to be for adults. So they agreed to send the manuscript to both YA and adult editors. There was no response from the adult editors, but two YA editors were interested, and Atheneum, the children’s and YA imprint of Simon & Schuster published “Redemption.” Julie said that she’s now come to terms with being a YA author!
I haven’t read Julie’s books yet, but I’ve added them to my to-read list, and I’m really looking forward to them. She’s got a great website – www.juliechibbaro.com – and she’s a contributor to the “YA Outside the Lines” blog (www.yaoutsidethelines.blogspot.com) that Kim has joined, too. Julie’s blog post for March, “Luck and Awards,” is amazing and inspiring. We hope to see more of her at upcoming meetings.
During the critique part of the meeting, we discussed Emily Feldman’s beginning of “In The Shadowlands,” a YA post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel, with a Waldenesque feeling of the characters rebuilding their world. Kim read for her – and several of us remembered hearing the first page of Emily’s story at the First Pages event earlier in March.
Referring back to my notes from the event, I think that the editorial panel gave a balanced critique that was mostly positive. Agent John Rudolph said it was intriguing – he was curious about the world and what was going on with it. He said that Emily’s main character seemed grouchy and full of angst, but that attitude could put off a reader, unless the circumstances of the setting required the character to feel that way. Editor Molly O’ Neill said that she’d been an angsty teen girl, so she wasn’t bothered by the main character’s attitude. She liked the beauty of the setting, and felt the tension between the outer world and the character’s inner world, but said it needed more action, and editor Lynne Polvino agreed with this.
I really liked hearing more of this story, and I could tell that Emily had worked on it since the First Pages event. Emily told us that the opening passage that she’d brought to Shop Talk was actually her eighth first chapter edit. She’s trying to find a balance between her character’s voice and the description of the setting.
Kim suggested that she add in some interaction between the main character with some family members, rather than just telling the backstory. Many of us agreed that the opening has a vivid setting, and that Emily has a great sense of world building – something that’s necessary in fantasy/sci-fi writing. And there’s a good feeling of intrigue, of what’s happened in the past and what’s about to happen. I hope that Emily will share more of this story with the group – it’s so interesting and I’m sure we all would love to hear more of it.
We talked about the First Pages event, and those of us who’d had our beginnings critiqued shared our thoughts about it. I reiterated what I’d already written about my critique in my First Pages blog post (from March 21st) and said that I look forward to rewriting my opening, because I’m a perfectionist who actually likes rewriting.
Lisa K. said that she’d been nervous about her critique, mostly because she’d used strong language (her main character says the “F” word) in her first page. She said that she’s had positive feedback on her story opening from several other readers, but that the editorial panel had been the only readers who expressed some caution about the language. I referred back to my notes – the panel all seemed to agree that such strong language isn’t needed unless there’s a good reason for it, and if it’s true to the character. Lisa said that she might move it back to later in the chapter, but she wants to keep the language in, because she feels that it really is true to her main character.
Michelle M. said that she was glad that John Rudolph seemed to understand her story’s main character, Damon – he was described in his bio as being a “boy book kind of guy,” so it was good that he understood that Michelle’s book is Damon’s story, rather than that of Pinky, the girl who’s Damon’s best friend and has a strong personality. The whole panel agreed that the last part of the opening sounded like it was from an adult’s point of view, and Michelle was glad about that, because it helped to confirm her realization that her story works best as an adult fictional memoir of Damon’s childhood.
We all agreed that the First Pages event was interesting, and that we learned from the critiques of everyone’s pages. I hope that there will be a chance for another First Pages event, in the future.
At the end, Kim and I gave a preview of next month’s Shop Talk – April is National Poetry Month, and we’d like to focus on the different forms of poetry that are prevalent in children’s and YA writing. We suggested several book titles for next month’s discussion. Many picture book writers like to tell their stories in rhyme, and the picture books “Scarecrow’s Dance,” by Jane Yolen, and “Show Way,” by Jacqueline Woodson are great examples of successful stories in rhyme. And the novel-in-verse is a burgeoning trend in YA writing, as exemplified by the book pick “Love and Leftovers” by Sarah Tregay. Other great examples of novels-in-verse are “Crank” by Ellen Hopkins, and “May B” by Caroline Starr Rose.
We’d also like to announce that Michelle Mead and Bill Joel will be our guest speakers next month – both have had success in publishing poetry for both the children’s and adult markets, and we’re looking forward to hearing them share their experiences with us.
Our next Shop Talk is Saturday, April 28th at 10:00 am – we hope to see everyone there!
