Weekly Scratch: Read a book, Famous, Opportunity, For Fun

Hi folks, SCBWI Brazos Valley’s Young Poets on the Brazos annual reading is TONIGHT. On April 26, 2011 the SCBWI Brazos Valley will have their annual Young Poets on the Brazos reading of winning poems from 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in local schools. The event will start at 7 p. m. at the College Station Community Center on George Bush Drive. Extra copies of the yearly anthology will be on sale at the Arts Council after the event. Please join at our only community outreach program and help welcome the young writers and their families! Enjoy refreshments!

TOMORROW is our monthly Schmooze. Locally, the SCBWI Brazos Valley Schmooze is  at 10 a.m.  in the "Science" corner at the Barnes & Noble in College Station on April 27, 2011, “Do I Have A Plot?” with Debra Booth. 

Save the Date. Our Fall SCBWI Saturday will be on August 27, 2011 at the same location, the Arts Council building at 2275 Dartmouth in College Station. Details will be coming soon.

Save our conference date: November 12, 2011.

READ A BOOK

  

SCBWI Brazos Valley’s Children's Literature Book Club selected the reading list for the remaining meetings in 2011. All of the meetings are scheduled to be at the Arts Council (SCBWI BV is an affiliate member) building. Join in the discussion on the last Thursdays at 4:30-6 p.m. in the Arts Council, 2275 Dartmouth in College Station. The September book includes the next book in the series and, if you have time, the last book. The CLBC list of books read is in the Yahoo database. Upcoming meetings and books are listed in the Yahoo calendar. To get to the archives and current news with reading updates join the Yahoo group. Subscribe here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ChildLitbookclub/

CLBC Reading List:

April 28: A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET by Madeleine L'Engle

May 26: EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS by Deborah Wiles

September 29: A LONG WAY FROM CHICAGO series (including A YEAR DOWN YONDER; A SEASON OF GIFTS) by Richard Peck

October 27: THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND by Elizabeth George Speare

Also consider checking out some of  BOOKS at BEA (Bookexpo America) this year, PW reports.

FAMOUS  (or soon to be)

Local author, Linnea Heaney, has her first publication in children’s writing at Hunger Mountain, the VCFA journal of the arts. This is a high literary online journal with one print issue compiled each year. Link to the publication and her blog here: http://www.hungermtn.org/a-real-best-friend/

Check out this. Kathi Appelt and other interviews are at this link: http://www.ourvoicesourselves.com/

Our speaker, Bethany Hegedus, author of Truth With a Capital T and Hunger Mountain editor, blogged about our Spring SCBWI Saturday and included photos of us at http://bethanyhegedus.blogspot.com/2011/04/april-foolss-friday-week-in-review.html?spref=fb

OPPORTUNITY!

More about Hunger Mountain: Hunger Mountain’s Katherine Paterson Prize for YA and Children’s Writing is coming up soon with the deadline of June 30, 2011. It has an annual prize in writing for children of $1,000 for the first place winner and publication. Three runners-up receive $100 each.  Winners are chosen with one runner-up from the YA (young adult) entries, one from the Middle Grade entries, and one from the Picture Book or Writing for Young Children entries.

All entries are read by editors at Hunger Mountain. The judge this year for the Katherine Paterson Prize is Kimberly Willis Holt, author of the Piper Reed series, My Louisiana Sky, Mister and Me, Dancing in Cadillac Light, Keeper of the Night, Waiting for Gregory, Part of Me, and Skinny Brown Dog; winner of the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature for When Zachary Beaver Came to Town; and winner of the 2011 YALSA BEST FICTION for Young Adults for The Water Seeker.

Local connection: Kimberly skyped-in for our CLBC February meeting about her award-winning book, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town! Link: http://www.hungermtn.org/katherine-paterson-prize-for-young-adult-and-childrens-writing/

FOR FUN!

So, I like a good laugh. If you have not seen this video: So you want to write a novel! Awesome, so awesome. I think my heart just stopped.

Weekly Scratch: Improve Your Writng, Fat Pig, Late Bloomers.

Howdy!  I hope you have worked on projects this week and have made good progress. Are you going to LA for the 40 Annual SCBWI Conference? Registration is open. Details! 40th Anniversary SCBWI Summer Conference Registration.  Locally, the SCBWI Brazos Valley Schmooze is  at 10 a.m.  in the "Science" corner at the Barnes & Noble in College Station on April 27, 2011, “Do I Have A Plot?” with Debra Booth. 

IMPROVE YOUR WRITING

This book was mentioned at the Houston SCBWI conference. Late screenwriter Blake Snyder wrote SAVE THE CAT, a powerful book about screenwriting. You may want to check out the website and perhaps read the book.

Ways to get some writing education with out emptying out the piggy bank.

(to market, to market to sell a) FAT PIG


Chuck Sambuchino's blog A GUIDE TO LITERARY AGENTS is an important on with tons of info about agents and pitching and such. Check it out! 



Hey, author Kate Hart crunches the numbers about what's selling  in the YA market. You might want to check it out, too,


New to publishing? Check out Joe Konrath's THE NEWBIE'S GUIDE TO PUBLISHING blog.

LATE BLOOMERS

Here is a list of 40 writers that were first published over the age of 40. Hopefully this will cheer you up if you are feeling time keeps on slipping into the future.


Here is a blog post about three late bloomers who found there way. Maybe what you read here will help you keep moving forward.

Another up article for the late bloomers. :)

Late bloomers abound. Skip to the end of this blog post at JANE WRITES so you can read about the awesome children's authors. 

I'll be back next week with more scratch!

Weekly Scratch: Musical Chairs, Agents, Revolution, Awards

  Sorry, I'm a day late, folks!  I've had tons to do this week.  I hope everyone is having fun at TLA.  We have an upcoming schmooze at the College Station Barnes and Noble. Be sure to make your calendars. I hope all your projects are humming and that something here helps you on your journey. 

AWARDS

Check out the American Bookseller's Association's 2011 Indies' Choice Awards.  Check out the children's book winners.  Check out their national best sellers list HERE.

REVOLUTION

Here are a number of APPS that have tie-ins to books that you might want to look at.

eBooks are selling but it's not enough to make up for losses. From 4/14/2011 Publisher's Lunch and the got it from AAP Consumer Data Presentation: In January, the increase in ebook sales of $37.5 million did not make up for the decline in trade print sales of $50.4 million. It was the same in February, with ebooks' gain of $60.4 million lagging print's decline of $93.5 million. If you want to read a fat article on the revolution in bookselling go HERE to NEW WAYS TO UNDERSTAND SHIFTING BOOK SALE CHANNELS.

AGENTS

Casey McCormick's blog is a weath of infomation on agents. Check out this: Agent Spotlight: Andrea Cascardi.

Nelson Literary Agency agent Sara Megibow was at the SCBWI Houston Conference.  Here is a link to the Sara Megibow interview from Casey. And here is the link to Nelson Literary Agency. 

Anna Webman was another agent at this conference. She is a Curtis Brown agent. She cautioned at the conference, "Don't believe everything you read on the Internet."   Here is a link to the Anna Webman interview from Casey.  

MUSICAL CHAIRS

The publishing industry reminds me of a game of musical chairs. Every one has a chair, the music plays, and then it stops, and every scrambles for a new chair!

News at Capstone Press: Ashley Andersen Zantop will serve as group publisher and general manager at Capstone.

Over at the PURPLE CRAYON, editor Harold Underdown is always keeping tabs on Editorial Staff Changes. You might want to check it out.

I hope you are working hard.  Keep at it. The only sure way to fail is to not try.

Weekly Scratch: Horizons, Revolution, TUBWCI

Hi, y'all. I'm going to the Houston SCBWI Conference this next weekend and am excited! The TLA's Annual Confernece is coming up on April 12-15.. Local Texas stars, Kathi Appelt and Janet Fox will be signing. Little birdies tell me that more of our Texas stars will be around. Kathy Whitehead and Sherri Garland will be signing at booths also. SCBWI has booth too (that's a whole galaxy of stars), so drop by and say hi if you manage to hop over to Austin.

HORIZONS

Agent Mary Kole from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency is chatting on the AgentQuery Connect forum until April 12. You might want to check that out.

AgentQuery also has a nifty agent cheat sheet to check out.  Scroll down the page where there is a special link to a post with hungry YA agents if that is something you are looking for.

Check out WattPad, an e-book community that has contests for YA writers with some really decent judges.

REVOLUTION

Here's an  article from NPR about children's book apps that Ann Perry shared with me. Interesting stuff.

TOTALLY USELESS (but wholly cool) INFORMATION

Casting for Suzanne Collins' HUNGER GAMES has begun.

Some new Dr. Seuss books are coming out.

If you are heading to New York, you might want to check out this Harry Potter exhibition.

Hey, I'm sorry that the Scratch is a little late and thin this week. My computer died this past weekend and I've been scrambling since. I'll be be back next week with some excellent scratch.