Current Scratch: Awards, YA, Smiles

Howdy, folks! I hope you are enjoying our way early spring weather. We meet on  Jan. 25,  2012 at the College Station Barnes and Noble at 9:30  for critique (bring copies) and 10 AM for the Schmooze.  Molly Blaisdell will be speaking: Do You Need an Agent? How Do You Snag One?

Also locally:

The Children's Literature Book Club meets on the last Thursday, January 26th, at 4:30 pm in the Arts Council board room. Our book to read this month is Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

 

Also note the upcoming Austin SCBWI Conference in February and the upcoming Houston SCBWI Conference  in March.

 

Awards

 

Here's the lists of this year's children's finalists for the Mystery Writer's of America's 2012 Edgar Awards:

 

Best Juvenile: Horton Halfpott by Tom Angleberger (Abrams/Amulet); It Happened on a Train by Mac Barnett (Simon & Schuster); Vanished by Sheela Chari (Disney-Hyperion); Icefall by Matthew J. Kirby (Scholastic Press); The Wizard of Dark Street by Shawn Thomas Odyssey (Egmont USA).

 

Best Young Adult: Shelter by Harlan Coben (Putnam); The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson (Putnam); The Silence of Murder by Dandi Daley Mackall (Knopf); The Girl Is Murder by Kathryn Miller Haines (Roaring Brook); Kill You Last by Todd Strasser (Egmont USA).

 

YA

 

Here's an interesting article in PW called "YA Comes of Age," discussing the juggernaut status YA has in today's publishing climate.

 

Are you a writer of young adult novels?  You might enjoy checking out this blog: YA Highway -- a road worth traveling if you are interested in writing for young adults.  This blog is an immense resource for every aspect of YA fiction.

Smiles

Here is the real scoop on how books are created from Annie Burrows author of the Ivy and Bean series. 

Here is a blog post: "Eat the Butt Lies That Can Posion our Writing Career." This one might make you smile and think. 

The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of the SCBWI.

Current Scratch: Awards, Revolution, Craft

Howdy, folks! I hope you have made your new year's resolutions!  Maybe working on marketing was one of them.  We meet on  Jan. 25,  2012 at the College Station Barnes and Noble at 9:30  for critique (bring copies) and 10 AM for the Schmooze.  Molly Blaisdell will be speaking: Do You Need an Agent? How Do You Snag One?

Also locally:

The Children's Literature Book Club meets on the last Thursday, January 26th, at 4:30 pm in the Arts Council board room. Our book to read this month is Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

Awards:

Bank Street

The Bankstreet College of Education 2012 Irma Black Award semifinalists have been announced. This award is given by children for the best picture book of the year. 
http://www.bnkst.edu/irmablack/semifinalists-2012/

Mark you calendars for this one: The American Library Association's Youth Media Awards, including ALSC's Newbery and Caldecott awards, will be announced at a press conference on Monday, January 23, 2012, beginning at 7:45 a.m. Central time, in Dallas.

The Revolution

An interesting article from Kathleen Duey on her blog writerwriterwriter about the revolution in publishing.

Here is an article about e-publishing about the new self-publishing platform for the iBook.   

Here is an article leaked from the Hachette Book Group that explains the relevancy of publishers.This is found in Digital Book World.

Traditional publishers are diving into self-publishing in various ways. Self-publishing fee-based services are popping up all over. Here are two:  The first is  Book Country. Here is the scoop from Agent Savant's blog: "Book Country, the free online writing community launched by Penguin last Spring, is now offering a Kindle-like self-pub option for DIY authors." Another version of traditional publishing partnering with self-publishing is WestBow Press, a self-publishing division of Thomas Nelson. 

Wondering about eBook readers? Here is an article in PW of the Nook tablet vs the Kindle Fire. 

Craft

A great article from Darcy Pattison about 12 ways to start your novel by categorizing famous first lines. Good stuff.

Twenty-five things you should really know about voice. Check out this blog post on TerribleMinds.

A list to help you on your revision journey.  Add what your story lacks.  Check out this blog post at The Editor's Blog.

The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of the SCBWI.

Current Scratch: 2011 News, KathiVision, Encouragement, Hero's Journey, Accolades, Sales

Howdy folks, I hope you have made your new year's resolutions!  Maybe working on marketing was on of them.  We meet on  Jan. 25  2012 at the College Station Barnes and Noble at 9:30  for critique (bring copies) and 10 AM for the Schmooze.  Molly Blaisdell will be speaking: Do You Need an Agent? How Do You Snag One?

Also locally:

The Children's Literature Book Club meets on the last Thursday, January 26th, at 4:30 pm in the Arts Council board room. Our book to read this month is Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson.

2011 News

Check out Sherry Garland's new blog post on Into the Woods We Go:  Where Do Ideas Come From? , December 31, 2011. 

Molly Blaisdell's book REMBRANDT AND THE BOY WHO DREW DOGS was featured back in the summer in the NGAKids 2011 Summer Scoop.

KathiVision (I so dub it!)

Check out Kathi Appelt's Youtube Channel for some fun video clips. Love Eric Rohmann and BONE DOG.

Encouragement

From Hilary Wagner, an encouraging blog post to keep you going in the face of rejections.   

Hero's Journey

Here, from The Writer's Journey,  the Hero's Journey with charts.

Accolades

A new national ambassador of Children's Literature is named: Walter Dean Myers. Read about in the NY Times.

NSK Neustadt Prize for Children's Literature....Do you know what this is?  This award is intended to enhance the quality of children's literature by promoting writing that contributes to the quality of their lives. 

Each NSK Neustadt jury narrows to areas of children's and young-adult literature principally through the author nominations it brings forward. All nominations  come from the jury members. What do you win?  A check for $25,000, a silver medallion, and a certificate is presented to the laureate at a public ceremony at The University of Oklahoma every other year in odd-numbered years. The 2011 winner is Virginia  Euwer Wolff. Read about it here.

Sales

A blog post on the importance of pre-sales. Something to know.

The views expressed here are my own, and not necessarily those of the SCBWI.