Write On, Dude, Write On

Write On Con, an online kidlit writer's conference, started today! Well, the forum got a head start, but the advice posts and live events are now going full swing! Here's what the organizers advertised, and boy does it live up to it:

"Attendees don’t need to take time off work, travel, or spend a truckload of money. They can enjoy the conference from the convenience of their own homes, for free—and the schedule is designed around working hours. (Transcripts are also available of the entire conference, should anyone have to miss part of it.) And everything for the conference takes place within this website, which means everyone with basic Internet access will be able to participate in all aspects of the conference—no additional software or technology required.

During the conference, keynote addresses, agent panels, and lectures are presented as blogs, vlogs, moderated chats, webinars, podcasts, and livestreaming. There is also a critique forum, where participants can post query letters and writing samples to receive helpful feedback and comments from their peers and industry professionals. And, as if that weren’t exciting enough, there are also daily contests, giving random winners everything from books to personalized critiques from agents."

See you around the forum and comments!

UPDATE: My query for Crow's Rest has so far not gotten any Agent Ninja love in the forums, but it did get a partial request from agent Peter Knapp in his MG/YA Pitch live critique!

LA '12 SCBWI Roundup

After the SCBWI International Conference, I was planning on doing a two-part post with highlights from all the workshops I attended, but I've grown up to be a truly horrible note-taker. In fact, my notes from all the keynote speeches consist of doodles: rabbits, horses, dogs, and even a stray unicorn. Plus one of Arthur A. Levine at the podium.

You'll note that I said "doodle" above, and not "frameable work of art." And let this doodle also serve as exhibit A for why I don't often draw people.

By the fact that I didn't take notes, you might think I didn't get anything out of the keynotes, but you'd be wrong. All the speakers were funny, insightful, and inspirational. And Ruta Sepetys was devastatingly honest. Above all, what came through was their unique voices, and how that unique outlook brought them both roadblocks and successes.

And there were so many good workshops that it was difficult to choose which ones to attend. Nancy Ashcraft Herman, Laurie Dennison, and I took a divide-and-conquer approach, and each went to different workshops, comparing notes later. Except for Jay Asher's "No Bookmarks Allowed: How to Inject Suspense into Your Novel" because all three of us wanted to go to that one! And we left with some great tips on building and maintaining tension.

Some of those tips are going to require more thought on how to subtly incorporate them, but he mentioned that chapter titles are an easy way to foreshadow or plant a red herring. Alternatively, pacing can be manipulated by using dialogue or shorter sentences and paragraphs.  Both of these techniques speed things up for the reader. And watch out for suspense killers like forced motivation!

The other workshop that really stood out for me was Sara Wilson Etienne's "Book Trailers: Storyboards, Scripts, Lookbooks, and Everything that Puts the Tease in Teaser". The room it was held in was a little difficult to find and I'm sure that had to do with the small audience. In fact, the group was so small that I wasn't able to yawn as stealthily as I like. If you read this, Sara, I was the one you caught yawning a few times--but it was no reflection on your talk! My medication just makes me sleepy in the afternoon.

But the small audience meant that we were treated to an intimate look into the creation of the fantastic trailer for her book, Harbinger:




Since I'm a photographer (and painted and sketched before I even picked up a still or video camera), I often visualize scenes of my story as if it was a film playing, as I'm drafting the book. So seeing parts of Harbinger come to life really got me excited about this other way to impact readers.

I was so inspired by her simple breakdown of what makes a memorable book trailer that I wrote the entire script for my own future book trailer. My WIP, Crow's Rest, is set in real-life Preston Castle, so I already have a wealth of photographs (and even some video) at my disposal for my trailer. And I have a song picked out, but will need to get permission from the songwriter to use it.

In some ways, it felt like getting way ahead of myself, considering the book isn't even finished. But it also helped cement all the parts of my story that make it unique and worth pursuing. I came away even more determined to finish this book within the next few months, so I can reward myself by getting to play with my book trailer!

If you'd like to see some of Sara's tips on making your own trailer, the good news is that her tips and links will soon be included in the SCBWI Publication Guide, so watch for it!

SCBWI LA Recovery Post

Hopefully by the time this post goes up, I will be back home (I say hopefully because flight delays are being announced as I type) from the SCBWI LA conference. I will do a more in-depth post for next Monday, but for now some pictures of me and writer friends:

First is me and blogger-friend Laurie Dennison from Florida:

This was Laurie's first big conference too, and we reached out to each other in the weeks leading up to it, sharing the things we were nervous about and the things we were excited about. She stayed for the intensive, so hopefully she got some great work done today!

And next up is my critique partner Nancy Ashcraft Herman and our picture with Jay Asher:

and last but not least is a crappy video of the excellent flashmob:


I can say it's crappy because I filmed and edited this version! And Laurie and I also had a picture of us taken in our Hippie Hop getups, but it will have to wait until I get a copy from her phone.
Update: yay, here it is! I painted my arms and everything. Thanks, Laurie, for sharing the photo!

So check back over the next few Mondays and I'll have some serious (well, as serious as it's possible for me to get) takes on the workshops and speakers. Yay, I don't have to think up blog posts for a while!

RTW: Best Book(s) of July 2012

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What was the best book you read in July?

I don't even fight the singular "book" any longer! I'm just going to post however many I want, since I don't do actual reviews and these posts serve as a way to rec (and find) new reads. Writing was a little lighter this month as I surged through my WIP. I've already mentioned one book, Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt, and that would otherwise top the list. So here are my other picks:

The Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson.
Did anyone else pick up a bunch of those $2.99 ebooks that Harper put on sale? I got about four, and this was one that sounded interesting but wasn't really on my radar. But I loved the worldbuilding, the theme of a girl finding her strengths, and the characters.

The next on is Hourglass by Myra McEntire

This one I knew about because the cover is so gorgeous, so I finally got around to reading it. Some sizzling romance, damaged characters, strange goings-on--what's not to love?

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!

Pirates Ho! On Book Pirating

That's rather too gleeful a pirate illustration for what I want to rant write about today--book pirating. Galley Cat had a thought-provoking recent roundup of Why Readers Pirate eBooks , plus I've had a few writer friends talking about book piracy on Twitter and Facebook (they're against it, for the record).

But what really disturbed me was talking to a family member last weekend and in discussing our Kindles, he said, "I have like a thousand books on mine. All pirated, of course."

My jaw dropped and I stared at him, speechless, before I got out, "That's not the kind of thing you tell an author."

To make up for it, he said, "When I buy your book, I'll buy it from you so I'm not giving money to those publishers." The last word said with deep loathing.

"Hey, I won't get free books, so they'll still be getting their share," I countered.

Then we dropped the subject, because I was upset but I also know he's a "stick it to The Man" kind of guy. And it's obvious that's how he sees this--a way to hit the publishers below the belt. With very little thought of where the author falls in that metaphor. (eww, that sounded more lewd than I meant--you get my mixed metaphor, right?)

Plus, he said it like the publishers are stealing from, or taking advantage of, authors. But guess what: those of us who choose to work with traditional publishers know how much we're going to get when we sign that contract. It's a tradeoff, a gamble that the power of the publisher's name will get our book in more places than if we self-published. We may not like it, but if we absolutely don't agree with those terms we have that option of self-publishing. Or getting an agent to negotiate better terms.

I am currently looking for an agent, so I'm obviously choosing the traditional publishing route. But, I spend a  lot of time writing each week, and when I do eventually get my books published, I expect to get paid.

This family member happens to be a gold miner/prospector on the weekends, and I imagine that he would be pretty angry if someone came across his sluice and cherry-picked all the nuggets he'd just spent hours separating from the rock and sand. I'm not sure he would see writing a book and gold mining as comparable, but it's the same in that someone else is benefiting from your labors. Labors that you expected would give you a monetary return at some point.

It seems pretty obvious to me, but I've also seen writers who freely share their work and/or maintain a dialogue with pirates. It's obvious there is more than one answer. So where do you stand on book piracy?

Image source

Can I Get Your Opinion?

So part of the LA SCBWI conference next weekend is the Hippie Hop, a dance and social. I have two possible outfits that I can't decide on. Will you help? And note that the flower and peace symbol were added in Photoshop, but I have face and body paints for the real thing the night of.

OR

I think one is more striking, but the other would be easier to dance in.

Power to the people, and please vote in the comments!

RTW: Noooo--Not The Special Hell!

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: This Week's Topic, to prepare for our Bookmobile chat about INCARNATE with author Jodi Meadows next Tuesday, July 31:

If you could be reincarnated as any fictional character, which would it be?

I almost didn't answer this one, because my first (and short) thought was, "All the books I like have Very Bad Things happen to the characters--why would I sign up for that!"

And I definitely wouldn't want to come back as one of the characters in my books--I love to torture them. Not necessarily physically, but with all kinds of embarrassing situations.

And that got me thinking: do you think that's what Hell is like for writers? We're forced to live through all those plot twists we thought were so very clever when we wrote them? I hope not, because I'm really in for it otherwise . . .

Feel free to put a link to your post in the comments if you played along with Road Trip Wednesday. Don't forget to go to the YA Highway post and read all the answers!