Picture Book Workshop Right Around the Corner!

The picture book market is highly competitive, with thousands of writers attempting these deceptively difficult works of art. Southern Breeze PAL members Randi Sonenshine and Dori Kleber will teach you two ways to make your picture book one that editors and publishers will want.

First, Randi will present strategies to ramp up the value of your picture book for today’s busy teachers. She’ll share insights into how and why teachers use picture books, as well as which content, structures, and features matter most in today’s classrooms. You’ll also learn which literacy skills and standards span multiple content areas and grade levels and how to seamlessly incorporate these into your picture books, giving them a life far beyond Circle Time.

Then, Dori will show you how to craft a satisfying narrative picture book using the classic “Hero’s Journey” story arc, first imagined by Joseph Campbell. Although many associate the Hero’s Journey with epic stories like “Star Wars,” you’ll see that its framework is equally useful for taking a character through a story that’s only 32 pages long. You’ll learn to recognize the Hero’s Journey in mentor picture book texts and apply it to your own manuscript to strengthen your story arc.

Dori and Randi will devote the final part of the workshop to providing feedback on the opening pages of picture book manuscripts submitted by attendees. Please bring a manuscript in progress if you want to participate in this “First Pages Critique.”

Picture Book Workshop
Saturday, Sept. 16, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Marietta, Ga.

 Registration: SCBWI Southern Breeze

Breezers In Your Neighborhood - MAY EVENTS

Breezers In Your Neighborhood
May Events

Southern Breeze is kicking up some dust! 

Breezers In Your Neighborhood is a monthly post to list where you can find our authors & illustrators as they are out in the community. Come out and support your local members and invite others to do also!

Alabama:

• SCBWI Tuscaloosa members May meeting.  We would love for anyone to come from Birmingham and surrounding areas.
  We will host Kevin Waltman, author of Quicks, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 16 at my home in Tuscaloosa. Kevin teaches writing and literature in the English department at the University of Alabama. He will speak for 15 minutes about his publishing experience, provide any advice he would like, take a few questions and then sell his books as others mingle. http://kevinwaltman.com/
  Anyone who needs additional information, including an address and directions, can email moniquefields@mac.com or call 205-447-3254. 
  Please let me know if I need to send this announcement to other writers and illustrators.
  
  
  Monique Fields

Florida Panhandle:

• 
  

Georgia

• May 6 Southern Breeze Workshop: So You Want to Write a Book, Gainesville, GA

• May 21 Southern Breeze Illustrators Workshop: Digital Artist Toolkit, Atlanta, GA

• May 26-27 Decatur Art Walk Illustrator Gallery Show, Public Library, Decatur, GA

Mississippi

• Vanessa Fortenberry...   Saturday, May 20, 2017; 10:00 A.M. - 4:00 P.M.
  
  Christian Authors on Tour (CAOT)
  Book Signing, Story Time, and Writers Forum
  Tougaloo College, Tougaloo, MS
  Holmes Hall Auditorium

Region-Wide

• Sho-Mo... Show Us Your Manuscript!

Upcoming JUNE Events...

Alabama:

• 
  

Florida Panhandle:

• 
  

Georgia

• 
  

~DEADLINE FOR JUNE EVENTS IS MAY 26TH~

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Southern Breeze Illustrators!

Southern Breeze Illustrators!

As mentioned during this years Illustrator's Day, we will be hosting year-long opportunities to connect with your tribe and get involved with the regional activities.  The Southern Breeze webpage includes all of the regional events:  https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/events/.  Check out some of the events we have coming up below:

​

ARTIST SKETCH CRAWL @ Decatur Square

Please RSVP

We will meet in the Decatur Square for some leisure time to sketch some of the great features and people in the area.  Open to all illustrators and writers - All levels are welcome!

JOIN US! Sunday, April 23, 2017  1pm - 3pm  

Please contact TeMika at southern-breeze-ic.org for interest

DIGITAL ARTIST TOOLKIT  @ Lenox Mall Microsoft Office Store

https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/events/digital-artist-toolkit/

Sunday, May 21, 1pm - 4pm

Join Microsoft Surface and SCBWI for a hands-on demonstration of digital artist tools using Microsoft’s own Surface Pro 4! Artists of all levels will be introduced to hardware, applications, and work processes to advance their work to new levels,  learning how to integrate digital tools into the traditional illustration process.All necessary hardware and software provided by the facility.
Space is limited so registration is required.

 
​

ANNUAL GALLERY SHOW @ Decatur Arts Festival​

http://decaturartsfestival.com/ 

JOIN US at the Decatur Library on Friday May 26th from 7pm - 9pm

for the opening of the Southern Breeze Annual Gallery Show featuring our PAL Illustrators!  Show is open to the public during the Decatur Arts Festival and runs through June.

This event made possible in conjunction with the Georgia Center for the Book.

Please contact TeMika at southern-breeze-ic@scbwi.org for interest

WORKSHOP: So You Want to Write a Book? w/ Connie Fleming & Nancy Craddock

So You Want to Write a Book?

Northeast Georgia History Center

322 Academy St. NE

Gainesville, GA 30501

Saturday, May 6th

9:00 AM – Noon                                      Where Do You Start?                                    Connie Fleming

Explore where successful stories begin. Hint: you don’t have to start at the beginning.

We will look at examples of different beginnings, and discuss the importance of first pages, and titles. There will be hands-on exercises to get the creative juices flowing, and sharing with the group. Handouts will be provided.

1:00 PM – 4:00 PM                               Self-Publishing Secrets                                    Nancy Craddock

• Which colors on a book’s cover sell the most books.
• Fonts that kill the deal..
• How to price a self-published book.
• How many pages in a self-published book make the most profit.
• What should every self-published book have on the last page.
• The “one word” secret for an award-winning story.

There will be “Question & Answer” time with both speakers during the last thirty minutes.

Numerous Door Prizes

(including a full manuscript critique)

Connie Fleming, SCBWI PAL Member                                             Nancy Craddock, SCBWI PAL Member
2016 GA Author of the Year Finalist for “Halley’s Hope.”                          2016 Moonbeam Medal Winner
2nd Place in WIK Novel Contest 2016 for “Desert Secrets.”                     Author of Five Self- Published Books
Winner of 2014 WIK Novel Contest for “Over a Barrel”                            Author of Numerous Magazine Articles
2008 Nominee GA Author of the Year for “Finder’s Magic”                            Winner of Numerous Writing Contests

Sponsored by SCBWI (Society of Children Book Writers & Illustrators)

SCBWI Members – 55.00                     Non SCBWI Members – 65.00

Due to limited seating, reserve your spot today at

https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org/events/so-you-want-to-write-a-book/

Questions: “Contact Me” page at www.nancycadlecraddock.com

Or

conniefleming@comcast.nwt

Why Picture Books Writers Should go to Illustrator Workshops

Why Picture Book Writers Should go to Illustrator Workshops 

Springmingle is almost sold out this year, only one spot left, but we want picture book writers to know all about the opportunity they still have to attend Illustrators Day on March 10 at the Decatur Library.

You may ask, "Why would a picture book writer want to go to an illustrators' workshop?"

I'll start with personal experience.  When I registered for my first SCBWI conference in New York all of the writers' intensives were full, but I was studying the way text and image work together in picture books at Hollins University (for my Masters in Children's literature), and decided to see if Lin Oliver would let a non-illustrator attend the illustrators' intensive. She approved and it was one of the best decisions I have made in my writing life. You can read about illustrations creating tension on a page, and I was certainly doing a lot of that at Hollins, but when it is explored in an illustration workshop the term gains a deeper meaning.

It is also hard to comprehend the full nature of the collaboration between the writer and the illustrator. Picture book writers know they need to think visually when they write, but often this comes out as detailed verbal descriptions instead of active texts that offer visual possibilities for the illustrator.
In a blog about creating SAM AND DAVE DIG A HOLE with Jon Klassen, Mac Barnett says,

"I feel like a big part of my job in writing a picture book manuscript is to create opportunities for the illustrations to do the storytelling. And really the picture book writing is the art of finishing an unfinished thing. So there were crucial things to the book that I had no idea how [Jon was] going to solve: What were the spectacular things Sam and Dave were going to miss? How would falling from the bottom of the earth work visually? And how would [Jon] indicate that they’d landed somewhere else?" http://blog.picturebookmakers.com/post/129136224036/mac-barnett-jon-klassen (emphasis added)

The art of leaving things "unfinished" for an illustrator to flesh out is often contrary to our writer's instinct to describe everything in detail for the editor and illustrator so they will see how we envision the story unfolding. Understanding what it means to leave space for the illustrator to contribute to the story is essential to writing great text.

Similarly, as writers we know to include pauses and "cliff hangers" in text that signal a good place for a page turn, but maybe we are not thinking how that will work in the illustrations. Seeing and hearing how editors and art directors structure the text and illustration together helps us understand how we can improve what we submit, make it more acquirable, and be better partners in the collaborative process. 

So if you didn't register in time to attend Springmingle'17, consider coming for Illustrator Day. You'll learn a lot and we'll get to see you at the reception on Friday night! And as an added bonus, there are still a few slots available for consultations with an agent!

Claudia Pearson
Regional Advisor
SCBWI/Southern-Breeze

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Jodi Wheeler-Toppen 

Jodi Wheeler-Toppen is a science author and educator with 10+ books for children and teachers from National Geographic Kids, Capstone, and NSTA Press. She is a former high school science teacher, with a Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Georgia. She loves having adventures with kids—her own and any others who come her way. Find her at www.OnceUponAScienceBook.com or on Facebook @JodiWheelerToppen.

WORKSHOP

• Getting your Books (and you!) into Schools How do teachers decide which books to use with their classes? What makes a teachers’ guide for a book really useful for a teacher? How do you get a teacher’s guide noticed so that teachers will try it out? In this session, we’ll hear from teacher interviews on how they select books. We’ll look at some lesson plans that teachers love and figure out why they work. We’ll look at some publications coming out of educator’s groups that can help us highlight our work for teachers, and help them see how valuable our author visits can be. And it will be fun! Audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Lisa Lewis Tyre

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Lisa Lewis Tyre 

Lisa Lewis Tyre is the middle grade author of Last In A Long Line of Rebels, (Nancy Paulsen Books) a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post, a founder of the multi-author blog, Middle Grade Mafia, and a social media evangelist! She is currently working on her second novel, Eight Day Daughter, releasing 2017.

WORKSHOP

• It’s a Tweet Life! Twitter 101 When it comes to getting published, writers should use every tool available. It’s now possible to get noticed, find an agent, even get published because of Twitter! This class is designed to teach you the basics - how to use Twitter, how hashtags work and which ones to use, participating in twitter contests, building your platform, connecting with influencers, etc. Audience: Writers and illustrators, beginner.

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Amy Dees

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Amy Dees

Amy McCoy Dees loves to chat about anything concerning writing and reading, especially for children. An advocate for students, she serves on the Coweta County School board. She has published numerous articles on varying topics such as education, policy making, outstanding student achievement, and parenting. Her Young Adult novel, Freedom’s Secret, was shortlisted for this year’s Georgia Author of the Year Award, 2016. To learn more please visit her at: amydees.com or follow her own Twitter @amy_mdees.

WORKSHOP

• Set Your Work on Fire, Use Social Media as Your Gasoline! Introductions on how to make a book trailer-and post it to social media websites Step by step intros on making a book trailer Where to, when, and how to increase your ‘follow-ship’ Be engaging in PERSON and on social media-How audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels.

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Joyce Sweeney

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Joyce Sweeney

Joyce Sweeney is an awardwinning author, poet and theatrical producer. She is also a writing teacher and mentor .She offers a variety of classes and workshops, live and via Skype  and  her online courses, www. sweeneywritingcoach.com have helped her reach a national audience.  She is a member of Florida SCBWI and serves in their mentorship program.  So far, she has successfully mentored 57 students to traditional publishing contracts.

WORKSHOP

• The Path to Publication In my 25 years of mentoring, I have learned that there are not certain writers who ‘have what it takes’, there are just writers who are willing to DO what it takes. The process of traditional publishing is long and arduous and requires a lot of patience, character building and self esteem to work through rejections and near misses. There are steps to making a writer’s dream come true and knowing the steps and being willing to commit to the work or learning craft and navigating the maze of agents and editors can lead to success....eventually. audience: Writers and illustrators, advanced.

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Cathy Hall

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Cathy Hall

Cathy C. Hall just can’t seem to make up her mind. One day, she’s published in a book of puppet plays, and the next, she’s appearing in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. She’s written children’s books for the Korean educational market and short stories for a Chinese kidlit magazine. She’s like the Where’s Waldo of the writing world (only way better dressed).

WORKSHOP

• So You Want to Get Published  Many of us who join SCBWI think we must get a book published because...well, it’s the Society of Children’s BOOK Writers and Illustrators. But there are many children’s writers who are interested in poetry, short stories, plays, essays, and more--and there are plenty of kidlit markets for these children’s writers. In Part I, I’ll bring those markets to our newest writers, give first-hand tips on how to break into those markets and share the resources a new writer should have on the shelf, virtual or real. In Part II, I’ll discuss PAL membership in SCBWI and how it can benefit EVERY published member! audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Joan Broerman

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Joan Broerman

Joan Broerman, Southern Breeze RAE and 1998 SCBWI Member of the Year, writes for all ages across the spectrum of newspapers, magazines, and books. She has contributed to more than a dozen books on the craft and business of writing for children. Her project, “Take a Librarian to Lunch” thanks our tireless partners in research. She blogs about children’s books for busy parents, joanbooklog.blogspot.com.

WORKSHOP

• Rejecting Rejection   Like characters in your book, rejection is layered, not one dimensional. It plays a vital role in the writing process. Reject what rejection does TO you and make it work FOR you to improve craft and redirect marketing energy. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Randi Sonenshine

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Randi Sonenshine

Randi Sonenshine has been an educator and professional developer for over twenty years. An instructional literacy coach and member of the ELA Advisory Council for the Georgia Department of Education, she has taught high school English, middle school language arts, and college reading. As a children’s author, she is represented by Kendra Marcus at BookStop Literary. She lives in northwest Georgia with her husband and two sons. You can find Randi at Facebook, randisonenshine.com, theproseytree.blogspot.com or on Twitter as @rsonenshine.

WORKSHOP

• Not Just for Circle Time: Enriching your Picture Book with Content Connections    Picture books provide the perfect bite-sized segue into core disciplinary concepts and complex literacy skills that span content areas and grade levels. But how can writers navigate the tangled maze of standards that leave many experienced educators shaking their heads? And which standards are the most important, anyway? In this session, participants will learn the answers to both of these questions, plus other practical tips for writing picture books that teachers will turn to again and again! audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels.  

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Kami Kinard

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Kami Kinard

Kami Kinard is the author of The Boy Problem (Scholastic, 2014) and The Boy Project (Scholastic, 2012), which was newly released in paperback July 2016 as part of Scholastic’s WISH series. Her poetry, stories, articles, and essays have appeared in numerous periodicals for children and adults. In addition to her professional critiquing services, she is a SCBWI mentor, and often leads writing workshops at conferences and in schools.  www. kamikinard.com.

WORKSHOP

• The Anatomy of Secondary Characters  When writing novels, we spend a lot of time developing our main characters. But secondary characters need our attention too! This session discusses how to develop secondary characters whose talents and characteristics amplify those of main characters and help them reach their goals. Using examples from many best-selling novels, we’ll look at various types of secondary characters, assigning each a part of the body, based on how they assist the main character. (Hermione Granger, for example, is the brain.) audience: Writers, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Sara Sargent

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Sara Sargent

Sara Sargent is an Executive Editor at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where she acquires fiction and nonfiction in picture book, middle grade, and young adult. Previously she was an Editor at Simon & Schuster, where she worked with New York Times bestselling author Abbi Glines, National Book Award finalist Deb Caletti, and Jennifer Echols, among others. She received her Master of Science in journalism from Northwestern University. You can find Sara online at www. sarasargent.wordpress.com.

WORKSHOPS

• Worldbuilding  No matter what genre or category you’re writing in, you need to have the strongest possible world for your novel. We’ll discuss tactics for improving your world and making it so compelling that readers will never want to leave! audience: Writers, all levels. 
• Live Editing    Ever wonder about the editorial process—what we choose to edit and why? Sara Sargent will line edit live, using one page of each participant’s manuscript to show how editors think and how they make tough decisions about what stays and what goes. audience: Writers, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Brooks Sherman

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Brooks Sherman

Brooks Sherman is a literary agent with the Bent Agency, representing picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction. His clients include New York Times bestseller Adam Silvera (More Happy Than Not, Soho Teen), Morris Award winner Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Balzer + Bray), and Sam Garton (I Am Otter, Balzer + Bray). You can find Brooks sharing publishing news and horrible puns on Twitter: @byobrooks.

WORKSHOPS

• Crafting a Compelling Query  Pick up tips and strategies for how to make your query letter stand out from the slush. Literary agent Brooks Sherman will share do’s and don’t’s of what to put in your query, and how to format it to keep it tight yet informative. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
•  Writing a Gripping Opening   How do you craft the right balance of character, setting, and plot in your manuscript’s first pages to hook an agent, editor, and reader? Literary agent Brooks Sherman discusses the characteristics that make up a compelling opening for your middle grade or young adult novel, pointing to concrete examples from published (and soon-to-be-published) works. audience: Writers, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Orli Zuravichy

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Orli Zuravichy

Orli Zuravicky has been in children’s publishing for over fourteen years. She is currently a Senior Editor at Scholastic, where she works on illustrated and photographic fiction and nonfiction for ages 0-7. She specializes in acquiring board books, novelty books, picture books, readers, and nonfiction. She is also a published author, and is currently working on her first middle-grade series.

WORKSHOPS

• Developing a Strong Picture Book Character   In this workshop, I’ll talk about what makes a strong picture book character, focusing on some bestselling characters in the market as examples. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
• Breaking into the Board Book & Novelty Market In this workshop, I’ll focus on breaking down the board book and novelty market and what makes a break-out bestseller, as well as what kind of challenges the market faces. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
• Developing a Strong Picture Book Character  In this workshop, I’ll talk about what makes a strong picture book character, focusing on some bestselling characters in the market as examples. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Tansuri Prasanna

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Tansuri Prasanna

Tansuri Prasanna holds a PhD in jurisprudence and human rights law from Oxford and a Master’s degree from Harvard Law School. She has worked at the World Bank’s legal department and as a teaching fellow at Columbia Law School. Her love for children’s books motivated her transition into publishing and before joining HSG she interned at Knopf Young Readers and Foundry Literary+ Media. Tanusri is interested in kidlit ranging from picture books to middle-grade and young adult fiction.

WORKSHOPS

• Encouraging Diversity in Children’s Books    This session will discuss the collective action required to promote kidlit that truly reflects the reality of the world around us, so that children can see themselves honestly portrayed in the books they read, in a way that is inclusive of race, religion, gender, socio-economic background, sexual orientation, ability and other identifiers of diversity. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 
• Role of the Literary Agent  This session will discuss the role played by an agent from helping get the manuscript in shape for submission, the submission process, negotiating the publishing contract and managing an author’s career together with the publisher, drawing from HSG’s practices and philosophy. audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Don Tate

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Don Tate

Don Tate is an award-winning author, and the illustrator of numerous critically acclaimed books for children, including The Cart That Carried Martin, (Charlesbridge); Hope’s Gift, (Penguin); Duke Ellington’s Nutcracker Suite (Charlesbridge); and Ron’s Big Mission, (Penguin). He is also an Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Honor winner. His recent titles include The Amazing Age of John Roy Lynch (Illustrator, Eerdmans, 2015), and Poet: The Remarkable Story of George Moses Horton (Author and illustrator, Peachtree, 2015). Don is a founding host of the The Brown Bookshelf–a blog dedicated to books for African American young readers; and a member of the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family. 

INTENSIVE

• Drawing on Diversity & Style to Create Authentic Characters The call for more diversity in children’s literature is not new. However groups like We Need Diverse Books and The Brown Bookshelf have helped to bring more attention to the issue.

WORKSHOPS

• My Journey    Overnight success does not always happen overnight. In fact, for Don Tate, overnight success took thirty-plus years to attain. This self-described “Longestcoming up-and-comer” will share his journey from reluctant grade-school reader to published illustrator, and then on to becoming an award-winning children’s book author. In his breakout, Tate will discuss some lessons learned, myths vs. reality, and he will offer practical advice for both aspiring and published authors and illustrators. audience: Illustrators, all levels.
•  For writers and illustrators: Creating Winning Picture Book   Biographies   As an illustrator, words frightened Don Tate. After all, artists create pictures, they don’t write stories. So how did a non-word person go about writing award-winning picture books (one that he did not illustrate)? In his breakout session, Don will reveal all of that, discussing both sides of the bookmaking process. How do creators of picture book biographies find and then zero in on the right information? How can illustrators find their writing voice? And what about research— how do I know what to include and leave out? Don’s breakout will include his process of planning a story from initial inspiration through creating thumbnail sketches and dummy books. audience: Illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Bruce Coville

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Bruce Coville

Bruce Coville is an SCBWI Advisory Board member and the author of over a hundred books for children and young adults, including My Teacher is an Alien, Into the Land of the Unicorns, and Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher. His books have appeared in a dozen languages, and have won children’s choice awards in numerous states, including twice in California. Bruce is also the founder of Full Cast Audio, an audiobook publishing company devoted to producing full cast, unabridged recordings for family listening. 

KEYNOTE SPEAKER

• Ripples in the Pond: Why What We Do Matters 

INTENSIVE

• The Light Fantastic The session will begin with an “annotated storytelling” of the first two chapters of The Monster’s Ring, examining in detail the tricks and techniques being used. Then we’ll examine ten specific tips for writing compelling fantasies.

WORKSHOPS

• The Light Fantastic: Writing Fantasy and Science Fiction (a shorter version of the Fantasy/SF intensive)  The session will begin with an “annotated storytelling” of the first two chapters of The Monster’s Ring, examining in detail the tricks and techniques being used. Then we’ll examine ten specific tips for writing compelling fantasies. audience: Writers, all levels. 
• Voice in Writing: The Most Elusive Aspect  Ask editors what they are looking for in a manuscript, and more often than not the answer you will hear is “voice.” Unfortunately, while voice is the element of writing most sought, it is also the one least taught. Indeed, voice can’t really be taught . . . it something a writer must develop. So let’s talk about some ways that you can find your own voice . . . or voices! audience: Writers, all levels.
• At the Intersection of Plot and Character: Weaving Action and Insight  Writers are concerned about plot. Writers are concerned about character. But what we should really be concerned about is the ways in which plot and character intersect – how plot reveals character, and how character drives plot. In this workshop Bruce Coville will focus on these dual, intertwined aspects of storytelling, as demonstrated in his famous “Puddle Story.”  audience: Writers and illustrators, all levels. 

 

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

"Something for Everyone!"
30 Days of WIK15 - Tracey M. Cox

Tracey M. Cox will host a workshop during WIK15:

• Marketing and Platform: Building Your Name    
  Marketing and Platform Building  can seem overwhelming even to the best of us. There is a website to build and maintain, blogging to be done, social media to interact with, and face-to-face contact that is equally important. Don't forget we still need to squeeze in writing drawing.
  
  I have learned you can do all this and still have time to hang with the family and get your house in order. *amazing, I know*
  
  I'll share my secrets at #WIK15 during my Marketing and Platform: Building Your Name workshop. During this session you'll learn what you need to do and continue to do to build a platform that will allow you to market yourself and your books in the future... with little to no money.
  
  You can find me online (say hello!!!!) with the links below AND don't forget that all important face-to-face contact at the conference. I'm the short one with really puffy, curly hair.  ;)
  

ABOUT TRACEY M. COX:

Tracey M. Cox is a multi-published picture book author who has spent the last few years learning how to separate her name from others on the internet through social media. She shares tips, thoughts, marketing strategies and more on her writing blog, and encourages others to share and ask questions. 

LINKS:

Website

Twitter

Click here to REGISTER FOR WIK'15 now!