2016 #SBreeze Writing & Illustrating Contest Winners...

2016 #SBreeze16
Writing & Illustration
Contest Winners

Illustrated Texts (fiction and nonfiction)

1^st Place Last Pick, by Colleen Bennett

2^nd Place Duck, Duck, Goose, by Sheri Dillard

3^rd Place This is a Book to Read with a Worm, by Jodi Wheeler-Toppen

Middle Grade Novels

1^st Place (tie) Miss Black Gold, by Jessica Vitalis, and Harvey the Bedazzler, by Dana Edwards

2^nd Place Trailer Park Unicorn, by Mark McClintock

3^rd Place Freedom Feet, by Joan Broerman

Young Adult Novels

1^st Place: The Veritas Project, by Catherine Black

2^nd Place: Desert Secrets, by Connie Fleming

3rd Place (tie): Between Never & Always, by Tosha Sumner

The Symbiotes, by Tim Carroll

Illustrations: A Day in the Life of a (Animal)

1^st Place: Honeybees by Narges Jafari

2^nd Place: Garden Kittens by Melissa Schultz-Jones

3rd Place: George the Giraffe by Blythe Russo

Be sure to sign up for our blog's email notifications! We will be announcing next year's contest. Not to mention our monthly Breezers In Your Neighborhood will be starting back and we're getting ready for SpringMingle. So many things and you don't want to miss one post! 
SIGN UP TODAY!  --->

Author Meet & Greet for #SBreeze16

Author Meet & Greet for #SBreeze16

~OPEN TO THE PUBLIC~

The fun doesn't stop when the conference does.
A select group of authors will be at the Homewood Public Library Sunday, October 9, 2016 from 2 pm to 4 pm. This is your chance to meet the authors, buy their books, and have them autographed.

PARTICIPATING AUTHORS: 

Bruce Coville

Don Tate 

Heather L. Montgomery 

Jo S. Kittinger 

Jodi Wheeler-Toppen 

Delia Blackstone  

Lucyann Wagner 

Kami Kinard

 

Come out and have a great time. See you there!

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with the PAL Connection!

As the PAL Coordinator for Southern Breeze, I get to hobnob with a lot of VIPs!

Oh, wait. You’re thinking “Very Important People” and I’m thinking “Very Interesting PALs.” That’s why I love our conferences. At WIK’16, I’ll catch up with the latest news from that author whose book has just released or the writer whose poem landed in Baby Bug or the illustrator whose work is highlighted in…well, Highlights!

But perhaps more importantly for our PALs is the opportunity WIK’16 provides for them. We’ll get together and discuss concerns and issues in the industry at the PAL breakfast on Sunday morning at the Hampton Inn, 9:00 AM. If you’re a PAL, I sure hope you’ll join us for coffee, tea, and input!

And if you’re not sure whether you are a PAL member, look for me or any PAL member. We’re the ones wearing a blue button and we’ll try to answer any questions you have. Because in SCBWI, everyone is a Very Important Person!

REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

Click here to be directed to our registration page!


~Cathy C. Hall

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Informal Critiques!

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Informal Critiques! 

Manuscripts in hand, you sit down with a group of your peers. They all write the same genre. They all are as eager as you to improve your manuscript.

WIK15 offers the opportunity for you to do that!

After the conference, you'll have the opportunity to sit with other writers / illustrators and chat about your story (and theirs), where it needs improving, where it is strong, suggestions on the tone.

These informal critique sessions are a great way to meet others in your field. Maybe make a lasting friendship. To learn about your craft and to improve yourself on your way to publication.

Not sure how to critique? 

Here are is one way to look at it. Think of critiquing someone's work like a sandwich. You have bread, filler, and bread.

• Bread - Start off with something nice and squishy. What you really like about the story or the writing in general.
• Filler - Get to the meat of what you think. Are there places that can be taken out? Do you see pov shifts? Are there rabbit trails that need to be fixed? Does their work zip and zag in all the right places? How is the plot? Character development?
• Bread - Finish off by saying something nice again. Let them know you appreciate their hard work and give some encouragement.

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK with Formal Critiques!

Light Your Imagination at #SBreeze16 WIK
with Formal Critiques! 

People in this industry tend to be very nice, and that can make it difficult to remember that publishing is a "bunny-eat-bunny" world. As difficult as it might be, however, it is important to learn what we need to know if you really want to get published.

Has your manuscript been critiqued by your critique group, is your prose polished and honed, your plot peeled away and re-layered, is it is as good as it can get? How can you be sure?

When writers submit work to an editor or an agent, their submissions land on an editor or agent's desk, or in their email inbox, and are read in batches. The submission must stand on their own, no author sitting there to add anything or answer any questions. Even worse, in today's publishing world, when a submission is rejected, typically there is no feedback - often not even a polite "Thank you, but we are not interested."

Registering for a written only critique not only guarantees that your work will be critiqued by an acquiring editor or agent, it simulates the real world process but also allows you an opportunity to receive valuable feedback and learn what you might do to make it even stronger before you send it out again. It focuses exclusively on what is on the page, which is what happens in the real world of children's publishing.

Sometimes face-to-face critiques may be a better choice, for example, if you have a specific question to ask about plot and character choices. That is what I did at my last face-to-face critique: how old should my main character be, given the nature of the story and the things she would be doing?

What is really great is that you don't have to choose - you can register for both face-to-face and written only critiques!

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN!

 CLICK HERE to be directed to our registration page! 

~See you in October~