SCBWI Day One

Exhaustion.

That is how I feel after my first day of the SCBWI Conference in LA. (I am sure getting up at 5:45 to make the trek into LA from Westlake this morning could have contributed to my exhaustion) I think I will be better prepared (and rested) for tomorrow.

I'm not sure what it is, but I've felt totally on edge today, like I'm afraid I'll miss something...
I have attended conferences before, PTA and National Library Conferences, and I always enjoyed them immensely, but today I was wound so tight. Tomorrow will be better.

Today was filled with entertaining Keynote addresses by Jon Scieska and Loren Long. Both of which are hilarious people! MT Anderson has a lovely singing voice.

My first workshop of the day was How to Approach Agents Without Scaring Them Off by Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown. The answer: Don't be Crazy. I was hoping for the "secret" tips for querying. She did share some valuable information about things to consider when offered representation. I will store these tidbits away for when that option becomes available to me.

My second workshop was Submission Strategies by Josh Adams of Adams Literary. He shared lots of information about the agents' submission process to publishers.

By far the highlight of my day, though, was talking to fellow writers and illustrators at the Wine and Cheese Reception. After skipping dinner, my $10 glass of wine truly hit the spot! I've already met some really amazing and talented people and hearing their stories and struggles made me feel part of something really incredible. I am looking forward to tomorrow.

SCBWI Summer Conference, Los Angeles

I am totally stoked to be able to attend my first writer's conference this summer in Los Angeles.

The SCBWI Summer conference seems to be a who's who of authors and industry specialists. There will be Keynote Addresses by M.T. Anderson, Marion Dane Bauer, Gennifer Choldenko, Paul Fleischman, Gordon Korman, Gail Carson Levine, Jon Scieszka and many more. I hope to gain insight into these successful authors' careers and "learn their ways" (Nacho reference).

There are 80+ break-out sessions on every aspect of the craft and marketing. I am so very excited to learn as much as I possibly can in these four days!

I have signed up for a manuscript consultation and am very excited to talk to an industry professional about my work.

I will try and share as much information as I can on my blog.

Query Letter Quandary

So on the tail end of those last two rejections I was once again questioning my query letter.

I posted a couple of my most recent letter variations on the querytracker.net forum website (Which is a part of querytracker I had not even utilized before).

The Forum is pretty awesome, you can ask for query help, post your first 5 pages for feedback and get the latest dish on agents.

I posted my letter in hopes of revamping it and getting unbiased opinions from other authors dealing with the same issues I am.

I got some strong input, started to rethink things and then rewrote my query. I used my "New" letter and queried three new agents. All three were rejected within that next week.

Huh? I was scratching my head, feeling confused and sorry for myself...

And then I got a request for pages from a query letter I had sent out two months before. AND it was that same query letter that my colleagues had previous torn apart on the Forum.

I then realized that I've had four requests from this very same query letter. More than any other version I've tried.

I think I'll stick with the original-- it seems to be working.

Bottom line? Don't ask me. But take that criticism with a grain of salt.

Advice from Stephen King

As Simple As It Seems by Sarah Weeks

When Pooch (who got his nickname from one of his mother's ex-boyfriends, because he is allergic to everything and is always scratching) sees Verbena dressed in her tattered nightgown standing alone on the shore of Bonners Lake, he is certain she is the ghost of a girl who used to live in his house.

Looking for an escape from her frustrating life and the changes that happen on the cusp of starting middle school, Verbena plays along with Pooch and pretends she is the ghost of Tracey Allen, a girl who died many years ago while swimming in Bonners Lake. So begins an unlikely friendship between allergy ridden Pooch and the not-quite-really-a-ghost Verbena.

Verbena suffers from FAS Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and is small and pale and young for her age. Verbena is trying to process some new information, that her parents aren't really her parents, and that her real mother tried to pickle her before she was born. AND that her father is in prison for killing a man. Verbena is certain that like her father she is deep-down bad.

Readers will relate to Verbena's struggle. Ideal for 4th-7th grades.

Hope

Rejection is a real ass-kicker.

I received back to back rejections on a partial and a full last week.

Talk about devastation.

When a partial or a full is floating around out there in the hands of someone who can possibly make your career, you are full of all the hope and possibility in the world. The sky looks brighter the trees are greener, food tastes better, your kids are sweeter...

When the polite "no thank you" arrives all is not well in the universe. The clouds roll in, the sun disappears and your kids...

It took me about 5 days to get over it. In the end I went back and studied my rejectors and convinced myself that they weren't the right agents for me after all. That this all happened for a reason and the perfect agent-- the one that will help me navigate a successful career is still out there.

"What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise"

-Oscar Wilde

Hope.

It's a survival mechanism really.

When I lost my position last year because of budget cuts, I was devastated, truly devastated. But then I convinced myself that I didn't need that job and that I was better off.

Survival.

Hope.

It gets us out of bed everyday.

the cupcake queen by Heather Hepler

New York City

Population 8,200,000

Hog's Hollow

Population 5,134

Fish-Out-of-Waterville

Population 1*

* That would be me.

Jaded Manhattan eighth grader Penny is bemused when she is whisked away from her dad to spend the summer in her mom's tiny hometown. Things go from bad to worse when Mom decides to stay in Hog's Hollow, open a cupcake bakery and enroll Penny at the local high school.

Penny's sardonic first-person narration is sophisticated, but at heart she is still just a 13-year-old casualty of her parents' unraveling marriage and their inability to communicate with each other or with her. When she finds herself targeted for elaborate pranks by the local queen bee, she must dig deep to survive her freshman year.

Much is familiar here: The characters are drawn with broad strokes-mysterious love interest, quirky best friend, evil nemesis-and the plot device by which the popular crowd is tricked into gaining weight will ring bells with readers who have seen Mean Girls.

But Hepler's novel is greater than the sum of its parts, held together by Penny's genuine voice and emotions. Readers will root for Penny, a talented artist, as she develops her gifts and adapts to small-town life. (Fiction. 11-14) Kirkus Reviews

The Cupcake Queen is a sweet story (yeah I said that) that most 6th-8th graders will enjoy. Ultimately this is a story about accepting oneself, adapting to life's hurdles and finding happiness with yourself. (And Penny's love interest, Marcus, will have hearts a flutter too.) The best friends, Tally and Blake are just as interesting and entertaining as Penny.

Delightful.

1.