Midsouth SCBWI Conference

The Midsouth SCBWI Conference last weekend opened with an Autograph and Dessert Party. I shared a signing table with Dan Yaccarino, and we chatted about building a career in children's books (really, he gave me advice and I nodded my head and tried to remember everything he said as I sipped wine and nibbled dessert).

Some tidbits from the conference:

Dan Yaccarino views sketchbooks as a place to dump ideas. Don't hold back and don't be afraid to fill it with mistakes - it's not precious.

In one breakout, Martha Mihalick commented on the first page of our picture book manuscripts. Something that came up a number of times was that we need to convey what's at stake for our main character. In a picture book, we should know what the conflict or problem is by about the fifth sentence.

In a panel on marketing: If you're interested in doing school visits, write the descriptions of your presentations to appeal to curriculum-based teachers. A lot of states have their core curriculum standards online for each grade. Use that same language in describing what your presentation can do for the students. Dan said he makes it as easy as possible for schools by listing everything on his website: fees for school visits, equipment needed, a high-res author photo, videos, ordering info for his books, and descriptions of his presentations. I found this especially helpful since I plan on marketing my school visits more next year when my PENGUIN CHA-CHA picture book comes out.

For something different than what I write and therefore different than what I normally hear at conferences, I took a breakout by Sarah Davies on How to Write a Great Thriller. Some of it could definitely apply to picture book writing. Sarah told us that a book could have all the action in the world, but without heart, it's dead. So true in writing for any age. And another great Sarah tidbit: The best fiction doesn't just tell us more about the character, it tells us more about ourselves.

In Martha Rago's breakout, she gave us questions to ask ourselves about the work in our portfolio. A few I want to look into are:
Does my portfolio show my passions?
Does my portfolio reflect where I want to go with my art?
Is all the work in my portfolio the kind of work I want to get?

Kristin O'Donnell Tubb and her editor, Liz Szabla, gave a most informative talk, and I think everyone in the room came away with pages of helpful notes on revising. Wow, those two were great. Revision Tip #2) Sum up your story in one word. For Kristin's novel, THE 13TH SIGN, her word was "change". For her novel, SELLING HOPE, her word was "hope". Do all your details throughout the story support that word? Do your setting and your turning points portray that word?

Julie Danielson from the blog, SEVEN IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST (love her blog!), gave an inspiring breakout on picture books. Quote from Charlotte Zolotow, "Writers writing about children are looking back. Writers writing for children are feeling back." Children have more immediate and intense emotions than adults. They're trying to make sense of the world. We have the wonder taken out of our lives as adults. Everything is new to kids. And yet, as Maurice Sendak said, "Children know everything."

My favorite part of the weekend was seeing old friends - writers and illustrators whom I've grown up in my craft alongside - and celebrating their professional and personal successes with them. What a neat group.

Indiana SCBWI Illustrator's Day

This last weekend, Indiana SCBWI hosted an Illustrator's Day. Our Illustrator Coordinator, Sharon Vargo (in purple and black in the photo), did most of the work for it and it was a lovely time!

We have dozens of illustrators in Indiana SCBWI (20-some came), but we feel like we don't them very well, so we started with having everyone introduce themselves and show us a bit of their work. What great artwork! Throughout the day we had 4 speakers:

Nathan Clement (the tall guy in the photo) spoke on how his first picture book was acquired and working with his publisher on the next 2 books. We also got a peek at his process for illustrating in Adobe Illustrator.

Michele Farley (sparkly blue shirt front and center) was on the 2012 Caldecott Committee. I could listen to her for hours! She gave us a humorous and insightful glimpse into how it all works and why she loves certain picture books. We also heard why some beautifully illustrated books ended up not being eligible for the Caldecott (on one they found out the illustrator resided outside the US, on another they decided it was more of a book with pictures rather than a picture book, etc.)

Patrick Girouard (other guy) shared about the various markets that children's illustrators can find work in. He's done just about everything, and urged us to look at anything that has an illustration similar to our style on it and contact the people who made it. Easy enough way to market.

Jennifer Zivoin (dark hair) discussed the process of finding and working with an art rep and how to figure out if you're ready for one or even if you need one.

4Kids Books in Zionsville let us use their meeting room, and because of a regional grant from SCBWI, we were able to offer this Illustrator's Day including lunch for free for our SCBWI members. How cool is that!

SCBWI Baby Quilts

The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) is a huge organization started by Lin Oliver and Steve Mooser. Now, Steve's daughter and Lin's daughter-in-law both work at SCBWI and are both pregnant. So some of my fellow, sneaky Regional Advisors asked some children's book illustrators to create art pieces to be made into quilts to give to the new mommies this weekend at the SCBWI International Conference. They turned out simply gorgeous! 

I was thrilled to illustrate a square on each and stunned when I received the photos and saw my humble penguins dancing next to Strega Nona (illustrated by Tomie dePaola - yes, THE Tomie dePaola) and Grover (illustrated by Laurent Linn who worked on Sesame Street). Whoa!!!

I'm sure you can figure out some of the other contributors by their well-known characters. Here's the full list from Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld, the head secret organizer of this:
Dan Yaccarino, Fred Koehler, Frank Remkiewicz, Henry Cole, Kristi Valiant, Mark Teague, Paul Zelinsky, Dan Santat, Marla Frazee, Priscilla Burris, Linda Shute, Kathy Blackmore, Janeen Mason, Laurent Linn, David Diaz, Jarrett J. Krosoczka, Richard Jesse Watson, Christina Tugeau, Jeni Reeves, Loreen Leedy, Mary Ann Fraser, Jamie Temairik, Julie Paschkis, Elizabeth Dumbela, Pat Cummings, Leeza Hernandez, Brian Pinkney, E.B. Lewis, Ethan Long, Tomie de Paola, and Yuyi Morales.

Won a Marketing Grant from SCBWI!

Whoa, just found out tonight that I won a Marketing Grant from the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) for my picture book, PENGUIN CHA-CHA, that's coming out next year! How totally sweet!! I have loads of fun ideas for marketing this book (book launch, blog tour, dance days, etc), and will post about marketing tips as I go along. I'm so thankful for SCBWI; they've been a huge helping hand in my career and now are even helping with marketing my books. What a smily night!

Rhino Birthday Card

My 2-year-old and I made this rhino birthday card today. It's been so long since I played with paint and cut paper and lil' sticky dots. I had so much fun! Maybe we'll make another card together tomorrow.

Bio flap

I've been working on my bio to go on the flap of my picture book coming out next year, PENGUIN CHA-CHA. 

Do you read author and illustrator bios on books? I sure do. I especially love to see where the author and illustrator live. I don't know why that's so interesting to me. Maybe because I plan children's book conferences and if someone happens to live near here, I go, "Ooooo... I should totally keep them in mind to speak at an event." 

Bios on book flaps are usually short - most seem to be 3 to 6 sentences plus websites - but I find them hard to write. I've been reading dozens of them this past week to see what works best and what is the most important info to list. Here's what I've found: 

1. First, I want to relate my flap bio to the story somehow. Say something witty about why I wrote the book or how I'm connected to the characters or theme of the story. 

2. Then I want to share a bit about my other books. 

3. Optional pieces of my bio might include my education (does anyone care?) and my leadership role in SCBWI. 

4. Then finish up my bio with where I grew up and where I currently live with my family and my room full of hippos, monkeys, and sneaky penguins. 

I like to see a photo of the author and illustrator on the bio flap; it helps me feel like I know them. I especially like it when the photo relates to the story. In BIG SISTER, LITTLE SISTER, the author/illustrator, LeUyen Pham, shows us a photo of herself with her big sister when they were kids. I guess that means I should include a photo or illustration of me dancing or playing with penguins or dancing with penguins. Oh, that'd be fun.

Illustration Friday - Shiny

My cover illustration for Little Wings Book #3: STAR-BUBBLE TROUBLE that just came out this month. I need to head to Barnes & Noble and see how the series looks all lined up on the shelf. I'll probably squeal and take pictures. Gotta celebrate, right?

Illustration Friday - Hurry!

I'm posting this piece again because it works for Illustration Friday's theme "Hurry!" (the father hurried to meet his returning wayward son and embrace him with joy), and also some of you have asked if prints are available, and I'm happy to answer yes!

My church, Christian Fellowship Church, in Evansville, IN will continue to sell unframed 8" x 12" giclee prints through their bookstore for $150. You can buy one by calling 812.867.6464 and asking for Sheryl Walts. The title of the piece is "Love That Lifts A Child." I've decided to stick with CFC selling my prints so that the commission goes to Olive Tree Arts, the ministry that hosts the art show I originally entered this in.

In other news, the Indiana SCBWI conference that I had been planning since some time last year was a couple weeks ago and was a fantastic success! We had the friendliest, most helpful faculty ever and I came away excited to revise my latest picture book manuscript. My favorite parts of the conference were seeing which illustrations the editors and art director marked as their favorite in each portfolio in the portfolio display and attending Jessica Garrison's picture book workshop where we filled out a Title Info Sheet on our WIP manuscripts comparing them to picture books on the market, coming up with selling points for them, and so on. If you write or illustrate kid's books or even want to, these SCBWI conferences are super encouraging, inspiring, and helpful.

I'm hurrying to make deadlines on other books I'm illustrating right now, including my own picture book, PENGUIN CHA-CHA, that will come out next year. I'm sneaking in people I know as extras in PENGUIN CHA-CHA and it's so much fun! Think of anyone and put them in whatever pose I want in the background of an illustration. Hee hee. Book 3 in the Little Wings series that I'm illustrating for Random House is now out and Willa Bean's antics are as funny as ever.

Hope you're enjoying this summer-y weather!

Prodigal Son - Best of Show!

Olive Tree Arts hosts an annual art show and sale each year. The theme of the art in this year's show needed to be based on the story of the Prodigal from the Bible in Luke 15:11-32. I created this piece and was floored when it won Best of Show! It's such a neat art show with over 100 pieces from different artists, so you get to see different perspectives on the same story through the different pieces of art.

Here's my inspiration statement on my piece:

What inspired me most from this parable was the father’s loving heart. The shadow represents the father’s view that his son will always be his little child. Even when his son basically said, “I wish you were dead and I had your money,” the father handed the money over without bitterness. In the culture of that day, the son should have been disinherited or even stoned. A father who loves his son that much had to have had high hopes for that boy. Did he pray for his baby son? Did he watch his son’s heart grow harder through the years? Did his own heart mourn for those younger days? When the rebellious son finally took some steps back towards the father, did the father run to meet him and lift him in the air with such overflowing joy that he couldn’t contain himself?

I believe he did.

And that’s the kind of love God has for us. An overflowing spinning and grinning kind of love.

Illustration Friday - Heights

I drew a quick color sketch while my girls were napping for the Illustration Friday theme, "Heights."

Hope you all had a lovely Easter and are enjoying spring!