Kick Off December With A Day Of Awesome Kid Lit Events!

Greetings Schmoozers!

December is right around the corner, and boy-oh-boy do we Kid Lit Folks know how to get a party started!  We have not one – but TWO – fabulous events coming up on Saturday, December 1^st.

First, at 2 PM:

SCBWI LA, the SCBWI Westside Writers Schmooze and the Santa Monica Public Library present a free screening of LIBRARY OF THE EARLY MIND.

This 2010 documentary is an exploration of the art and impact of children’s literature on our kids, our culture, and ourselves. The film features nearly 40 prominent authors and illustrators, including Chris Van Allsburg, Lois Lowry and R.L. Stine, talking about their work, its genesis and its impact.

Read more about the film here:  http://www.libraryoftheearlymind.com/index.html

The screening will be held at the SMPL Main Branch, located at 601 S. Santa Monica Blvd., in the MLK Jr. Auditorium.

Parking is available in the library's parking structure, levels P2 and P3, for $1 per hour.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS EVENT!

The screening is free and open to ALL!

We’ve created a Facebook event for the screening.  RSVPs are not necessary but ALWAYS appreciated!

Please click the link, join the party and invite your friends: https://www.facebook.com/events/376449599106059/

Second, at 4 PM:

KID LIT HAPPY HOUR AND BOOK DRIVE – 2012

**Please note – this is NOT an official SCBWI event.

Join other writers, illustrators, agents, editors, bloggers, librarians, educators, and people who just love children's and teen literature at a kid lit community holiday party!

- Cash Bar (pay as you order). Check out the Happy Hour menu: http://www.wokcanorestaurant.com/happy-hour/santa-monica/

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- Holiday Children's Book Drive (donate and feel holiday festive)!

Again, we’ve created a Facebook event for the Happy Hour, and while RSVPs are NOT necessary, we’d love for you to join the event and invite your friends. 

Here’s the link: https://www.facebook.com/events/513724875319004/?notif_t=plan_edited

A LITTLE INFO ON THE BOOK DRIVE

Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang

Last year's Book Drive was such a smashing success (Lee Wind's jazzed expression speaks for us all), we decided we should do it again!

We'll be collecting new and gently used books, board books through YA, for the following worthy recipients:

- Children's Hospital Los Angeles / Literally Healing program

New books only, please.  Paperbacks preferred.  The hospital welcomes upbeat books for any age level.  Interactive board books are of particular interest.

Read more about the Literally Healing Program and download their “Wish List” here (scroll to the bottom for the Wish List):
http://www.chla.org/site/c.ipINKTOAJsG/b.3579145/k.E976/The_Literally_Healing_Program_at_Childrens_Hospital_Los_Angeles.htm

- William Grant Art Center http://www.troubledisland.com/wgsartcenter/

Gladly accepts new and gently used book for all ages. All topics are welcome but a focus on arts or African American culture is especially appreciated.

- The Be a Santa Project http://beasanta.org/

Donates new and gently used YA books, all topics, to at-risk teens.

If you’d like to participate in the Book Drive but can’t make it to the Kid Lit Happy Hour – Boo!  We’ll miss you! – we’ll also be accepting book drive donations at the December 5^th Westside Writer’s Schmooze. 

Can’t make the Schmooze either?  Double BOO!!  E-mail Schmooze co-coordinators Charlie & Karol at westsideschmooze@hotmail.com to make other arrangements.

Spread the word….spread the cheer….spread the BOOKS!!

See you on December 1^st!

The Westside Writers Schmooze presents the Most Provocative Schmooze Blog Post…Ever!

Greetings, Schmoozers!  Before we launch into October’s Very Special Schmooze Subject – let’s first take a moment to acknowledge last month’s blog post on September’s Conference Recap/Query How-To Schmooze…was that an outstanding blog post or what?!  So much info and insight and inspiration and…

What's that?  You missed it?!  Well, don't worry.  So did we.  Yep, there was no blog post for September’s Schmooze.  That’s right – we blew it off.  We dropped the ball.  Shirked our duties.  Fell asleep at the wheel.  Whatever your euphemism of choice may be, we did it.  And we’re sorry.  (At least Karol’s sorry.  Charlie really doesn’t give a crap…. HEY! Last time I let Karol write the first draft of a blog post…!)

Yes – September’s Schmooze was productive and fun.  It was great to see everyone again after the break.  And we will give you some of those helpful query-themed links we promised at the end of this blog post.  But let’s face it, September is so two months ago, and October’s only one month ago, so we’ll just be moving along now.

Ahem.

On October 10th, about 28 of us gathered for what Charlie and Karol promised would be the Most Provocative Schmooze Ever.  We got off to a decidedly routine and unprovocative start with the usual introductions and announcements. 

Chief among the announcements were:

• Registration is now open for the SCBWI National Winter Conference in New York (February 1^st – 3^rd).
• The SCBWI-LA, Westside Writers Schmooze and the Santa Monica Public Library are cosponsoring a free screening of the documentary LIBRARY OF THE EARLY MIND at the main branch of the SMPL on Saturday, December 1^st at 2 PM.  Flyers will be available soon; feel free to invite your friends.

We planned to get into the “meat” of our meaty topic with a reading of Greg Pincus’ A Poem For Banned Book Week (read it HERE).  Karol had permission to read the poem to the group if Greg hadn’t arrived yet, and just as she was clearing her throat, guess who walked in?  The man himself!  (This was a relief to Karol, as her Greg Pincus impersonation is sub par at best.)

The “Main Event” – a discussion of modeling desirable behavior vs. mirroring authentic (albeit often undesirable) behavior in kids’ books – was divided into three sections:

• Language
• Overall Story
• Artists’ Responsibility to their audiences

Charlie and Karol decided to have a little pre-Halloween fun with the "Devil's Advocate"
and "Miss Goodie-Two-Shoes" roles they opted to play.  Photo snapped by Lee Wind.

In the Language section, Charlie began by reading an except from Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, where Alexie had his teenaged boys referring to each other using a gay slur – and then had his main character offer a mea culpa of sorts.  Charlie argued that the justification for using the slur was not only unnecessary, but it actually lessened the authenticity and impact of the scene (where two best friends were just beginning to speak to each other again after a long feud). It was pointed out that this exchange came late in the book, so we already knew that the main character was a decent guy, rendering his mea culpa somewhat redundant. However, if we were just meeting him, the impact of the language would have been very different.

This was definitely a great way to get the conversation started.  Some Schmoozers wondered whether our audiences are sophisticated enough to understand the subtext in “controversial” dialogue and where to draw the line between authentic kids speak and providing models of the worldview that we, as artists, want to put out in the world.  Is there a difference between censorship and forced political correctness?  How did we feel about the “N-word” being replaced in Mark Twain’s classic The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with the word "slave?" (Read the NY Times take on that here)  The general consensus among Schmoozers was that the substitution greatly decreased the potency of the racism the character of Jim had to endure – as well as the power of his eventually gaining his freedom.  Charlie argued that the words were differed in kind, not just degree, as a slave can be of any race and can be freed, whereas you can't change the color of your skin and the "N-word" speaks of racism specifically, which exists beyond the confines of slavery.

One person shared the tale of a librarian from the Midwest who couldn’t acquire a book if it featured the “F-word” in the first three pages, and several Schmoozers pointed out that, as kids, they’d often used derogatory words without knowing what the slurs actually meant.  (We all assumed today’s kids were no different.)

From there, we moved on to a broader discussion of the overall stories in kids’ books, and whether it’s optimal or optional to leave young readers with at least a modicum of hope.  Arguing for the “optimal” side of the debate, Karol gave an example from a YA novel she’d recently read that left her devastated and, honestly, a bit angry.  (We’ll leave the author and book unnamed here, to avoid spoilers and because we’d just as soon adhere to the “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all” adage.)  It wasn’t that she hated the book overall.  To the contrary, she found it completely engrossing and could barely put it down.  It’s just that it ended in complete and unimaginable tragedy.  Karol was quick to point out that she knew the author was known for edgy, difficult stories and that she doesn’t expect every book to end with unicorns frolicking under rainbows…but devastation?  What would a teen reader who really identified with the character and story be left with, she wondered.

A Schmoozer offered that, while he isn’t much into devastating endings in kids’ books himself, he knows that particular author has a passionate fan base, with whom she communicates regularly via social media.  And another mentioned a YA author who said he loves bleak, hopeless YA novels because he felt that way as a teen.  Charlie, again playing Devil’s Advocate, talked about the “lost chapter” in Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange, which offered a happier ending to a poignantly dreary classic.  Interestingly in this case, it was the book’s editor who refused to include the dénouement, angering Burgess.  Having read the lost chapter in an anniversary edition of the book, Charlie firmly sided with the editor, saying that the happy ending neutered the story of its impact.

We easily segued into our last Big Question of the night – what is the responsibility of an artist to his or her audience?  

Again, there were no easy answers to the questions posed, but it did seem like there was a general consensus that writers of children’s literature were in a unique position to effect positive change.  Lee Wind pointed out that the types of stories featuring GLBTQ characters had really shown growth, moving from stories with tragic endings for gay characters, to “issue books” specifically about coming out and other challenges faced by gay characters, to a more recent crop of books which feature varied storylines about characters who just happen to be gay.  Everyone pretty much agreed that children's books do have an impact, so you have a moral, as well as a creative, obligation to write stories with messages you’re willing to stand behind.  One Schmoozer felt the subject you pick to write about is, at least to some degree, the message of your book, whether you intended for that or not.  Another added his belief that, if you write children's books, you have a drive to do something meaningful for kids.  In that sense, we probably DO have some special responsibility to our audience.

The sentiment which was perhaps most prominent throughout the evening’s lively discussion is that there’s room for varied opinions on all of these topics – different readers will respond to bleak or happy endings, coarse language or the lack of it, mimicking “bad behavior” or modeling “good behavior.”  The key is that YOU, dear kids' lit writers, do not betray your own beliefs and sensibilities.  So long as you hew close to them, and take responsibility for them, your audience – the ones with whom your sensibilities resonate – will not only find you, but be enriched and nourished by your work.

With that, we said our goodbyes – but not before reminding everyone of our next Schmooze on November 14^th:  TIME TRAVEL, BODY SWAPPING & OTHER WAY-COOL, REALITY-BENDING WAYS OF TELLING A STORY.  Come with examples of your favorite books in this genre and questions about your own off-kilter manuscripts.  Together, we’ll try to figure out what works, what doesn’t, and what really makes these stories tick.

Before we go, here are a few of those helpful links on querying we promised you…

http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

http://querytracker.net/

http://openquery.blogspot.com/

http://www.literaryrambles.com/

(great source for info on agents!)

And a few more great leads, courtesy of Schmoozer Pat O’Brien:

Kristin Nelson at http://pubrants.blogspot.com/ has links on the right sidebar with specific examples of author queries to her that worked, as well as why she liked the queries.  She also includes some examples of her pitch letters to editors.

Janet Reid aka Query Shark has an agent site with query faq on sidebar and the query site where she tears into examples sent to her by brave souls.  http://jetreidliterary.blogspot.com/http://queryshark.blogspot.com/

Nathan Bransford, former agent who is now an author, has long been sharing how-to info on his site. http://blog.nathanbransford.com/  Look on the left sidebar for query advice and examples.

Best of luck Schmoozers – with your queries and with tackling complicated story ethics issues in your manuscripts!

Keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

The Westside Writers Schmooze Returns!

“BLOG” MEANS NEVER HAVING TO SAY YOU’RE SORRY

*** or ***

HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP FRETTING ABOUT THESE BLOG POSTS 

BEING LATE (IN THIS CASE, RIDICULOUSLY SO) AND JUST GET ON WITH IT!

Ah, Schmoozers – how we’ve missed you!  But fret not – the Westside Writers Schmooze resumes in just a few short weeks. 

Since summer’s really, really fun, we never got around to recapping the June Schmooze on revision (okay, we are sorry), so we thought we’d take this opportunity to, briefly, do that (briefly?...you’ll believe that when you see it, right?) and provide a sneak peek at the very exciting upcoming Schmooze year, which runs from September 2012 through June 2013.

After the usual announcements, intros, and some tales from the Critiquenic which had happened a few weeks earlier, Charlie kicked off the revision discussion with a moving metaphor.  And by “moving” we don’t mean emotion-eliciting (which, let’s face it, is not exactly Charlie’s bailiwick) we mean literally moving, like as in “change of address.”

You see, Charlie and his family had recently moved, and it got him to thinking about how moving and revision are the same (it’s a good thing Mr. Self-Involved didn’t recently have a stomach flu or the opening metaphor would have been very unpleasant indeed). 

Here’s a little of what he said:

      Why is moving so painful?  Cause you’re taking apart a life you’ve built for yourself over the years.  It wasn’t perfect; in fact there were many things you found obnoxious: the overstuffed garage, the lack of things on the wall you really like, maybe even the setup of the house itself.  But still, it was your home and, as such, it served you fairly well.  And now you’re ripping it apart, ripping its guts out, going through all the crap, and deciding… ENDLESS DECIDING… what crap you need and what crap is crap and what crap is crap but with enough emotional heft that you want to keep it with you and lug it to the new place and try to find somewhere to fit it in. 

      It’s the same with your book.  You take something that kind of holds together, you pull it into its separate parts, and then you appraise the parts.  And, like moving, once you’ve ripped everything apart and it’s lying in pieces all around you, it’s overwhelming.  How could there possibly be so many interlocking pieces to your life/book?  And now that they’re not interlocking, what, exactly, was the point of saving that walking matzo ball that’s been gathering dust on your desk for 20 years?

      After you get rid of the obvious garbage, you‘re left with daunting questions:  what do you do with the rest?  How do you decide what to keep and, if you do keep it, where you’ll put it in the new place?  Will the new place even work with your old junk?  It’s so scary that, if you hadn’t already signed the lease, you might well not move at all.  But you did, so you gotta.

      And this is where the metaphor is valuable:  once you decide your project needs work, sign the lease on the new draft.  Don’t listen to folks telling you it’s good enough if you know in your heart that it isn’t.  Sign the lease so that you know that by the end of the month you have to move your shit out of the old draft and start placing it in the new version.  You’ll be glad you did.

This launched us into a discussion of why rewrites are so scary.  Why are we so often faced with such angst? 

This novel is terrible. I can never fix this. If I try to do anything like X suggested, I will fail; maybe she can do it, but I can't. Was all my effort wasted? Will I freeze up and be unable to write anything else, ever?

The answer to why we have so much angst is something like – because we’re human, and worse creative humans.  We’re going to have our doubts, our anxieties, but we must push through the angst and get on with the business of improving our work and making it the absolute best it can be.

So just how do we do that?  How do we internalize feedback, determine what’s valuable, and apply it to our work in ways that feel organic and germane to the stories we’re trying to tell?  We dunno.  Thankfully, you Schmoozers were full of incredible suggestions:

• Look at your emotional beats.  Are they all the same?
• Work backwards, scene by scene, thinking in terms of cause and effect: does each scene propel the story into the one that follows?
• Think like illustrators, who often start with gesture lines, and build from there; don’t get bogged down in the details.  (Charlie loves this one!)
• Don’t attempt to write “the perfect draft” – they always stink.
• You don’t need to cover everything in one rewrite.  Try tackling one set of problems (i.e. character development, plotting issues, etc.) to start.

Longtime Schmoozer and Cricket contributor Joseph Taylor wasn’t able to attend, but was kind enough to contribute (via an e-mail to Karol) some valuable words of warning about taking advice too literally.  Here's an excerpt:

A helpful critique is one in which the person offering it understands what it is the writer is trying to do, points out the good points as well as the bad, and offers suggestions for improvement where possible. 

Seeking sound feedback is not a luxury for the writer; it’s a necessity.  Still, securing feedback does not absolve the writer of revising his or her own work.  The writer who simply does what someone else suggests and doesn’t find places to improve her own work isn’t doing her job.  The writer is Reviser-in-Chief.

As important as getting feedback is, suggestions for improvement are not always on target.  While those who critique usually have good intentions, they can be hasty, not fully grasp a point of reference, or try to remake a piece the way they would do it.  It’s the writer’s job to smoke these out, and set aside such comments when necessary.  I would go so far as to say that if the writer is not rejecting some feedback, she is not engaged enough in her own revision process.

The best providers of feedback are like the best editors; they help you improve your work—sometimes noticeably so—yet they always manage to allow you to retain ownership of it.  That’s as it should be.  Those who give feedback do not have ownership of your piece; you do.

The great Ray Bradbury once offered a withering assessment of those who suggested he redo some of his work.  It can be found here: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/censoring-ray-bradbury/

Hence, Karol’s tip from Don Roos that she always seems to come back to:

• Only take feedback from people who love and “get” your work.  They’re the ones who are best suited to help you improve your story.

Karol also loves these great (previously shared at a Schmooze) tips from an interview with YA writer Allen Zadoff and his publisher, Elizabeth Law, on dealing with feedback (or, as former screenwriter Zadoff calls them, “notes”). 

Allen at the Schmooze, December 2011
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

“…the ego is always hurt when first receiving notes. I think it’s natural because the author really only wants to hear one thing: “It’s genius. Don’t change a word.”

But that’s not the real world, and it’s not what makes you a better author. The most important thing I’ve learned is that the hurt reaction is just the first impulse. I don’t have to do anything about it. I let it pass like a summer storm.

Once it’s blown itself out, I move to the more interesting place of sorting out the feedback. They generally fall into four categories.

·       1. Notes I agree with.

·       2. Notes I disagree with.

·       3. Notes I intuitively feel are wrong, but I’m not sure.

·       4. Notes I intuitively feel are right, but I’m not sure.

·       As I think about it, there is a fifth category: Notes I don’t understand and I need more clarification.”

Read the whole interview here:  http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2011/05/interview-publisher-elizabeth-law.html

And there were LOTS of tips from other online articles and interviews as well.  Here are some links to explore:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/11/how-to-respond-to-manuscript.html

http://sophiepembroke.com/2011/03/05/learning-to-love-the-edit/

http://voices.yahoo.com/how-revise-fiction-going-through-editing-process-506498.html?cat=4

Eventually, it was time to wrap up and say our goodbyes for the summer hiatus (though many of us knew we’d be seeing each other at the National Conference in August). 

We, your humble co-coordinators, would be remiss not to mention that we felt a great deal of love coming back at us at this Schmooze – and throughout our first full year of duty.  You’ve made our job easy and fun with your participation and general awesomeness – so we thank you!  With your continued assistance, we’re set to have another year of amazing Schmoozes.

The details are now posted on the SCBWI So-Cal Calendar (http://www.scbwisocal.org/calendar.htm), but here are a few highlights:

• Two (2!) Guest Speaker nights.
• Two critiques nights – but a little later this year, since the LA County Writer’s Days are much earlier.  Both critique nights will be in time for the National Conference manuscript consultation deadline.
• A couple nights where we take on ethics issues – sex, violence, hate speech and more.  These Schmoozes will explore the idea of how far is too far?  If we are completely authentic in our depictions of kids, teens and the sometimes shady people around them, are we somehow endorsing bad behavior?
• Explorations of niche markets, reality-busting stories and books we just plain LOVE.

We’ll also be co-sponsoring a screening of Library Of The Early Mind with the Santa Monica Public Library.  More info on the film, described as “an exploration of the art and impact of children’s literature on our kids, our culture, and ourselves” can be found here http://www.libraryoftheearlymind.com/.

The screening’s set for Saturday, December 1^st at 2 PM at the SMPL Main Branch (we may plan an informal Kid Lit Happy Hour event afterward as well) so SAVE THE DATE!

But, first things first.  The Schmooze resumes Wednesday, September 12^th with a Conference Recap/Query How-To night, where you’ll be able to relive all the glory of the conference – or live vicariously though those lucky stiffs who got to attend – and get your questions about writing great query letters answered.  We’ll even spend some time critiquing Schmoozers’ own query letters, so it’s an evening you definitely DON’T want to miss!

We really can’t wait to see everyone again!

Until then, keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

As an added treat, here are a few Schmoozetastic photos from the conference! 

(Check out many more on Rita's blog:  http://rhcrayon.livejournal.com/92699.html)

Charlie & Rita hanging at the Hippie Hop.
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Jeff enjoyed the Hippie Hop, too!
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Rita, Lee and Sara at the Hippie Hop.
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Wait, who let these zombie into the Hippie Hop?!
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

Karol, Rita, Mara and Jen enjoying the Crystal Kite Luncheon
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012

The Schmooze's own Sara Wilson Etienne at her breakout session!
Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2012