Plotting, Structure And Other Stuff The October Schmooze Kinda-Sorta Covered (The Journey of Your Book, Part II)

It was another full house at the October 8^th Schmooze, which again included a handful of first timers – woot, woot!  After announcements and introductions, we quickly got down to the business at hand – namely, how do we get from Story Spark (explored last month) to figuring out our plot and structure?

                                                    Partygoer #1:

                            Right now, it's only a notion. But I think I can get

                            money to make it into a concept.  And later turn it

                            into an idea.

                                                                  – Annie Hall

As usual, Charlie did extensive internet research.  Though some (Karol) might argue that this is merely his way of avoiding writing, others (Charlie) might argue that this is a complete misunderstanding of his process.  When tackling a new Schmooze topic, Charlie looks deep inside himself to figure out his own personal response.  Finding nothing there but desolation and despair, a barren wasteland in black and white (not unlike the end of Eric Von Stroheim’s Greed) with only a few, desiccated, dying maggots of regret, Charlie turns to the internet. 

Here’s what he found out about turning a brainstorm into a book: 

Everybody does it differently.

It’s all a matter of what works for you, what “door” you need to go through to get into your story.  For instance, a surprising number of writers favor doing your research, notes, and brainstorming and then just starting to write.  As one of them said, “Sometimes once you start with something, you kick out some more ideas whereas if you leave the idea to fester it will continue to do so.”  Others are more Karol-like in their dependence on outlining and mapping, some even saying things like, “A plot has three parts and two main transition points. T1 is the ‘epiphany moment’ where the story is moving along and something happens to change everything.  T2 is the ‘point of no return’ where something happens to force an ending either way.”  (Charlie thought T2 was just an overproduced sequel to a masterpiece.)

Charlie then tried to learn what Plato was on about in his poetics.  The main thing Charlie manage to cull from the great philosopher was the difference between plot and story:  Plot is causal.  This happened because that happened:

                        The king dies, and the queen dies – story

                        The king dies, and the queen dies of grief – plot

                                    E. M. Forester

With that, the discussion turned to structure, and Karol, being the tragically regimented gal that she is, gave a rundown on 3 Act screenplay structure, which she feels can be applied to children’s novels.  She also offered up the value of another screenwriting trope, the 12 point Beat Sheet and shared a few specific details about how creating one for her new middle grade novel helped her to figure out the plot.  In both of these structure tools, the beginning and end sections together are as long as the middle section, so a 12 point beat sheet would take a 3-6-3 format.  Charlie began to think how he never really got math and only passed geometry ‘cause Mr. Samuels took pity on him and so, lost track of the conversation.

“But what of pictures books?” Karol mused, bringing Charlie back to consciousness..  She tried her hand at creating a 4 point Beat Sheet for Green Eggs and Ham, and came up with the following (which, incidentally, amused structure-phobic Charlie to no end):

Beginning

1.     Sam I Am tries to get the narrator to try green eggs and ham, but the narrator refuses.

Middle

2.     Sam makes many suggestions of circumstances in which the narrator may like green eggs and ham; the narrator rebuffs every suggestion and adds his own examples of circumstances in which he still would not like green eggs and ham.

3.     Exasperated, the narrator agrees to try green eggs and ham if it’ll make Sam leave him alone.

End

4.     The narrator tries green eggs and ham and discovers, to his astonishment, that he likes them.

Of course, there are many tools available to help writers figure out plot and structure.  Charlie uses the outline feature in Microsoft Word heavily and brought examples to share.  And while he finds popular writing software Scrivner most helpful once he’s gotten into revisions, other writers swear by using it from start to finish.  Some writers like using real index cards (as opposed to virtual versions, like Scrivner features) to get a look at their stories physically laid out in front of them.  Starting at the end of your story and working your way backwards, making sure there’s cause-and-effect from scene to scene, is another trusted plotting exercise.

Many books, blogs and podcasts offering help with plot and structure are out there, too – from the oft-mentioned Save the Cat by Blake Snyder to 20 Master Plots (And How To Build Them) by Ronald Tobias (both technically screenwriting books but applicable to any stories) to Second Sight by Cheryl B. Klein and the Narrative Breakdown podcast (http://www.narrativebreakdown.com/). 

For writers of fantasy and otherworldly stories, Charlie and Karol asked  (perhaps cajoled is a more accurate word) Rita Crayon Huang to present some info on world building.  She began by saying that if you google “world building,” you get an exhaustive amount of info.  She turned to a trusted source for her own writing – Malinda Lo’s Five Foundations of World Building.  These include: Rules, Rituals, Power, Place and Food (yes – food!).  Read all the details here - http://www.malindalo.com/2012/10/five-foundations-of-world-building/

The discussion then moved on to The Other Stuff Your Book Kinda-Sorta Needs – and that’s a list that can be endless.  A few items on the list might be:  voice, humor, a distinct point of view, flawed but relatable character(s), character arc, antagonist, obstacles, theme, stakes, etc., etc., etc..  Different books have different requirements, and each writer is probably the best judge of what his or her own story needs.

We finished up the night with a choice of writing exercises.  Schmoozers were invited to try their hands at doing beat sheets (for both novels or picture books) or to work on “Other Stuff Brainstorming” (with the help of Karol’s trusty worksheets, which you, TOO, can use by clicking HERE.)  After rapping a bit about how the exercises went, it was time to pack up and say our goodnights. 

Based on the full houses and lively participation this month and last, it’s clear to us here at Schmooze Central that this Journey Of Your Book Year-Long Schmooze Experiment is a huge hit!  Be sure to continue the journey with us on Wednesday, November 12^th when we’ll be discussing Writing, Rewriting, Discipline And Other Loathsome Necessities.

Until then, keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

The Westside Writers Schmooze persents 50 Shades of Blog

So ideally this month’s blog post would have been written in the style of 50 Shades of Gray, but that would've required us to get the book and read it, and the thought of that just made us tired and want to take to our beds.  And not in a good way.  So, instead, we decided to just tell you what happened. 

Well for starters, good ol’ Karol, who’d come up with this brilliant topic in the first place and had been waiting all year for this Schmooze, got deathly ill and could not attend.  Never fear though, because young Rita Crayon Huang stepped in to add a feminine counterbalance and avert the horrible prospect of “An Evening With Charlie Talking About Sex.”  As an added bonus, Karol was able to attend virtually, through speakerphone.

Karol later mused that it was just like an episode of Charlie’s Angels, except Charlie was in the room, and ”the angel” was on the phone.

It was a smaller group of Schmoozers than usual, around 15, the others scared off by the adult nature of the topic, no doubt (picture book writers are so delicate).  But it was a terrific Schmooze, nonetheless. 

We started off with a round robin of the first sexy scenes we remember reading that really impacted us.  There were lots of mentions of Judy Blume’s Forever (page 88, people!) and Mario Puzo’s The Godfather; even Erica Jong’s Fear of Flying and, uh, Bob Guccione’s Penthouse Forum, uh, came up.  (The age of the unnamed Schmoozer who copped to reading Penthouse Forum?  13.)

Charlie read some comically terrible romance writing he’d found, and we discussed what to avoid, like the words “throbbing” and “flowering” and phrases like “pink palace of pleasure.”  

Charlie read a great quote Karol had sent in from a Dear Editor.com post which suggested that, if you start from emotion and character and build up to the physical, the audience will be putty in your hands.

Karol then chimed in to give a full-throated (between coughs) defense of the Twilight series as an example of this, calling the work a “bodice ripping romance” rather than a supernatural vampire story.  “It’s hot because it could mean a literal death for the heroine.”  That said, she complained bitterly that, after thousands of pages of foreplay, when Edward and Bella are finally going to do the deed, there’s a nearly immediate fade to the moonlight on the ocean rather than the hot, steamy paranormal lovemaking every Twihard had long been waiting for. 

This led to a discussion of how far to go, with a sampling of various scenes, from the “Fade to Black/Jaws Approach” (implying but not showing the shark) of Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix to the explicit full frontal passion of Jenny Downham’s Before I Die.   

Along the way, Charlie insisted deference be paid to Sherman Alexie’s long overdue salute to masturbation in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, and Frank Portman’s awkward, and very specific, make out scenes in King Dork.  Comparing them to the swoony, sexy and emotional scenes in books like Jennifer Bosworth’s Struck, Charlie posited the notion that women write about sex as an overpowering force that takes them away, whereas men write about logistics: this goes here and that goes there, and if I grab this and fiddle with that, then that happens… etc. Rita noted that a lot of guys in the room began nodding vigorously, saying they much preferred scenes written the latter way.

At this point, a fight broke out.

Lee Wind wasn’t so sure that this was always the case, arguing that the lead character in King Dork was simply distant from his emotions.  Jeff Cox sided with Charlie, saying that this was how young sex was for him.  After we shook from our minds the image of young Jeff Cox having awkward young sex, Rita countered Lee's response by saying the emotion that connected her to the character in King Dork was performance anxiety, which she found convincing.

Josh Hauke (creator of web comic, Tales Of The Brothers Three)chimed in, taking exception to Bosworth’s young heroine’s description of desire as “a thing separate from me, a wild animal with a mind of its own, attacking the bars of the cage I kept it in, looking for a weak spot.”  He argued that the wish of women in these stories to be “conquered and overpowered” was unhealthy and a result of sexual stereotypes.  Lee agreed.  Charlie stared off wistfully, imagining what it must be like to conquer… anyone.  As for the women at the Schmooze, they seemed to take greater exception to the fact that all these young girls so easily achieved orgasm in their first sexual at-bats!

– –

An aside from Rita, after the Schmooze: "The Sex Schmooze was so good, I stayed up half the night afterward still thinking. I particularly loved the examples Charlie brought in of gendered Point of View differences – and the assumptions this unearthed from all of the men and women in the room! A lot of the guys took offense to the idea that the female point of view would involve sex as surrender – as opposed to liberating or empowering – and even though I and other women defended this as obvious, it really got me questioning whether I've been harboring repressive ideas without realizing it. Which got me mining my memories deeper, afterward, as well as remembering the experiences and attitudes of various friends . . . "

Said Sara Wilson Etienne after the Schmooze as well: "The best part of the night was when a woman started off, "It's all about the male gaze . . . " and it took some of us a while to figure out she meant gaze g-a-z-e and not gays . . . "

But we did talk about gays, too, as you will see . . .

– –

Rita quickly reeled in the discussion before Charlie could start talking about his first sexual at-bat and pointed us to a blog post by author Marianna Baer.  She was having difficulty writing a sex scene, so she studied sex scenes from various novels to help her break her block. 

Author Marianna Baer

This amazing post not only answers the question of “How far can I go?” but Marianna also addresses her own concern about “Where do I put their hands?”  There’s too much great stuff in it to recap here, but you owe it to yourself to click on over to it, if only to read the beautiful and explicit excerpt from Jenny Downham’s devastating aforementioned novel Before I Die, where oral sex is not only a plot point and the consummation of the book, but deeply moving as well.   

Read the post here: http://acrowesnest.blogspot.com/2008/12/marianna-lets-get-it-on-sex-scenes-in.html.  

 Karol dubbed it “Coming Home for the YA set!”

After looking at all those novels, Marianna Baer came to the conclusion that the secret to writing sex scenes is to think about them not as sex scenes but just as scenes.  The hands go wherever they would go to show character and advance plot.

From there we discussed sex and the market, quoting (March Schmooze guest) SonyaSones, whose poem Ice Capades from her novel What My Mother Doesn’t Know led to the book being banned and thus selling through the roof!  Sones said she “never met a banned book list she didn’t want to be on.  I dance a happy little jig every time my book makes the cut again!”  So, shockingly, sex sells.

Things break down a little differently though, if your characters are gay.  While straight characters seem to be getting a lot of sex lately, with pressure from publishers to include more titillation, gay characters are, sadly, pressured to be more celibate.  

Lee (whose blog, I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read, you really must check out) said, “There’s definitely a straight kiss = PG13, gay kiss = R attitude that seems to be operating in our culture, and that seems to be reflected in the very few MG and YA books with major LGBTQ characters and themes.

 One exception is YA author Ellen Hopkins, who is equally revealing for all her very diverse characters in terms of their sex lives.  She treats gay and straight and bi characters the same, and I think that’s ultimately the guideline: don’t fade out at the kiss for lesbians but write pages and pages of intimate physicality for the heterosexual couple.” 

Rita thought that said it perfectly. 

Charlie stared off wistfully, thinking about lesbians kissing and pages and pages of intimate physicality…

And then it was time to go home.  Of course much more was discussed during the evening.  Near the end, the Almighty came down and revealed the secrets of connubial bliss, but to hear that you would’ve had to have been there (hint: it has nothing to do with dill pickles and chicken feathers).

Still not satiated?  Here are some more books, articles and excerpts cited in tonight's talk:

Rita brought in contrasting examples from Kristin Cashore's Graceling and Will Davis's My Side of the Story, which tied in to the discussion on character point of view and gender, whether less is always more (it depends on what you're trying to show), the power dynamic that can be involved, and when and how to give nods to safe sex.

For more on gay sex and the market - check out the “Four Levels of Sex Scenes” in the middle of this article – fascinating!

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2010/06/queering-sff-writing-sexto-do-or-not-to-do

     Rita mentioned Storky, written by D. L. Garfinkle, a female author writing from the point of view of a high school guy.  This was in response to Charlie's wish to see a book truly, perhaps painfully, portray how focused many boys in high school are on a particular body part, which may or may not be cooperating at the precise moment when a guy gets called on to go to the front of the class. Rita found this scenario portrayed convincingly in  Storky and would like to know whether you do, too.

   And lastly…since apparently everyone was so completely astonished by her brilliance and not at all because she’s in any way an egomaniac and, coincidentally, the person who physically creates these blog posts…but merely because Charlie and Rita insisted…here are Karol’s kisses: 

-->

From page 319 of Cursed:

         Suddenly, he’s mashing his lips against mine, trying to put his tongue in my mouth.  I keep my lips pressed together like they’re super-glued so instead he just slimes up my face and it is gross, gross, GROSS!

         It’s over in like a millisecond.  I leap to my feet, twisting my ankle in the process. 

         “What the hell was that?” I yell.

         “It’s called kissing,” Paul says, like I’m the idiot here, but it’s his face that’s all red.  Good.  He should be embarrassed.  “I should have known a freak like you would be a lousy kisser.”

From pages 327-328 of Cursed:

         “No, dummy!” Jeremy says, “I don’t want to be just friends.”

         He laughs at me, and all I can think is – why is he laughing? –  because I don’t get it and then, after a moment, what he just said sinks in and…oh…and then I’m laughing, too, and then he’s moving closer to me, but just his face, and before I know it, I’m moving, too, just my face. 

         And then his lips, his soft lips, touch mine.

         And our mouths open, just a little, and it’s not gross, not at all, it’s…exhilarating, just like Dani and Noland said it would be.

         And then I stop thinking.

Stayed tuned to this space for our recap of March’s special guest, YA novelist Sonya Sones.

Until then,

Keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

The Westside Writers Schmooze December/January Book-Tacular!

Happiest of Happy New Years, Schmoozers!

We’ve been a little remiss here at Schmooze Central.  Okay.  More than a little.  A LOT remiss.  It’s been three whole Schmoozes with no blog posts.  (We know, you’re crushed, right??) We have an awesome…or dare we say WAY COOL blog post on the November Schmooze, but that’s still a work-in-progress—

—and speaking of works in progress, did you know the SCBWI has a bunch of awesome Work-In-Progress grants?  Read all about the different grants and their submission guidelines on the "grants and awards" page at www.scbwi.org.  Applications are accepted between February 15^th and March 15^th – so don’t delay!!

Where were we?  Oh, right!  The Way Cool post is going to be Way Late but in the interim, we have this December/January recap which is all about AWESOME books!

First up, in December, we welcomed back the venerable Diane Applebaum, longtime bookseller (now retired) from Children’s Book World.  It had been a few years since Diane had come and schooled us on what’s hot, what’s not and what’s missing from the Kid Lit landscape – at least from a bookseller's POV.

Photo: Rita Crayon Huang

Here's a taste of some of the general tidbits she shared:

• Robots, superheroes, cowboys/cowgirls, mermaids, unicorns, fairies, knights, construction stories & dinosaurs simply never get old
• Kids love joke books – especially of the “knock, knock” ilk
• There can never be too many ballet books
• Middle grade readers need ADVENTURE
• The current trend for YA readers is fantasy, fantasy, fantasy
• Historical fiction often does quite well
• Non-fiction is HOT

Of course, Diane brought many wonderful books to “show-and tell” us about.  (She apologized for focusing primarily on picture books.)  She mentioned the following books that were both delightful and in high demand:

• Silly Doggie written and illustrated by Adam Stower
• Pluto Visits Earth written by Steve Metzger, illustrated by Jared D. Lee
• King Arthur’s Very Great Grandson written and illustrated by Kenneth Kraegel
• Vampirina Ballerina written by Anne Marie Pace, illustrated by LeUyen Pham
• A Kiss Means I Love You written by Kathryn Madeline Allen, photographs Eric Fultran
• Just Being Audrey written by Margaret Cardillo, illustrated by Julia Denos
• My Heart Will Not Sit Down written by Mara Rockliff, illustrated by Ann Tanksley
• The Quiet Place written by Sarah Stewart, illustrated by David Small

And perhaps most useful to us Schmoozers was Diane’s list of subject matter that seems to be in short supply and/or is always needed:

• Divorce (as experienced by little kids)
• Moving – kids or their neighborhood friends having to move
• Going to a new school (especially elementary)
• Family member going to the hospital for a non-life-threatening issue
• Death of a pet has been done well – but there is always room for more good stories about this (it’s like ballet and dinosaurs in that respect!)
• Alternative households
• Books on nutrition - but the trick is to avoid being didactic
• Timeless photojournalism books (babies love looking at pictures of babies!)

A couple of other cool things Diane mentioned were…

• Los Angeles has named its first Poet Laureate!  Check her out here: http://www.eloisekleinhealy.com/
• There’s a fun new movement in poetry for boys... Guyku – haiku for guys.  Check it out here:  http://www.hmhbooks.com/guyku/

In January, the focus was once again on Great Books.  And not just great books but  A Few Of Our Favorite Books!

Intros featured the standard “name and what you write” but also what book you’d like to have zapped from your memory so that you could experience reading it for the first time again (we all have them!).

Some titles mentioned were:

• Gone With the Wind written by Margaret Mitchell
• The Harry Potter series, written by J.K. Rowling
• The Giver, written by Lois Lowry
• Dune, written by Frank Herbert
• Pride and Prejudice, written by Jane Austen
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, written by Roald Dahl
• A Wrinkle in Time, written by Madeleine L ‘Engle

Then, the Schmooze kicked off with a very moving, highly personal and rather lengthy (some might say indulgent) story from Karol about how she’d come across the favorite book she’d brought to share, Newbery Honor book Incident at Hawk’s Hill, written by Allan W. Eckert and illustrated by John Schoenherr.  Karol had been introduced to the book, in a very round-about way, through her oldest sister, Jane.  The point – and Karol did have one – was that books that truly move and entertain us can sometimes come from unlikely places.

Charlie put the question to the group:  How do we come across our favorite books?  Answers varied.  Recommendations from friends, teacher etc., book reviews, our parents reading to us as children, new titles from our favorite authors and even book covers (by which, apparently, you sometimes can judge a book) were mentioned.

Charlie presented his favorite, The Book Of Lost Things, by John Connolly, a book about the power of stories and fairy tales, and asked the group, “What do we go to books for?”  Responses ranged from lighthearted escapism/wish-fulfillment to connection and inspiration, a desire to relate to “underdog” or marginalized characters, to feel community with others and even to help us figure out stuff in our own lives.  Unable to allow others to find joy in the lighthearted, Charlie sniffed that there was no such thing as escapism and that, in fact, those books were actually about deeper, darker and more personal issues than could be faced in more prosaic works.  Most Schmoozers smiled indulgently (not without a touch of pity), cleared their throats, and moved on…

Clearly, good books play an extremely important role in our lives – however we happen to come across them and whatever value we ultimately get from them. 

So what were a few of the Schmoozers favorite books?

!       The Girl Who Could Fly, written by Victoria Forester

!       Shatter Me, written by Tahereh Malfi

!       Obstinate Pen, written by Frank W. Dormer

!       For Love For Mother Not, written by Alan Dean Foster

!       The Magician’s Nephew, written by C.S. Lewis

!       Holes, written by Louis Sachar

!       Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, written by Douglas Adams

!       Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperrump-a-Zoo, written and illustrated by Mercer Mayer

!       The Magician’s Elephant, written by Kate DiCamillo

!       The Night Circus, written by Erin Morgenstern

!       Yips and Yankah (this is a very popular Dutch kids book series and we at Schmooze Central could not find the author – our apologies!)

!       Snark Out Boys and the Avocado of Death, written by Daniel Pinkwater

!       What My Mother Doesn’t Know, written by Sonya Sones

!       The Underneath, written by Kathi Appelt

!       Whale Talk, written by Chris Crutcher

!       The Silly Book, written and illustrated by Stoo Hample

Naturally, Dr. Seuss was an entity unto himself.  The Sneeches and 

Other Stories, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose, Bartholomew and the Oobleck, McElligot’s Pool and My Book About Me were some of the Seuss favorites mentioned.

Feel free to add MORE favorite books in the comments!

Of course, we’re forgetting one very special part of the Favorite Books Schmooze – the SINGING!!!

As any of you who read the description of the January 2013 Schmooze know, the possibility (some would say threat) of the first-ever Schmooze Sing–Along was mentioned.  And we “made it so,” fine Schmoozers!   

For any of you who missed the Schmooze or came late (whether intentionally or not), here’s your chance to sing-along with the gang!

These Are a Few Of Our Favorite Books

Charlotte and Katniss and Christopher Robin

Bus-driving pigeons and bank-owning goblins

Thousands of pages of Edward’s good looks

These are a few of our favorite books

Picture book classics that signal our bedtimes

Colorful pictures and fanciful end rhymes

Middle-grade fantasies, YAs with hooks

These are a few of our favorite books

Stories that take us to new awesome places

Make us feel happy, put smiles on our faces

Hardbacks and board books and Kindles and Nooks

Each format works for our favorite books

When the muse leaves
Lost my car keys
Day job is a drag

I simply start reading a favorite book
And then I don't feel so bad

Schmoozers pose with their fa-vor-ite books!  Photo: Rita Crayon Huang

 Who knows?  Maybe we’ll have a Schmooze Sing-Along EVERY month!!  OK…maybe not.

Next up - just in time for the day-before-Valentine’s, join us on Wednesday, February 13^th for…Fifty Shades of Schmooze: The Sex Schmooze!

(Any Schmoozers caught tittering or blushing will be mocked ruthlessly.)

Until then, keep passing the open windows,

Charlie & Karol

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!