Good News To Share

I'm very excited to announce that I have signed with a literary agent, Danielle Smith of Red Fox Literary!

my agent - wow, that was fun to write!

It's a big moment in my career as a writer, and I'm thrilled.

Looking forward to having more good news to share moving forward...

Namaste (the light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you),
Lee

A sneak peek of the LGBTQ Q&A conference faculty guests at this year's sold-out SCBWI Summer Conference!

One of my favorite events of the year, the SCBWI Summer Conference starts today! I'm once again heading up SCBWI's Team Blog, and we'll be tweeting (follow the hashtag #la14scbwi) and blogging live from the conference floor over at the Official Conference Blog.

Among the conference events I'm most excited about is getting to host the LGBTQ Q&A session this evening (Friday August 1, 2014), from 7:30pm - 8:30pm in Olympic II.

Our faculty guests this year are fantastic, and will be joining us with enthusiasm, encouragement, and answers to attendees' questions about the fears, challenges and triumphs of including LGBTQ characters and themes in works for children and teens.

Who are they?

Tim Federle, 2014 Golden Kite For Fiction Winner for his Middle Grade novel, "Better Nate Than Ever." I did a fun pre-conference interview with Tim here.

Author Tim Federle

Agent Danielle Smith, of Red Fox Literary

Agent Danielle Smith

Agent Adriana Dominguez, of Full Circle Literary

Agent Adriana Dominguez

Art Director Laurent Linn from Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (who worked on Tim's cover!)

Laurent Linn and a friend

and legendary author Bruce Coville (who has published over 120 books and whose "Am I Blue?" short story back in 1995 gave the title to the ground-breaking Marion Dane Bauer-edited anthology, "Am I Blue?: Coming Out From the Silence."

Author Bruce Coville

If you're attending the SCBWI Summer conference, I hope to see you there. Otherwise, if it's of interest, stay tuned to the conference blog and to twitter for a tapas-like taste of what's sure to be an amazing event, in a weekend of superlatives!

** UPDATE SAT AUG 2, 2014, 6:33AM **

We were also joined by "Freakboy" Author Kristin Elizabeth Clark and Editor Emma Dryden.

You can read my session summary here at the Official SCBWI Conference Blog.

***

Namaste,
Lee

My top ten inspirations from #LA14writersdays

What an amazing weekend!

The two-day Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators - Los Angeles writers conference I just ran (along with my co-regional advisor, Sarah Laurenson, our assistant regional advisor, Sally Jones Rogan, and a whole team of fellow volunteers) was a great success, if I do say so myself. (But it's not just me. Lots of other people are saying it, too!)

Saturday was a day of keynotes and a first pages panel, and Sunday were the intensives.

Here are some of the moments that are still resonating for me:

1. "Writers hear 'no' more than toddlers do." ...And how that's part of the creative and career process of being a writer - Katherine Applegate (Newbery-winner for her MG novel, "The One And Only Ivan.")

2. 'If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it.'- Toni Morrison, as quoted by Katherine Applegate.

3. "If you're writing YA, read one YA a week... Know what's out there." - Catherine Linka (bookseller and children's book buyer for the Flintridge Bookstore and Coffeehouse and YA author of the upcoming "A Girl Called Fearless")

4. "What are the first five to ten details you learn about the character? Do they follow through?" - Heidi Fiedler (Editor at Teacher Created Materials and Argosy Press.)

5. "Fiction is frogs misbehaving." - Advice from the first pages panel, a comment on a first page where a child character rode a frog who jumped from country to country in a tour-around-the-world format.

6. The idea of building a story backwards from a profound last line, as Danielle Smith (agent at Red Fox Literary) described in her keynote.

7. Antagonists need their own plot-line: what do they want that conflicts with what your protagonist wants? - Martha Alderson (The Plot Whisperer)

8. Your main character's goals may change throughout the story: chart out their goal at the beginning, the middle and the end. (They have to have a goal in every single scene.) - Martha Alderson (The Plot Whisperer)

9. Related to #7: "The only way we can begin to emotionally identify with a character is if we know what they want." - Martha Alderson (The Plot Whisperer)

10. The final notes: Having more than 160 people sing along with me the words that describe what SCBWI offers: Inspiration, Business, Craft, Opportunity... (To the notes - moving up the scale - C, E, G, high C... And then, as a chord: Community!

and a bonus inspiration:

11. We had to stack all the venue chairs to the side of the gymnasium at the end of Sunday's program. This is a job that usually takes our small group of event volunteers nearly a half-hour. Just before we broke for the day (and sang those words in #10), I asked those for whom it was physically easy to please carry the chair they were sitting in over to the side and help us stack the chairs.  Every chair was stacked in under 10 minutes. Wow - what an illustration of the power of community!!!

Namaste (the light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in every one of you),
Lee

ps- If you were there and blogged about your top take-aways, add a link in comments! Thanks!

Los Angeles' Writers Days! #LA14writersdays

I'm excited about our SCBWI Los Angeles' Writer's Days conference this weekend!

It's my local SCBWI chapter's biggest event of the year, and for the third year in a row I'm organizing it along with my co-Regional Advisor, Sarah Laurenson, our Assistant Regional Advisor, Sally Jones Rogan, and our team of fellow volunteers!

We've got Newbery-Winner Katherine Applegate (How much am I loving "The One and Only Ivan!")

Bookseller and YA Author Catherine Linka (Who'll share insights from wearing both hats!)

Editor Heidi Fiedler (An editor hungry for new-to-her writers, both for trade books and work-for-hire projects!)

Literary Agent Danielle Smith (Newly at Red Fox Literary, actively looking to build her list!)

Additional faculty includes Social Media Guru Greg Pincus (who's doing social media consults!) and Literary Agent Jen Rofé (whose Sunday intensives are sold out!)

and Martha Alderson (The famed "Plot Whisperer!")

There's a first-pages panel, contests, the awarding of the Sue Alexander Service and Encouragement Award (to recognize one of our region's hardest-working volunteers) and it wouldn't be "Writer's Days" without lots of writing exercises and the chance to work on our craft!

It will be two days full of inspiration, opportunity, craft, business and community -- I can't wait!

We'll be taking walk-in registrations for Saturday and for Sunday's all-day PLOT intensive with Martha Alderson.

If you're writing for kids and/or teens, consider joining us. Details are here.

And if you're able to attend or not, you can follow the conference buzz on twitter, with the hashtag #la14writersdays

Registration is Open for SCBWI Los Angeles' Writer's Days Conference 2014 (on March 22 and 23)

Visit the conference registration and information page

I'm really excited about this two day conference that I'm running as co-Regional Advisor of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Los Angeles chapter. (Well, me and my co-RA, Sarah Laurenson, our Assistant RA, Sally Jones Rogan, and a whole team of fellow volunteers.)

It will feature Katherine Applegate (who just won the Newbery Award for "The One And Only Ivan" and writes picture books, chapter books, middle grade and young adult) and Plot Whisperer Martha Alderson (whose presentations on plot are legendary!)

We'll also have young adult Novelist and Book-Buyer Catherine Linka (to tell us what every writer needs to know about retail book buying today) and middle grade Novelist and social media guru Greg Pincus on faculty.

There will be also two agents and an editor on faculty - all interested in finding new-to-them writers. Danielle Smith, Associate Agent at Foreword Literary Agents and Heidi Fiedler, Editor at both Teacher Created Materials (work-for-hire) and at Argosy Press (trade publishing) will present keynotes on Saturday. Jennifer Rofé, Agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, will round out our faculty on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday - we'll have some amazing intensives:

PLOT TRACK with Martha Alderson: Develop a Multi-Layered Plot for your Middle Grade Fiction and Young Adult Novels

EDITOR TRACK with Heidi Fiedler: Work For Hire and Trade Publishing

AGENT PICTURE BOOK TRACK with Danielle Smith and Jennifer Rofé

AGENT NOVEL TRACK with Jennifer Rofé and Danielle Smith


There are contests, a first pages panel, one-one-one plot and social media consultations, and so much more - for all the information and to register visit:

https://losangeles.scbwi.org/events/2014-writers-days/


If you write for kids or teens, I look forward to seeing you there!
Namaste,
Lee