The Second-Ever Completely Subjective "Best Business Card At A Children's Literature Conference" Award

It's happened once before, and was so much fun I had to do it again.

At this most recent and amazing SCBWI Conference, I collected and gave out business cards as I met and chatted with some of the most fascinating writers, illustrators, agents, editors, art directors and industry professionals.

Here's a pic of all the cards I brought home:



But there was ONE card that really stood out. In fact, once you got one, every ELSE saw that you had it. People asked me about mine. It was the MUST HAVE of the conference...

Which one was it?

*drumroll*

The HARBINGER 02.02.2012 Lanyards, promoting my friend Sara Wilson Etienne's debut novel coming out from Putnam/Penguin!

Check out how cool this is!



I wore mine (along with my red RA Lanyard) all weekend as did hundreds of other attendees. In fact, at our Los Angeles Kid Lit Drink Night, there was a sea of the distinctive orange HARBINGER swag on display.

So Sara, for your ComicCon-inspired marketing moment of brilliance in being the first kid lit person I've seen to bring hundreds of customized lanyards promoting their novel to a SCBWI conference, you have won... well, I guess it's really just bragging rights.

So well done!

*cue applause*

Congratulations, and thank you all for playing...

And if you have an entry you think could win, introduce yourself to me at the upcoming New York SCBWI Winter Conference (#NY12SCBWI) and let's swap cards!

Namaste,
Lee

Five Highlights of my #LA11SCBWI Experience! (With lots of quotes, and JUDY BLUME!)

There were so many HUGE stand-out moments for me from the three day conference and the full day of intensives, but perhaps the

#1 moment was having Judy Blume come to the LGBTQ Lunchtime Poolside chat and participate!

Me and Judy Blume! (I'm on the left.)

We had 50 attendees, including luminaries from the faculty Bruce Coville, Emma Dryden, Arthur A. Levine, Laurent Linn and, to our collective delight, Judy Blume. We went around the large oval and everyone introduced themselves, and then we had a Q&A.

One of the main questions was voiced by an author who wanted to know if he includes gay characters in his Middle Grade novel, is he hurting his chances of being published? Arthur A. Levine answered that no, in fact, if the story is well done, having GLBTQ characters in it could help it stand out and get published! (He even shared a story about how that was exactly how one very successful author finally got published- by writing the story with gay characters he'd been afraid to write.)

I took the opportunity to ask Judy how she deals with the challenge of knowing there will be people who won't like what she writes (she has faced so many book banning challenges) and asked her how does she avoid self-censoring?

She answered

"that's not what you should be thinking about when you're writing. Be with your characters and don't think about it."

YES - Tell the story that you have to tell! The session was exciting and very gratifying to moderate, and throughout the conference people came up to thank me for it. Awesome! (The official conference blog entry on the LGBTQ Chat is here.)

#2 The two intensives I took, with Bruce Coville and Ellen Hopkins, each provided me with enormous insights and inspiration for two different works in progress. I wrote about my experience in these sessions on the official conference blog, and am so grateful to have attended them both.

#3 Hearing Libba Bray say that in an early draft she'd written in one part of her manuscript: "Gemma is sad here. do you know why she's sad here? 'cause I don't!" I love hearing that even someone as brilliant as Libba has to re-write and revise to get her books to be so awesome. It's encouraging as I re-write and revise!

#4 Marinating in the sense of Tribe and community. I love being part of SCBWI Team Blog, and being a new part of the SCBWI Regional Advisor community, too - and just to be at the conference, surrounded by so many friends, old and new, who appreciate me, meant (and means) so much to me. Writing is a very solitary passionate pursuit, and these conferences are a fantastic counter-point to that. They are my favorite time of the year! And our second ever Los Angeles kid lit drink night was a gigantic success - with over 200 attendees!!!

#5 Throughout the conference there were so many tweetable and great things said. So I've gathered some of my favorites from my notes and share them again here:

"A good book is like other books, a great book is only like itself." - Bruce Coville

"If you get reads and everyone says it's perfect, get new readers." - Tina Wexler

"Story matters most." - Emma Dryden

"Any civilization is built on empathy. If dreadful things happen to you, you learn empathy. ...And for the protected child ...the safest way for them to develop empathy is through a book." - Donna Jo Napoli

"You want to be a different person on the other side of writing this book." - Libba Bray

"You write your stuff and get it out there any way you can." - Jon Scieszka

"One of the important jobs of a writer is to help children understand there is more than one way to look at things, and some of them are strange." - Norton Juster

"By choosing the right details, we can dilate the pores of time and enter time like an oil." - Mary Pope Osborne

"Great writing will always find a home." - Barry Goldblatt

"Beaver is the best meat: 37% protein." - Gary Paulson

"Read like the wolf eats." - Richard Peck

"Voice is personality" - Tracey Adams

"Marketing Survival: you do what you can and then get on with your day." - Susan Raab

"It's determination as much as any kind of talent that's going to get you there." - Judy Blume

"Your muse is you... and she deserves a lot of love and tender care." - Laurie Halse Anderson

It was an unforgettable four days, and I'm so grateful I got to be part of it. And I'm already excited about #NY12SCBWI - SCBWI's Annual Winter Conference in New York City, January 27-29, 2012.

Hope to see you there!
Namaste,
Lee

photo by Rita Crayon Huang!

My Imagined SCBWI Five Minute Keynote!

The SCBWI Summer Conference is one of my favorite times of the year. I'll be spending four days with my tribe - 1,342 writers, illustrators, editors, art directors, agents, and publishers - everyone passionate about creating creative content (what we used to just call "books") for children and teens.

I've been thinking a lot about what I would say if I were given five minutes on the main stage, in front of all these amazing creative people. If I were given a chance to give a mini-keynote.


And yeah, I totally made this photo up.




Here's what I'd say:

Hi Everyone. I'm Lee Wind, a blogger at "I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?" and a member of SCBWI Team Blog. I'm an assistant Regional Advisor for Los Angeles, and I write middle grade novels.

Anne Sibley O’Brien, in a recent series of articles in the SCBWI Bulletin, brought our attention to the phenomenon of “white mind” – how many of us default our characters in our writing and illustrating to be white. I’d argue we also have “heterosexist mind,” where we don’t even realize we’re not including Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning characters in our writing and illustrating. Our princesses end up with princes. Our boy characters are attracted to girls, our girl characters are attracted to boys, the adults in our books are all straight, and we don’t even notice we’re doing it.

I’d like to advocate that we, as children’s content creators, become the engine for a re-education that gets people’s minds to include gay possibilities. That’s no more radical than suggesting that the universes of our books include the diversity of the world in which our children are already growing up.

Just as African-American children and Asian children, disabled children and foreign children, Latino children and Jewish children, fat children and deaf children, and every other group of “other” children do, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning children need that moment of seeing themselves reflected in the books they read.

Without seeing themselves in the stories they grow up with, how can they believe there’s a place for them in our world? Sadly, so many GLBTQ children don’t see a future for themselves. And not believing in a future is one cause of the tragic rash of gay teen suicides.

Before going any further, I need to debunk a devastating stereotype about what it means to be gay. Being attracted to someone of the same gender is NOT a choice. If you’re straight, was there a moment in your life when you CHOSE to be attracted to people of the opposite gender? We can’t convince ourselves to be attracted to Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie if that’s not what we find attractive. We can’t control or choose or change how our bodies are wired.

The dearth of positive portrayals of GLBTQ characters in children’s literature doesn’t keep GLBTQ children and teens from existing. But it does feed a culture where gayness is equated with second-class citizenship. It feeds a lack of self-esteem. It feeds a loss of hope.

You certainly don’t need to be GLBTQ to write a GLBTQ character – any more than you need to be male to write boy characters. Do your homework. Get your details right. And in the words of Jane Yolen: “H.O.P.” - get your Heart On the Page. Because, at the end of the day, GLBTQ characters have emotions and hopes and fears just like every other character. And if we can tap into OUR real emotions when we write them, they’ll ring true.

Ellen Wittlinger famously said (and I’m doing my best to make her famous for saying it) that she includes GLBTQ characters in everything she writes, even the books that aren’t about those characters, because they’re part of the world of her readers, and she wants her books to reflect that.

And for illustrators, there’s an equally important opportunity to open minds and hearts. Look at the amazing work of two-time Caldecott-Honoree Marla Frazee, whose illustrations to Susan Meyer’s words in their board book, "Everywhere Babies," includes an exhausted two mom family, right next to all the other racially diverse, exhausted parents.

I once asked a children’s illustrator if he had any gay content in his portfolio, and he reacted as if I’d asked if he had any pornography among his drawings. Look at Madge and Bernie Wubbington in Peter Brown’s "The Fabulous Bouncing Chowder." They may be heterosexual, but they’re not having sex. They’re sitting on a couch. Similarly, including GLBTQ characters doesn’t necessarily sexualize a book.

When we were talking at one of our GLBTQ Poolside Chats at a previous SCBWI Summer Conference, Arthur A. Levine brought up how simple it would be to include a two mom family in a Middle Grade work. One child character asks their friend if they can stay for dinner, and the friend can respond, "I just need to call my Moms and check." "Moms." As simple as making it plural.

I urge us all to consider including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and questioning characters and themes in our writing and illustrating for children. Include them in our picture books, our chapter books, our middle grade, and our young adult manuscripts. Include them in our magazine articles, our nonfiction, and in our art.

At the very least, we can contribute to a more respectful sense of safe space in our world – and in our literature – by not having characters disparage GLBTQ people with expressions like “that’s so gay” as toss-off moments of dialog – even if it’s what teens today say.

None of us would use the “N-word” carelessly in a children's book. Our culture has shifted to where racism is unacceptable. We haven't eliminated racism, but most of us try to stop it when we see it in action, and we would certainly rise up against its inclusion in books for children. We need to make homophobia unacceptable as well. I'm not arguing for censorship, but we should recognize that carelessly using words like “faggot,” “that’s so lame,” “retard,” and boys calling girls “bitch,” contributes to a culture where kids learn to build their own self esteem by putting others down. We need to change that power dynamic.

The goal is not tolerance. Or even acceptance. The goal is for us to be able to celebrate our differences.

And as creators of content for children, WE can help get our world there. We can make kids’ and teens’ lives better for having read and experienced our stories – all kids. Gay and straight.

We can make a difference. And we should.

If you want to talk more about including LGBTQ characters and themes in your writing and illustrating, join me and some amazing conference faculty members at our LGBTQ Poolside Chat, Friday August 5, 2011 from 12:45pm-2:00pm.

Thanks, and hope to see you there!

Namaste,

Now I want to know: What would YOU talk about if you got 5 minutes on the main stage?

This speech is an updated version of my writer's perspective column that was published in our local southern California SCBWI kitetales (Spring 2011).

Ten Things I'm So Excited About (And That You Should Know) For the 40th Anniversary SCBWI Summer Conference (which starts tomorrow!)

1. I'll be blogging about the conference as part of SCBWI Team Blog, and you can follow along at the official conference blog here! We'll be led once again by Team Captain Alice Pope, and the rest of the team is Martha Brockenbrough, Jolie Stekley, Jaime Temairik, and Suzanne Young. They're all amazing, and I'm so honored to be included!

2. You can join in the tweets about the conference with the twitter hashtag #LA11SCBWI!

3. Once again I'll be moderating the conference's LGBTQ Poolside Chat - Friday August 5, 2011, from 12:45pm - 2:00pm. We've got a number of the conference faculty joining in, and it should be a great opportunity to talk about including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning characters and themes in our writing and illustrating for children and teens.

4. I'm going to charge up on INSPIRATION! There are so many Keynotes I can't wait to hear! Like the Friday Keynotes from Bruce Coville, Libba Bray and Emma Dryden! And the Saturday Keynotes from John Green, Jon Scieszka and Mary Pope Osborne! And Laurie Halse Anderson's Keynote on Sunday!

5. I'm going to learn some great focused tools and techniques of CRAFT! How am I ever going to figure out which Friday, Saturday, and Sunday workshops to attend? At least I have two writers intensives for Monday already figured out, with a morning session on writing fantasy taught by Bruce Coville, and an afternoon session on Writing Novels in Verse taught by Ellen Hopkins!

6. I'm going to deepen my understanding about the BUSINESS! From hearing what specific editors and agents are looking for (have you looked at the faculty lineup? Awesome!) to mock sales conferences and editor/author discussions!

7. I'm going to be open to being challenged - Jon Scieszka will be giving a workshop on experimenting with multi-platform storytelling, and I like how dangerous that feels.

8. I'll be co-hosting our Los Angeles Regional meeting (with RAs Sarah Laurenson and Edie Pagliasotti, and RA Emeritus Claudia Harrington) on Sunday Aug 7th from 7:45am-8:15am in the one of the two hospitality rooms (The Malibu or the Bel Air room on the California Level - they're just down the hall from each other and we'll have a sign at both directing you to which one we're in...)

9. Outside the conference (and open to anyone in the world of children's literature) I'm one of the planners of the Los Angeles Kid Lit Drink night - SCBWI Summer Conference Edition across the street from the hotel at Pink Taco on Sunday night after the day's conference events! Join Jill Corcoran, Greg Pincus, Rita Crayon Huang, Sara Wilson Etienne and me for tortilla chips, salsa (the dip, not the dance) and conversation!

10. I'm going to revel in being with my tribe - and knowing I belong - and enjoying the strong sense of COMMUNITY from the first moment I pull up to the conference hotel until it's all over on Monday night. Oh, and did I mention I'm MAKING my pajama pants for the Saturday Night 40 Winks Anniversary Poolside Gala? Yup. I'm learning to sew. And they're going to be sew cool! I love to dance, and this celebration is always such a great time - I can't wait!

And here's my best piece of conference advice:

Remember that so much of the magic of attending the conference happens outside the official sessions - so make a point of hanging out in the lobby in the evenings, and striking up conversations on the escalators... Consider that "networking" is just a fancy word for being friendly, which is easy to do when you're surrounded by others passionate about creating creative content for young people.

And if you see me, say "Hi!"

Here's to a wonderful conference experience for us all!

Namaste,
Lee

Bruce Coville: The Exclusive SCBWI Team Blog Pre-#LA11SCBWI Conference Interview

Bruce Coville has written over 100 books for children and young adults, and if you haven't yet seen him speak, you're in for an incredible experience - Bruce isn't just an award-winning and best-selling author, he's a master storyteller.

His talk about the importance of the "numinous" is something I often think about in regards to my own writing, and I can't wait to experience his Monday intensive on "The Art Of Writing Fantasy."

Here, Bruce gives us the scoop on his upcoming conference Keynote, and it sounds amazing...




For more information about the conference and to register, go here.

And don't forget to bookmark The Official SCBWI Conference Blog!



I hope you can join me in seeing Bruce weave his magic!

Namaste,
Lee

Harold Underdown: The Exclusive Team Blog Pre-#LA11SCBWI Conference Interview

As part of the fantastic group of kid lit blogging superheroes that make up SCBWI Team Blog, I had the chance to virtually interview Harold Underdown about his being on faculty for the upcoming SCBWI 40th annual summer conference in Los Angeles, August 5-8, 2011.



For more information about the conference and to register, go here.

And don't forget to bookmark The Official SCBWI Conference Blog!



Hope to see you there,
Namaste,
Lee

Katie Davis: The SCBWI Team Blog Pre-Conference #LA11SCBWI Interview

During our podcast interview, I turned the tables and interviewed Katie Davis for SCBWI Team Blog. Here, she gives us the scoop on her ProTrack workshop, "Podcasting Your Way To Success" at SCBWI's upcoming 40th annual summer conference in Los Angeles, August 5-8, 2011.



For more information about the conference and to register, go here.

And don't forget to bookmark The Official SCBWI Conference Blog!



Hope to see you there,
Namaste,
Lee

Emma Dryden: The Exclusive SCBWI Team Blog Pre-Conference #LA11SCBWI Interview

I got to sit down with Emma Dryden, drydenbks founder and SCBWI Board Member, and have her share more details with us about her keynote at the upcoming 40th Anniversary SCBWI Summer Conference!



In addition to her Friday Keynote, Emma will also be leading a Saturday morning workshop, "Independent Editors and new Models for Publishing Our Stories," and a Sunday afternoon pro-track workshop with Harold Underdown, "Social Media for Authors and Illustrators."

The conference will have Emma, over 20 leading editors, art directors and agents, and many of the great children’s book authors and illustrators of our time, including Laurie Halse Anderson, Libba Bray, Bruce Coville, John Green, Norton Juster, Donna Jo Napoli, Mary Pope Osborne, Gary Paulsen, Jerry Pinkney, Jon Scieszka and David Small.



So go check out all the faculty and conference offerings, register, and I hope to see you there!

And remember, you can stay on top of all the pre-conference interviews and news by checking in on our Official SCBWI Conference blog and on Team Blog Captain Alice Pope's indispensable SCBWI Children's Market Blog - bookmark them both!



Namaste,
Lee