'Tis the season . . .for School Visits !

School visits galore! Can't wait for December 1st as I begin the rounds of author visits to preschools and elementary schools. I love the visits - the schools are always gracious and the students ask fantastic questions! If you are on my list of schools this year, see you soon and be sure to check back for photos of our day together!

PiBoIdMo: Are You In On The Fun?

Today is November 2nd, and if you are a PiBoIdMo participant you should have your second idea penciled in. If you are not a participant, you are saying, "What the heck are you talking about?" PiBoIdMo is a funny name, but loaded with creativity and imagination. Tara Lazar is sponsoring Picture Book Idea Month on her blog.

The goal: each day in November, come up with a new picture book idea.

The details: it can be just the title, a jacket blurb, an outline or an entire first draft!

The reward: winners will submit their top five ideas to agents. The agents listed on Tara's blog will provide feedback on the picture books.

The other reward: you now have a folder of 30 picture books titles!

Jump on over to Tara's blog and sign up as a participant. And for goodness sake, get writing!

Pointers When Pitching Your Manuscript.

Kathy Temean, Regional Advisor of SCBWI-NJ, has a great post on 11 Questions to Answer While Working On Your Pitch. Kathy makes a great analogy of comparing your pitch to a t.v. commerical. You have the ear of an editor/agent for 30 seconds. Make it work for you! Kathy urges us to be clear on the theme, genre, hook and conflict. Check out Kathy's blog here and find other interesting tidbits too.

The ABC's of Rebus Writing

My critique group has challenge this month - rebus writing. "How simple" you say? Not so fast!
At 80-125 words, rebus writing has its own set of challenges. I picked up some great tips from an article in Institute of Children's Literature by Marianne Mitchell.

Focus on one small event
The topic must appeal to 2-6 year olds
1-4 characters in the story
At least 8 nouns that can be clearly illustrated
Illustrative possibilities are nouns, colors, numbers
Need a surprise or twist at the end

Check out The Nuts and Bolts of Rebus Writing for other important rebus tools.

Agents Talk Trends in Children's Publishing

At the NE-SCBWI conference, agents discussed trends in the children's publishing world. What's hot, what's not, the status of picture books and nonfiction. The agent panel consisted of three top agents: Edward Necarsulmer, Ammi-Joan Paquette and Sarah Davies. Find out what writers were asking and how the agents responded. Great information . .

Find the article in The Guide to Literary Agents.

Writing Narrative Non-Fiction? Read On!

In last week's Guide to Literary Agents, agent Jon Sternfeld gives us the skinny on the essential elements of writing narrative non-fiction. Jon is an agent with the Irene Goodman Literary Agency. He describes the five important points in this type of writing:



1. Arcs

2. Inverse rule for nonfiction

3. Familiar strange, strange familiar

4. Big and small

5. Voice



Read Jon's interview here

SCBWI Fall Philly Fantastic

If you missed the SCBWI Fall Philly conference this year, be sure to sign up next year. The 2011 event will be a three-day extravaganza combined with Western PA. I was fortunate to be part of yesterday's speakers. My presentation included YA author Jennifer Hubbard and MG author Nan Marino. The Fall Philly theme was Harvest. Jennifer, Nan and I spoke about our journey as a debut author, the Garden Tools for publication, Soil and Nutrients, Weather, and Selling the Crop. Wendy Mass, also a KidLit Author Club member, did a great job on providing inspiration for all. Theu audience loved her, and we were delighted to hear that one of her (11) books, Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, was recently made into a movie. Congrats Wendy! Harold Underdown also spoke of the current state of publishing. He has a huge online presence and it was definitely interesting to hear him speak. Kudos to Fall Philly coordinator Tara Cahill for a wonderful event!