For those of you who don't know, SCBWI is the tongue-twisting acronym for the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. It's a professional organization for writers and illustrators, and would-be writers and illustrators, all looking to make contacts, improve their skills, and generally be better at their craft. SCBWI holds a yearly conference during the summer in Los Angeles, where the headquarters are, and regional conferences all over the country and world during the whole year. This past weekend I had a great time attending the regional conference in Spokane, Wa, my home region . If you're serious about writing you should consider attending some kind of conference. The guest speakers are usually other writers or illustrators, and editors and agents who are available to also do critiques for the attendees. This is a good way to see how your writing looks to someone from the biz and not just your spouse or even critique group. It's also a good way to
It's almost here! My new middle-grade humor novel, Roll Up the Streets! is nearly here. Barnes & Noble has finally put up the cover art so you can see what it looks like. I'm pretty excited. Corndogs will do that to you, especially if they're EVIL corndogs. It's a fun story about a sarcastic 12-year-old, (is there any other kind?) Jake Machet, who moves to a small town that smells like the inside of his shoe, and I think we all know what a 12-year-old boy's shoes smell like. The only problem is that he's the only person who can smell it. Well, that's not the only problem, there are the greasy, plastic tasting corndogs everyone eats all the time, and the gooey streets and some kind of conspiracy to take over the world. But other than that things are just peachy for our hero Jake and his only friend Sammie, a smart-alecky girl with a history of pig-poop busting. Did I mention that it's funny too? Pick up a copy for your sarcastic 12-year-old.
Just recently I did both a reading and a bookstore signing of my book, Roll Up the Streets. I’ve been giving it some thought as to which is better for an author to do. I think most people would assume, and I always have, that a reading is better than a signing. You get to sit down with a group of interested listeners, read a couple of chapters—I did a bit of acting with props and a squeaky voice I worked on, don’t ask why I gave my villain a squeaky voice—interact with the audience and actually see and hear their reaction to your story. My reading at the Tinman Too bookstore went very well and I got to hear the laughs in person. That’s always rewarding for any writer used to working in isolation. I also spoke with a couple of 11-year olds, my core audience, both of whom wanted to be writers. So as well as being entertaining, I could also encourage future writers. I also managed to sell a few books. All in all it was as good of an experience as I expected. The signing was a bit diffe
Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteRich Bladek of Sparta, NJ