How to melt your brain, gain friends, and increase your capacity to be a children's writer and illustrator superhero all in 3 DAYS.

Okay, so it's been two weeks since the SCBWI's midsouth conference. 2 WEEKS!! And I wanted you to let you all know how it went. Awesome. It was awesome. I'm telling you I am an addict to these things. Gain strange, unusual, and talented friends? Yes please. Work on my craft as a writer and illustrator? Forever and ever. Get more tips on how to survive in the Jungle of the children's publishing world? Absolutely.

This conference made my brain so publishing savvy that it grew me a beard!

Here's a few things I learned or relearned at this particular conference (brace yourself):

1. Every page in your dummy picture book needs to have an action in it, whether it's subtle or dramatic.

-Loraine Joyner (Senior Art Director at Peachtree Publishers) 

2. "Never give up. You'll come across something that only you can write."

-Jay Asher (Author of Thirteen Reasons Why)

3. A distinct, authentic, relatable voice is probably the most important element to writing a good children's picture book.

-Lisa Cheng (Editor for Running Press Kids)

4. “This is not the music business, there are not high stakes, we don’t make that much money, and someone already has your idea."

-Micheal Bourett (Agent of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management) in response to a question from the audience asking if we need to worry about others stealing our ideas or stories.

5. “I’ve had your postcard on my bulleton for 1.5 years and have been waiting to hire you."

-An Art Director told Ms. Susan Eaddy (freelance illustrator)

6. It takes chocolate, fastfood, vodka, friends, and an unwanted dog.

-Answers from the artist/writer panelists to the question, "How do you buoy yourself when you are at the bottom of the cycle of despair?"

7. Orient all the pictures in your portfolio the same way.

-Bonnie Bader (Editor & Chief at Grosset & Dunlap) and Loraine Joyner (Senior Art Director At Peachtree Publishers)

8. "A wrong agent is worse than no agent."

-Micheal Bourett (Agent of Dystel & Goderich Literary Management)

9. "Please do not info dump."

-Lisa Cheng (Editor for Running Press Kids) on telling your audience too much when introducing a new character.

10. Be consistent  when you send out your mailers.

-Loraine Joyner (Senior Art Director At Peachtree Publishers) & Lisa Cheng (Editor for Running Press Kids)

11. Read, read , read.

-Jordan Brown (Editor at Walden Pond Press and Balzer + Bray) on what you can do to advance your career

Phew… are you still with me? Well, imagine all that good advice x20. After the conference was over, my head was buzzing about things I needed to do, how to better my craft, which houses better fit my style, and as always I felt the loving support that always happens through my connections at these conferences.

Can't wait for the next one. :)

Sleepless in Nashville.

So here are my intensive pieces for this weekend's SCBWI Midsouth conference and I am so very tired.

And let me just state while yawning and droopy eyed that SCBWI conferences are AMAZING, no matter what level of freelancer you are whether you are a novice or moderate superstar (With the exceptions of true Children's Book super stars like Chris Van Allsburg, Mo Williams, or JK Rowling. I'm assuming these types of conferences would be less useful to those of you who are so talented that everything they write and/or illustrate turns into gold.) 

Anyway, I am excited to hang out with my eccentric, talented, and a wee bit crazy kidlit friends on Friday.  Looking forward to being inspired, course corrected, and hopefully I can get over my social anxiety to make some good connections.  

Tiger hidden in my soup. (Should have added more cumin.) Or how sleep is optional before a SCBWI conference.

So I am totally delighted to say that I get to attend the Midsouth's SCBWI conference in 9 days. I am not delighted to say that I am bone tired. But it seems to me that this is how things are suppose to go before a conference. As my sweet husband will attest, I get a wee bit cranky running on 5 hours of sleep. ;)                                                                                                                                                    

So the SCBWI has started to do intensives in the last few years. I LOVE intensives. It's like being back in art school again. Basically you get an assignment from a super amazing Art Director. This year we are privileged enough to work with Ms. Loraine Joyner from Peachtree Publishers. My assignment was to illustrate a spread of the story Tiger in My Soup written by Kashmira Seth and illustrated by Jeffrey Ebbler. (We were encouraged not to look at the book, so I have no idea what it the story looks like other than the cover.)

Anyway, you submit your concept art, thumbnails and a final sketch to the Art Director and they give you constructive notes on how to fix or better enhance your illustration, then you come to the intensive with your final illustration.

This was my initial complete sketch of the spread:

Ms. Joyner went above and beyond the call of duty and sent me three pages of incredibly helpful and super encouraging notes. She helped me see where I needed pump up the action or fix things here and there. She basically liked the left side of the spread, so here is a simple upgraded version of the right side of the spread:



I'm working on the painting process right now and I have basically one week to finish. Excited for next weekend. Hopefully I can have enough time to be as meticulous as I want to be. Wish me luck, will you? :)

Hip Hip Hooray for SCBWI Conferences and Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

So happy day. A few weeks ago I went to a phenomenal conference and I discovered and rediscovered a few things about myself.

Firstly, I went to this conference mainly as an illustrator. Jim Hoover, Associate Art Director for Viking Books, did a fantastically amazing job, was so personable, and very very enlightening. This is the first time at a conference that I was able to participate in a month long Illustration intensive where we were periodically critiqued by Jim Hoover himself. Not only was he hilarious and incredibly entertaining, but he was super insightful in the most tactful way. I was expecting some harsh words about the things we had created, which honestly I don't mind. You are only as good as your worst piece after all. But every critique was chocolate covered. He was very insightful and specific, and yet so kind. It blew me away. But I still feel like I came away with some new insights on my creative process.

The pieces we were meant to create was the opening spread to a book. We were all critiqued openly and I have to say that I learned just as much from everybody else's critiques. The Midsouth SCBWI blog has a post with some of the other images from my talented illustrator friends. Aren't they neat? Yeah these ladies are my friends. Which let's face it, makes me a little cooler.

Anyhow. Here's my piece.

 I had fun doing it, even though in the midst of the the process I sliced and diced my thumb. (Boo to bean cans!) Unfortunately I still can't feel part of it... but I'm grateful that I haven't had to resign to painting with my toes.

Anyhow. Super inspiring and rejuvenating. And I have to say that I realized at this conference that I actually am a illustrator AND a writer. I have a gajillion ideas bouncing around in my head and I was intimidated that my strengths are more in illustrating and storytelling rather than in writing per se. But I was inspired by Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medal Winner for A Single Shard in 2002. Aside from being delightfully hilarious I was really struck by her motto of NOT believing in myself, but believing in my story.

I'm so excited to leave my piles of laundry and dirty dishes aside and to dive into all the projects I'm working on. Yay for inspiration. I highly recommend it.