TAKEAWAYS from SCBWI-CAROLINAS 2017

Congratulations to Connie Saunders who won Sheri Levy's Starting Over ARC.

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Teresa Fannin and Bonnie Adamson, the SCBWI-Carolinas Regional Advisors, co-ordinated another great annual conference. For those of you who were unable to attend, here are some of my takeaways:

From two time Newberry Honor award winner Gary Schmidt's breakout session on Narrator and POV:

• Make a conscious decision about who your narrator is. If you're stuck, switch POV (even to an inanimate object or animal). Even if you don't use that narrator, your story will be informed by what you discover. 
• Use long vowels to slow your story down. Short vowels speed things up.

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From my critique of Half-Truths with agent John Cusick (my reactions in red):

• "Writing is polished and accomplished." (Woohoo!)
• "Love the family relationships."
• "Prose is solid, tight, and evocative."
• "Characterization and dialogue feels a bit generic in places." (Fixable. I have to think harder, dig deeper)
• Develop Kate's unique POV. (Ditto)
• Sounds more middle grade than young adult. (I have received this feedback before. Middle grade, here I come.)

John had other suggestions as I go forward. The shift to middle grade will take some switching around in my head and on the page, but as I'm in the middle of another draft this is the time to do it. Since I tend to read middle grade more than young adult, I think that ultimately I'll be happy with this decision.

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From my breakout session on "Wiki's 101": 

• Be ready to improvise when technology doesn't work the way you expect. Thanks to my gracious attendees who made my moment of "Oops, the LCD isn't projecting the online wikis as I expected," less of a panic situation and more a learning experience. 

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From agent, Jennifer Mattson's breakout, "Putting on the Architect's Hat":

• There are several different narrative structures besides a straight linear one (Beginning, Middle, End.) The one that most interested me was pastiche. When I read Kathleen Burkinshaw's debut novel, The Last Cherry Blossom, I was intrigued by her use of headlines and snippets from radio broadcasts as part of her chapter headings. In fact, last week I was glued to the microfilm machine at the Charlotte public library searching articles from The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte News, and The Carolina Israelite for that purpose. Since I'm also including free verse and letters in Half-Truths, I'm glad to find a name for this type of novel!

From THE LAST CHERRY BLOSSOM
Example of a pastiche novel.

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From John Cusick's breakout, "Pacing- What to Cut. What to Keep and What Order to Put it In":

• Physical description must reveal character.
• Character should be revealed through ACTION. Not a decision to act.
• Cut rhetorical questions.
• "Start as close to the end as possible." Kurt Vonnegut.
• Open with scene, not summary. 

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From the bookstore:

5 grandchildren = going a little crazy in the conference bookstore!

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From the first pages session:

• Be careful of inner monologue that's not authentic.
• Hook your reader with emotion first.
• If you're writing historical fiction, make sure there is a good reason for placing it in the past. 
• Be in the moment with your characters and scenes.

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And last, but certainly not least, from my friend Donna Earnhardt:

"You are tackling a story that is not easy, yet you've made the effort to get feedback that was probably not easy to hear... and still, you keep on going. I am so proud of you and I think that you should be proud of yourself, too. Your tenacity encourages me to keep on keeping on - even when it's hard."

I confess to fighting discouragement over how long it has taken to complete Half-Truths. But Donna looks at my journey and sees perseverance. Which goes to show that often--in life and in books--there are two points of view. 

BEING FRANK: Five Free Skype Visits with Author Donna Earnhardt

I don't want to overload anyone's inbox, so I rarely blog twice a week. But every once in awhile I want to pass along information in a timely fashion and this post is an exception to my once-a-week blog rule. 

Donna Earnhardt is no stranger to the Carolina's SCBWI region and to this blog. I first blogged about Donna's picture book in 2012 when Being Frank was new to the world. Now, she has a special offer that I wanted you to know about. Without further ado, here is Donna!

Kindness is needed in today’s world… lots of it!

In an effort to share Frank, and his message of sharing truth with kindness, Donna is hosting a “Being Frank: More Sugar, Less Pepper!” contest!

To enter:

1. Post a picture of your librarian, students, or teachers reading Being Frank on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

2. Use the hashtags #MoreSugarLessPepper and #BeingFrankIn followed by your state’s initials (example: BeingFrankIn NY) PLEASE NOTE: BOTH hashtags are required!

3. Donna will choose the post she likes best, so be creative! She wouldn’t be opposed to seeing your principal in a Mrs. Peacock hat!

4. The FIVE winning schools will earn a free Skype visit with Donna Earnhardt, author of Being Frank.

Each individual post is counted as its own entry, so the more posts, the better!

Contest ends November 12, 2016.

Winners will be announced on November 13 in honor of World Kindness Day!

SHARE FREELY! SHARE WIDELY!

Find more Being Frank info and handouts at Flashlight Press.

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Librarians and teachers--this is an opportunity you don't want to pass up. Donna is hilarious and will give a great Skype lesson for your school. Please let me know if you win!

Book Metaphors, Life Changes, and of course, a Giveaway!

Congratulations to Gretchen Griffith who won the audio CD of The Spy Catchers of Maple Hill on last week's blog.

After twenty-eight years, next week my husband Creighton and I will be loading a truck and moving to the eastern part of North Carolina to be closer to children and grandchildren.  This post is full of  nostalgia, memories, and family. But before it ends, I promise a literary connection too. 

6764 Benning Wood Drive

In this home we celebrated birthdays,

Lindsey Baldwin Kasten
circa 1987

Lisa Baldwin Edgar
circa 1995

And had our family picture taken on the porch.

Baldwins
Circa 1992

We welcomed son's-in-laws, grand-dogs,

Circa 2005

and grandchildren.

Circa 2009
With Ebby and Caitlin

We licked homemade strawberry jam from a century-old pot,

Margaret & Henry Federlin
Circa 2005

And baked cookies,

Lisa and Grandma Federlin
2011

Rachel Federlin, 2012

With my sister,
Barbara Federlin, 2012

more than a few times.

We played poker,

and prayed with friends.

With Beth Schulz, circa 1990.

Our home hosted a few writing retreats,

With Donna Earnhardt, Rebecca Petruck, & Joyce Hostetter
2013

and was the construction site for new dental office cabinets.

"During" with
Robert Toupal
 2012

"After"

Several friends--even those who aren't writers--have waxed poetic about our move.  "You're just ending one chapter and starting a new one." 

And of course, they're right. 

But I'm not the only one who is facing changes.

One of my closest writing buddies, Linda Phillips, is celebrating a new chapter in her life. 

Working on CRAZY at a
Baldwin Writing Retreat
2011

She is on her first book tour in Oregon, celebrating the debut of her YA novel-in-verse, CRAZY.

Linda recently celebrated her launch
at the Oregon Institute of Technology

Linda and I have been friends ever since Fran Davis, a former Regional Advisor of SCBWI-Carolinas, told us that we would work well together as co-chairs of the conference in Charlotte. 

Fifteen years later, I'm celebrating the new chapters in each of our lives by giving away a copy of CRAZY.

There you have it. Book Metaphors, Life Changes. And a Giveaway!

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Faced any life changes recently or in the past? Leave me a comment by 8 AM on October 30 and tell me about it. Share this in your social media of choice and I'll enter your name twice. Don't forget to tell me what you did and leave your email address if I don't have it. 

Bookends
2014

My Next Big Thing

My friend and role model, Joyce Hostetter, tagged me last week in a work-in-progress meme called, "The Next Big Thing." You can read about Joyce's WIP here, and since I've had the privilege of reading parts of it, I can tell you that it will be great!

Now it's my turn to answer eight questions and then to tag several authors. Here we go:

What is the working title of your book? Half-Truths. 

Where did the idea for the book come from? That's a long story. I visited Wing Haven gardens with my youngest daughter about 15 years ago. At the time I thought it would make a great picture book but found that there were too many stories for that genre. Then I thought I would take some of the real stories about this bird sanctuary and write a book for young boys. My son-in-law said there was not enough blood and guts in a story about children rescuing a robin for boy readers today. Now Wing Haven is the quiet sanctuary where both main characters find refuge.

Joyce had shared Carolyn Yoder's advice to "write the story in your own backyard." I started thinking about how the same last name for both blacks and whites were on signs all around Charlotte, NC. Obviously there was a connection there. I visited the Rosenwald school in the Grier Heights community and noticed the pictures of many several light-skinned principals. That day I spoke with two gentlemen which further stimulated my thinking about the connections between white and African American families in Charlotte. 

One to two sentence synopsis of the book: In Charlotte in 1950, two teenage girls--one black and one white-- break racial restrictions, uncover family secrets, and discover they are second cousins.   
  

What else about the book might peak the readers' interest?
I think that many young adult readers today don't fully realize the problems that African Americans faced before integration. Lillie, the light-skinned African American girl, will flirt with the idea of passing as a way to get everything that whites have. The white girl, Kate, has her own set of problems as she doesn't fit in with the debutante lifestyle her grandmother wants her to have. I am hoping that these issues of "belonging" will resonate with today's readers. There is also an unlikely romance threaded throughout the book. 

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I have no plans to self-publish and will look for agency representation after it is as close to perfect as I can get it--with the help of many critique partners!

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the story?
That is a REALLY hard question to answer! I had many starts and stops along the way as I had a hard time figuring out where my story began. As a result, I spent a lot of time writing what I now understand to have been the back story. In 2008 Joyce challenged me to participate in NaNoWriMo. I had already been working on this novel, but that helped me spill more of the guts of this book. By the end of 2010 I had completed my first draft. At the SCBWI-Carolinas conference in 2011, my critiquer was Mary Cate Castellani. She suggested that I write my story from both girls' points of view. That was a major shift in my thinking and writing and it took about nine months of working on and off with Rebecca Petruck to come up with a really good outline. I am now over half-way through this draft; which is tighter and better than any of the previous drafts! 

What other books would you compare it to in this genre? This is a scary question because I don't want to feel presumptuous at all. Since it deals with issues of segregation I'd like for readers to think of To Kill a Mockingbird--but I hesitate to even admit that since that is such a Southern classic! Since it deals with a light-skinned young woman passing, I also think of Flygirl by Sherri Smith, although that takes place about five years earlier. When I have described the book to others, some adults have thought that it was The Help for teens, but the books are very different. 

What actors would you chose to play a movie rendition? I am not a movie person, so I couldn't begin to answer this question. But Price Davis, my 92-year-old African American expert keeps telling me to hurry up and finish the book because he wants to see the movie! Now, that's encouragement!

Price Davis, outside his childhood home.

OK, now it's your turn Gretchen Griffith, Becky Levine, Bonnie Doerr, Donna Earnhardt, Augusta Scattergood, and Niki Schoenfeldt. If you want to play along and share with the world what your next Big Thing is--we want to hear it!

Being Frank and Giveaway #1

In my next three blogs I am introducing three books that are coming out this month. Each author has generously agreed to give away a copy of her book. Details on how to enter follow this post. But first, here is Donna Earnhardt who is jumping out of her skin to share her new baby with you. Take it away, Donna!

Carol: How and when did you get your idea for Being Frank? Did anybody in your family inspire the story?

Donna: Some people do creative thinking while cleaning or exercising. I happen to know some wonderful folks who get great ideas while mowing. Me? I usually get them while I’m taking a shower or when I’m praying. I just happened to be doing both when the first line of Being Frank popped into my head! The whole book is inspired by my family. Even the main character’s name. My dad’s first name was Frank! 

Carol: How many rewrites/revisions did you go through? Did  editorial input shape the story?

Donna: I went through a couple of revisions on my own before I queried Shari Greenspan at Flashlight Press. But my changes were not big ones. For about a year or so after she received my manuscript, Shari gave me input and asked for revisions. Her insight was incredible and she saw things that needed changing which I couldn’t see. She has great ideas and they definitely helped the story become what it is today.

Carol: How did you find your publisher? 

Donna: I had already submitted  several things to Shari, but none of them were right for her. As hard as it was to receive rejections, it was nice to know that Shari was quick and honest in her feedback. If she didn’t like it, you knew pretty quickly. She had rejected another book, Pirate Stew, which I revised and resubmitted. She still didn’t like it! J BUT… I believe that interaction was a blessing! It wasn’t too long after that rejection that I sent Being Frank. Obviously, she liked it!

Carol: It sounds as if your back and forth interactions was the basis for a good working relationship between the two of you.  How do you feel about how the book was illustrated?

Donna: Andrea Castellani is incredible!  He surpassed anything I had imagined and completely “got” my story. He captured Frank’s personality and made him come alive! Matter of fact, I think my husband fell in love with Andrea’s work even more than my story! You can see more of Andrew’s work HERE. 

Carol: How long did the entire submission to publication process take?

Donna: I am relying on my memory here, so let’s see...

a.     Idea, rough drafts: Wrote it during NaNoWriMo 2009 over two days

b.     Initial revisions on my own, then query submission: two days

c.     Request for entire MS from editor then frantic submission to critique group for feedback: 2-4 days

d.     Submission of entire manuscript (with more revisions) sent to Shari: 3-5 days after critique group’s feedback.

e.     Positive response from Shari indicating she was interested in considering it: Not long. Perhaps a week after submission.

f.      Revisions and rewrites via email: 15 or so revisions (with editor) over the course of a year.

g.     Contract: May 2011!!!

h.     Happy dance: still happening!

Carol: What's next? Another book Flashlight Press, looking for an agent, or just trying to keep the dust bunnies under control at this point?

Donna: I am in the process of looking for an agent for my other picture books and chapter books. After submitting to agents I am now waiting. J If I don’t find an agent that fits (or who totally loves my books), then I’ll submit to houses on my own.

As for the dust bunnies? They are incorrigible. First they staged a coup, now they have created their own production company. They’ve already made up their first two romantic comedies -- Some Like it Hop and Bringing up Bunny.

Carol: When is your book launch?

Donna: Park Road Books on Saturday, September 22 from 11:30-1:30. 

Carol: Thanks, Donna, for sharing the backstory of your book. I can't wait to get copies for my grandchildren. No home should be without this book!

Donna: I appreciate the opportunity to be on your ultra-cool beans blog!

 

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To enter this giveaway: 

1. Please share this on your social media site of your choice and/or become a follower of this blog.

2. Leave me a comment, with your email address, indicating which you did.

3. Winner's name will be drawn September 19th after 6 PM.

Donna with Sean, her husband of 17 years and
one of the many Franks in her life.  

When Donna isn't homeschooling or battling the laundry, she's writing children's stories, poetry, songs, and mysteries. You might find her fishing the Pee Dee River, hiking in the mountains with her family, or visiting her hometown of Cordova, NC. She lives in Concord, NC, and Being Frank is her first picture book.