Cover Reveal – My Girlfriend Bites! by Doug Soulter

Today, I’m participating in the cover reveal event for a fellow SCBWI OK member. What can I say, we support each other’s work like one big happy family. Doug Soulter’s new book, My Girlfriend Bites! is a cross-species love story with teeth. Read all about it!

MY GIRLFRIEND BITES release date

Tuesday, July 16th

About MY GIRLFRIEND BITES:

When he sets out to find the perfect girl, 16-year-old Aiden discovers she’s the imperfect werewolf he’s always been searching for.

After his “dream” girl rejects him, Aiden tries to commit suicide yet mysteriously survives. Now he feels like a total loser with zero possibility of finding a girl. Enter Bree, the creepy girl with too much hair who is rumored to be mentally disturbed. When Bree gives Aiden a ride home during a storm, the girl’s random act of kindness spurs a friendship that blossoms into love. But that love gets tested when Aiden discovers his new girlfriend is a werewolf.

To make this relationship work, Aiden needs to keep Bree’s secret from his best friend. Deal with a family of werewolves who want to protect their daughter. Stop Bree from killing the first “dream” girl when she changes her mind about Aiden. Oh yeah, and he has to stay away from Bree during her mating cycle. Girl werewolves can get a little crazy when they’re in love.

But Aiden’s true test comes when he must save Bree from an enemy determined to annihilate all the werewolves. An enemy who killed all the wolves in Bree’s pack. An enemy so terrifying…they give werewolves nightmares.

Too bad Bree can’t turn a coward into a fearless werewolf. That bite thing is only a myth. So Aiden will have to do the most frightening thing ever…believe in himself.

Ready for the cover reveal?

BAM!

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Sometime the boy gets the werewolf.

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About the author:

Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Doug went to college at nearby Oklahoma State where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Radio/TV/Film production and worked in local television for 20 years. Doug began writing screenplays in 1998 and became a 2001 semi-finalist in The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting for his fifth screenplay, Father Figure. His tenth script, Rail Fan, became a quarter-finalist in 2009. Soon after, Doug made the switch to writing young adult novels. Skid, a young adult novel set in the world of Formula 1 racing, is his first.

Here’s an excerpt of  My Girlfriend Bites! to tide you over until the release next month:

I step on top of the rotting trunk. Wrap the noose around my neck. Tighten it. Soon the rope is snug across my throat as its straw-like surface irritates my skin. But the rope over the pecan branch looks tight and ready to do what I need it to do.

Okay.

All I have to do is step off. Take one step and I can be happy again.

I wonder if Pamela will think about me when I’m dead. I hope she feels guilty.

They all should feel guilty.

A wolf howls through the trees. The sound pierces the silence of the forest as a warm breeze gives me a final kiss goodbye. Sounds like I’ll be a free meal for some lucky wolf tonight.

I feel tears racing down my cheeks. I don’t want to cry. Real men don’t cry when they’re about to face death. I try to stop because I don’t want to go out like this. But I can’t stop.

Damn it. I can’t even die like a real man.

I’m so pathetic.

I breathe in.

And jump off the stump.

Intriguing, right?

To read more tantalizing excerpts, you can visit the other bloggers participating in this reveal at the following links:

Froze 8 Blog

I Read Indie 

Cassandra Lost in Books 

Books I View

Bittersweet Enchantment

My Escape Into Books 

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To learn more about Doug Soulter and his other writing, visit his website here.

June #writemotivation Week 2

It’s been a busy week here at the Lawson hacienda. I had the opportunity to see a Shakespeare play at the Philbrook Museum thanks to a generous gesture on the part of fellow blogger Paula at stuffitellmysister. She gave me the tickets when she couldn’t use them. So thoughtful!

It was also Autism Awareness Night at the Tulsa Drillers baseball game. Much to my parents’ dismay, the Drillers beat their fave home team, The Springfield Cardinals. There was such a good turn out for the game – so many autism families participated!

Our family had a great time.

Trevor too involved in watching the game to pose for a picture.

Me and the daughter.

View of downtown Tulsa from stadium.

Husband photo bombs pic with me and Trevor.

Almost good! Foul ball.

Trevor loves baseball and can actually sit through a couple of hours of watching the game before he gets restless and is ready to go home. We all enjoyed getting out as a family in a fun, accepting environment. The kids got to go down on the field before the game and the announcer talked about signs and symptoms of autism throughout the evening. The more education out there the better. That’s why the Autism Center of Tulsa is such a great organization and why our family supports them every year during their autism walk fundraiser. Movie Night at Circle Cinema is coming later this month and in July there is the fabulous family fun night swim party. For any other families with autism in the area looking for opportunities to socialize, make sure to sign up!

Believe it or not, there was actual goal progress made on top of everything else. Hell , yeah! Overall a pretty great week.

Here are my #writemotivation goals for June:

1. Submit Museum Crashers (MG mystery) to editor who requested the full. Getting closer to the end – trying not to rush it. I’m really excited about submitting this one!

2. Submit Institutionalized (YA contemporary) to five more literary agents. I’ve submitted to three agents and received an immediate rejection from one. I’m researching specifics on three more to submit to this month.

3. Work on first draft of Pretty Vacant (YA contemporary). No progress on this one.

4. Read at least five books – review one on the blog. I’ve just finished my second book, Hereafter by Tara Hudson. It’s the first in her Hereafter trilogy. Fantastic book. She recently spoke at our June SCBWI schmooze and I really enjoyed meeting her. There may be more news to post about this meeting, soon. Stay tuned!

5. Work on outlining new blog project idea. I made some headway with this by starting my new series of posts, “Inspiring Stories”. More still to do, though.

6. Exercise 3 times each week. Still making good progress on this and still feeling crippled with pain every day from overworked, whiny muscles. (Tell me this gets easier!)

7. Finish critique of friend’s manuscript. No progress on this one, either. Will do better this week!

Nothing overwhelming me so far. It feels good to be back out there submitting to agents – even with the rejections. How are all of you doing with your goals?

Quote of the day:

“In waiting for the glorious moment of that first book contract, writers must have giant reservoirs of patience. Yet they must persevere because they don’t know the destiny that is being worked out for them. They creep humbly along the ground, without the spacious aerial vision of their lives that would show them the destiny in store for them.”

- Ron Chernow

Here’s to creeping humbly and having massive reservoirs of patience! Have a great week, and keep writing!

This Week in Oklahoma: Storms, Recovery, Cafés and Writers

This week has been emotionally taxing for most of us who live in Oklahoma. Luckily for me and my family, the devastating storms on Monday died down outside of Tulsa and left us with heavy rains and scary winds. That, we could live through.

Still, we felt the loss. We all stopped our lives for a moment of silence and embraced our loved ones a little harder. We touched base with friends to make sure they were okay, reached out to those who were not okay and offered our support. We have several members of our SCBWI family in the Oklahoma City area, some who live right there in Moore. Although all made it through the storm, some have damaged houses and know people who were lost.

It wasn’t until yesterday that I ventured out in public. We were running out of everything and I couldn’t remain frozen inside afraid of watching the news coverage. Too many dead children. Too many sad stories. And yet everywhere I went, the conversations were all about the storm and people ready and willing to help. There were donation stations everywhere and volunteer sign ups, neighbors checking up on neighbors. That’s just what we do. I guess it’s the same all over.

We all feel so useless when something tragic happens. What else can we do but give bottled water, diapers, food, clothing, a shoulder to lean on? Help with picking up the pieces, clearing away the debris of  lives scattered for miles. Next to this, money seems like such an innocuous thing to give to someone who’s lost everything, although I’m sure it helps. We all wish we could do more.

Life does return to normal faster for those of us not directly affected by tragedies, and I suppose it’s okay that it does. It doesn’t mean that we don’t care. It’s okay to laugh, to have fun, to live. Bad things will never stop happening.

My moment of normal happened while I was out running my errands. I popped into my local bakery to replenish our supply of sesame bagels and maybe snag a caffeinated beverage for myself. (I have a rewards card and my next one was free. We eat a LOT of bagels at my house.) I waited on the friendly barista to prepare my caffé mocha, and I noticed these lovely signs all around the restaurant with quotes from writers on them.

They were delightful. (Although, I wasn’t quite sure how old Walt would react to being the spokesperson for a reduced calorie smoothie). I was immediately inspired; I wanted to sit down in a booth and start writing.  After all, writers and cafés seem to just go together. Where else can you write for hours on end, uninterrupted, surrounded by the the wonderful smell of coffee and the gentle hum of humanity? Those banners also reminded me that I should  get back to work very soon. I hadn’t written a word since the storm. No more. Time to create!

I hope all of you have had a safe week. The skies are overcast, today. More rain. More storms. Brace yourselves; hug those loved ones, even if they squirm a bit.

And if you have been looking for ways to help out the victims of the May 19th tornado, here are a few options you might want to consider:

Kate Messner is hosting a KidLitCares for Oklahoma giveaway . There is a huge list of books to be given away and the list is still growing. Check out her site for details. All you have to do to qualify is donate at least $10 to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief. Forward your donation receipt e-mail from the Red Cross to kidlitcares@gmail.com and Kate will enter you into the contest. She will enter you in the contest once for every $10 you give. Enter by June 7th to qualify.

Fellow writer, Rebecca Weston, is offering a similar deal in exchange for a donation to a list of acceptable charities helping out with tornado relief efforts. Instead of books, she’s giving away query/first page critiques. Becca will be joined by a panel of writers who will help her field the critiques. All you have to do is e-mail her a copy of your donation receipt before Saturday and then you’ll get your first 250 words critiqued by a fabulous writer with critiquing experience for free! Everyone who donates will get a critique. Deadline is May 25th!

Empathy and Character Development

My friend Anna Myers gave a great presentation at our last SCBWI OK schmooze here in Tulsa entitled “Secrets to Character Development”. Anna knows a little something about character. All of her 19 novels are character-driven. Before she starts a new book, her main characters come to her almost fully formed. When she sits down to write, she puts on some music with a strong connection to the story she wants to tell, becomes very quiet, almost meditative, and waits for her character to show up.

Then she forgets herself.

That’s the most important thing to remember about character development, according to Anna:

“You have to ditch yourself.”

I’ve seen Anna perform a few school visits, and when I say perform,  I mean Anna puts on the semblance of a wardrobe, takes just a beat to get into character, and then launches into a monologue. She becomes a character from one of her books in order to tell the kids about the story – a very effective, attention-getting technique.

Lose yourself and become your character.

Is anybody in there?

Anna added one caveat to that:

“You must first learn your craft. If you haven’t learned your craft, you’re wasting your time.”

She then pointed to me out of the group gathered and said that when she first met me, my writing was horrible (I nodded in agreement), but then I worked at it and worked at it and my writing improved. Now I’m on the cusp of success. (Feels like I’ve been here forever, but the publishing world sometimes moves slowly, requiring tenacity…and PATIENCE.)

Once you’ve done this, once you’ve learned your craft, you have to stop trying so hard.

Easier said than done?

Yes. But that also can be accomplished with practice. Lose the barriers between yourself and the child you used to be. After all, you can’t write from the perspective of a twelve year-old girl if you’re stuck in your forty-something mind.

This whole talk sparked a vivid memory for me.

I was working in Albany, New York, as a nanny for this lovely family. Both the husband and wife were eye surgeons. The wife, Anna, (I think I’m destined to be influenced by fabulous women named Anna) and I would often have interesting philosophical discussions. It is partly due to her that I learned to open up my empathy and see the world through others’ eyes. We were discussing child abuse for some reason, and let’s just say for the sake of argument that I’d been in close proximity to and witness of some ugly abuse in the past. During this discussion, I made a grand statement as I was apt to do back in my late teens, early twenties, and said something about how I couldn’t understand how anyone could hit a child. Ever.

I thought it was an easy position to support and I thought Anna would agree with me, one hundred percent. Instead she surprised me. In her way of disagreeing, she said, “You can’t? I can.”

Then she had me imagine that I was a single teenaged mother, stuck in a tiny, cramped apartment – day in and day out – with a howling baby that I had no skill in caring for. Imagine that I felt like my life was over. I’m sleep-deprived, hungry, have no coping skills, and no support system. And the baby won’t stop screaming. “Don’t you think at some point, you might just lose it and lash out?”

I was shocked. This was not the answer I’d expected. Then I thought about what she said. I could picture myself as this young girl and what it would be like to live her life. Maybe things were not so black and white.

I now find it easy to understand people’s motivations – what makes them tick – by using this same method of stepping into their shoes. I just need to work on stretching a little farther until I actually feel myself becoming them, becoming my characters, before I start to write. Almost there.

How about you? Do you channel your character effortlessly or do you struggle with characterization?

Recap of our Fantastical SCBWI OK Spring Conference – Part Two

First off, I want to apologize for leaving you all in suspense much longer than I had anticipated. Shortly after writing Part One, I came down with some form of spring plague that left me miserable and bed-ridden. I love ending a post on a cliff-hanger, but more than a week is torturous. Although my family, who had to endure my wretched state of being and constant whining, were probably tortured more than all of you.

Back to our regularly scheduled program!

So, after lunch, where my table dined with the lovely Claire Evans (and we learned a little bit about her book preferences; she loves books with convoluted family histories, books where the setting is really important and becomes almost like a character itself, and books about sports), I made it to the illustrators’ showcase room and had a few minutes to peruse through some of the portfolios. Always a fun thing to do. The range of art and talent was incredible.

I made it back in the nick of time to see Katie Bignell, Assistant Editor of Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, take the stage. The title of her presentation was the Best Practices for Writing Your Best Picture Book. She gave us a detailed hand out so we could concentrate more on what she was saying than on taking copious notes. (I still took notes, but that’s just how I help my brain process information. Super Nerd.)

She talked about the best words, the best places, the best characters, and the best stories.

When talking specifically about the best words, she said:

What if Sendak had said…

‘Let the wild rumpus party start’?

How would that have changed the story? Use the best words.

Katie has an unusual background for an editor. She is an accomplished dancer and has studied all kinds of dance for many years. She actually put some of her skills to good use, keeping us awake after lunch by showing us how movement was important. She also said writers should give illustrators movement to illustrate in their stories. Her dancing talent shown most brightly when she discussed rhythm. As a dancer, this was her favorite part of picture books. She said something so lovely that I would never forget it:

“By the very nature of our beating hearts, we are hard-wired to crave rhythm.”

Ah! I could’ve just died that was so fantastic.

Isn’t that just gorgeous? And true?

Who hasn’t seen a child move with abandon to music – before they grow up and become aware/self-conscious of how others see them when they dance?

She said because of this innate sense of rhythm, we can also tell when something is out of rhythm. That is why you should read your book out loud over and over. Have several friends read it out loud as well. Make note of what what sounds good to your ear and what doesn’t.  Make note of when your readers trip over words. Revise it until it sings.

So hard to believe this was one of Katie’s first presentations. She was amazing.

To learn more about Katie Bignell and her imprint, go to Facebook and like her imprint page, Katherine Tegen Books. Katherine Tegen Books has also just started a Tumblr page here. You can also follow Katie on Twitter here.

Our final speaker was literary agent Karen Grencik from Red Fox Literary. Karen talked to us about rejection; something every writer gets to know intimately. Karen was a very passionate speaker who truly identified with writers and their struggles. It was surprising and refreshing to see someone who felt our misery and took it to heart. You just wanted to hug her.

She told us that when she started out, “I was as scared as you.” In the beginning, there was no one to teach her how to be an agent. She said she made every mistake you hear about at conferences, including chasing speakers out to their cars and asking them to read pages.

Ouch!

Then she started learning. And people were kind to her and forgiving of her earlier missteps. And she kept learning. Now her little boutique agency (that she runs with former editor-turned-agent Abigail Samoun) is really taking off.

Karen gave us an extensive hand out on reasons for rejections (101 reasons to be exact, and they were divided by reading level – picture books, chapter books, middle grade, young adult – fantastic stuff!) and she went through several of the big ones in detail. I’ll share one reason with you here:

#1 reason for rejection: Too quiet to compete or to stand out in today’s competitive market.

What was Karen’s answer to this? Move on and let your heart determine what you write! You’re going to find so many reasons for rejection out there, so you’re either going to quit or keep going.

If writing is your passion, stick with it and learn your craft. Karen did. Who cares how many mistakes you make or how long it takes you to get there?  Don’t pay attention to anybody else’s timeline for success. Yours is the only one that matters and it takes as long as it takes.

To learn more about Karen Grencik, check out her agency website here or follow her on Facebook here.

Next was the Speaker’s Panel where we heard their responses to our pitches. All were read out anonymously, although I did recognize several from our Pitch Clinic that we held over on Twitter prior to the conference. One pitch from the Pitch Clinic received three thumbs up from the panel. That was very exciting! (Congrats! You know who you are, you tyrannical squirrel-lover, you!)

Final announcements came after that where the winners of Best in Show and the Nita Buckley Scholarship fund were awarded.

For the Best in Show, all of the illustrator portfolios were judged by our speakers and the winner…Lauren Juda! She won a free registration to our Agent Day Conference coming up this October, which is a really exciting event!

For Agent Day, we have three agents speaking (and critiquing first pages) along with a special keynote speaker. The agents are: Natalie Fischer Lakosil from the Bradford Agency, Danielle Smith from the Foreward Agency, and Ann Behar from the Scovil Galen Gosh Agency. Right now, registration is only open to SCBWI members, but registration opens up to everyone July 1st. Stayed tuned for more details!

The Nita Buckley Scholarship had so many exciting entries that the  judges decided to give out a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place award. Make sure to look for a write-up about Nita and this scholarship in the next SCBWI bulletin.

• The 3rd place honor of a free registration to the Fall Agent Day Conference  went to Patricia Harvey(woohoo!).
• The 2nd place honor of a free registration to the 2014 SCBWI OK Spring conference went to Regina Garvie. (These first two ladies were seated at my table. It was very exciting!)
• And the 1st place prize of $1500 toward the cost of the SCBWI LA Summer conference went to Brenda Maier. (Brenda is such a lovely and talented young woman. This will be her first LA conference and I know she’s really excited!)

Congratulations to all of the winners!

What an excellent way to end the conference…although some of us didn’t quite end the evening just then. We headed out to a local eatery for dinner with the speakers to unwind and to take over the establishment that wasn’t quite prepared to be completely invaded. They couldn’t fit us all at one table or even inside the building. Here are a few pics of our fine folks kicking back after a day of literary camaraderie. Thanks so much to everyone who made this conference possible and to our dynamic leader, Anna Myers, to whom we all owe so much and without whom this conference wouldn’t be what it is today. We love you, Anna!

Recap of our Fantastical SCBWI OK Spring Conference – Part One

The reason I love SCBWI so much is that it gives writers and illustrators a definite place to find encouragement, to learn, to become the better form of their creative selves. That is definitely what this past weekend’s conference was all about.

We had five excellent speakers who dazzled and enlightened us with their presentations from morning till early evening.

Maria Middleton, the Associate Art Director at Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books, and rocker of some seriously gorgeous tattoos (what else would you expect from an art director, right?) spoke first. She discussed picture book design and her overall process, where she takes an original picture book manuscript and shapes this “nebulous idea” to give it more focus.

She said that design is an opportunity to continue telling the story; not  just to sum everything up. “Everything in a picture book should feel related to the story.” This means from the illustrations, style of the text, the endpapers, the cover, etc. That’s what design can do. Fascinating, eh?

Maria told me that she will speaking at this year’s SCBWI LA summer conference for the first time. So if you missed her this weekend and you want some summer sun, sign up for the big conference here and check her out in person!

To learn more about Maria Middleton and graphic design, read her blog, Thinking Made Visual, or follow her on Twitter here.

Next up was Katie Carella, Editor at Scholastic, Inc. She has a delightfully youthful voice and naturally curly hair that gave mine some serious curl envy. And that’s saying something. Katie talked about her professional journey and how she took a detour at one point to teach young grade schoolers. Once there, she discovered that although she loved kids, she loved acting like a kid more, which meant that she was perfect for children’s publishing!

Katie discussed Early Chapter Books. You know; that extremely hard to define niche of writing? Well she helped us understand it perfectly. Early chapter books are aimed at newly independent readers who are ready to graduate from picture books, but aren’t quite ready to tackle a full chapter book, yet. Age range is 5 – 8 (grades K-3). Early chapter books need to have four things:

1. Relatable characters
2. Fast-paced plots
3. Cliff hanger chapter endings
4. Easy-to-read and decodable text

Katie then broke down each step in great detail, using some examples from the new Branches imprint from Scholastic. They have several exciting releases coming out this year, including The Notebook of Doom, written and illustrated by Troy Cummings.

To learn more about Katie Carella, you can follow her on Twitter here.

Claire Evans, Assistant Editor at Dial Books for Young Readers and Kathy Dawson Books, made her solo speaking debut at our conference. You wouldn’t have known it from her presentation. Spectacular.  And she brought prizes. Who doesn’t love prizes?

Claire walked us through the day in the life of an editor – which began with riding on the subway and strange looks from people for cramming in some reading time (What grown woman doesn’t read a book about sleepovers?) and ended after a day of meetings with design teams and sales teams, etc. – without her getting to the actual work of editing. That’s homework. It totally exhausted me.

The point was to press upon us how many different teams of people have to get excited about a book in order to get it sold. That publishing is actually a business. After all, when we first submit our manuscript, we have to sell our stories through our query letters and get editors and agents excited about our stories enough to read them. Claire showed us how to develop our marketing and pitching skills through several activities. (That’s where the prizes came in.) They were so helpful; I know I’ll be using a lot of those skills very soon.

To learn more about Claire Evans, read her Tumblr page, Work in Progress, or follow Claire on Twitter here.

All of this was before lunch. So…what happened afterwards?

Was there even more to this unbelievable day? Oh, yes!

Stay tuned for Part Two!

Pushing Past Our Comfort Zone – Continuing to Learn When We Think We Know it All

“The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.”

- Socrates

I’m at that stage in my writing where I no longer feel like a complete novice. I’ve made many of the classic beginning mistakes – I fell in love with my own words whether or not what I was saying moved the story forward, I sprinkled my sentences liberally with adjectives and adverbs, and the narrative voice? We were best friends.

I’ve since moved on to the more advanced mistakes.

Like becoming a bit complacent with my craft.

Somewhere along the way, I forgot that although I may now be able to whip out some excellent dialogue and show the action of a scene and insert some awesome sensory details and have great pacing and an authentic teen voice that I still have things to learn; that this is an ongoing, evolving journey that I may never truly master.

My friend and fellow critique partner Helen Newton came along just in time to remind me. She gave an excellent presentation at our Tulsa SCBWI schmooze earlier this month where she discussed novel revision techniques. One of her suggestions dealt with reading your manuscript out loud – in different ways, like in a monotone or with an accent. The purpose of this exercise was to make mistakes in your writing easier to see when you hear your words read aloud  – especially by someone else or in a different rhythm. When we become too familiar with our own work, we can miss glaring mistakes that others might see without a problem.

This reminded me of a recent story I heard on NPR about radiologists who were given films of lungs and asked to look for cancerous nodules as part of an experiment. Almost all failed

Trafton Drew and Jeremy Wolfe

to notice the picture of the gorilla superimposed on the slides  because of their narrowed scope. They were looking for disease, not gorillas. This phenomenon is called “inattentional blindness”.

“In other words, what we’re thinking about — what we’re focused on — filters the world around us so aggressively that it literally shapes what we see.”

So did I have “inattentional blindness” in my writing? I’d heard this practice of reading one’s work aloud was a good idea before, but never before in such detail. I’d also never had the patience to try it. It was one thing to read a picture book manuscript out loud, but an entire novel? And more than once? Forget it.

But the very next week, I was preparing my submission for our upcoming OK SCBWI conference in April, and I was working on completely new manuscript. I needed some input before submitting it. There was no time to get feedback from the great and mighty dream team, my critique group, so what was I to do? I recruited some beloved family members and gave the read-aloud idea a try. I’m useless when I read my own work aloud because I stop and edit too much, hence negating the whole purpose of the exercise.

I have to admit having two different people read aloud through my pages was really helpful. They both also made helpful editorial comments when they were finished – which showed me that they’d finally learned to spare my feelings and comment from the heart. All of which kept me from sending something out that was less than stellar.

Now if I could just talk them into reading my completed YA manuscript – it’s only 350 pages. I sense a hefty bribe is in order there.

So what about you? Do you read your manuscripts out loud? Do you use a program to read it out loud for you? Do you cajole adoring family members into reading it for you? What other revising exercises do you find helpful for seeing the hidden mistakes?

SCBWI OK Spring Conference

Some wonderful writing opportunities and gatherings are fast approaching, especially for those of you in the Oklahoma vicinity, so I thought I’d share my favorite one with you. I’m a giver, what can I say?

SCBWI OK Spring Conference

Marriott Tulsa Hills, Tulsa, OK

April 20,2013

9:00am to 5:00pm

I was first introduced to the world of SCBWI at one of these Oklahoma conferences about eight years ago. That one was held in a church basement in a small rural town halfway between Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Even though it was small, the speakers were excellent and the fellow writers were extremely friendly. I met one of my future critique partners for the first time at that meeting. She was the only one I had the courage to speak to that first time out. Since then, I’ve become much better at introducing myself to strangers. These conferences get bigger and better each year.

One of the best perks of attending is being able to submit to each speaker, even if they belong to a closed house. Another nice perk is being able to chat with the speakers, either during the catered lunch or more informally after the conference when we all meet up for dinner. This last event is optional and is not covered in the conference fee, but it’s always well attended and great fun. If you don’t live in Oklahoma, but think you could make the trip and you’d like to attend, fantastic! We welcome you with open arms. (Even if you’re from Texas.) ha!

Here’s this year’s phenomenal speaker line up:

• Claire Evans, Assistant Editor from Dial Books for Young Readers
• Katie Bignell, Editor from HarperCollins
• Katie Carella, Editor from Scholastic
• Karen Grencik, Literary Agent from Red Fox Literary
• Maria Middleton, Associate Art Director from Abrams Books for Young Readers

If that weren’t enough, you can also get a written manuscript critique or a verbal portfolio critique for an additional fee. These slots are limited and the deadline for turning in your manuscript to get one of these coveted slots is February 15th.

Check out the SCBWI OK website for more details.

New SCBWI Oklahoma Scholarship – Attend the LA Summer Conference!

I wrote a post a few months ago about the passing of our oldest member, 97 year-old Nita Buckley. Recently a scholarship was started up in her name to help send an Oklahoma SCBWI member to the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA. This conference is a major investment for any writer, but well worth it. I attended my third LA Conference this past summer and shared a plethora of knowledge I absorbed during those three days right here on this blog, starting with this post. If you think you’re ready for this next step in your writer’s journey – and you’re an Oklahoma SCBWI member – but funds are a hindrance, consider applying for this.

The winner of the scholarship will be chosen from entries submitted to a writing contest and announced at the SCBWI Oklahoma Spring Conference on April 20, 2013.

TO APPLY FOR THE SCHOLARSHIP:

Send the first 250 words of a picture book, middle grade, or young adult novel using the following prompts:

Picture Book: Ellie found the book on a table in the back room of the old library. Running her hand over the shimmering cover, she thought she saw something move. “I’ll just take a peek inside,” she said. But when she opened the book?

Middle Grade Novel: A twelve-year-old boy or girl from a poor family receives a scholarship to an elite private school where he or she will go to school with kids from very wealthy families.

Young Adult Novel: You’re a teenager with a secret. Last night when talking with a friend, you admitted a terrible secret in confidence that had been weighing heavily on you, keeping you up at nights. Your friend reassured you, and you felt better after your confession. This morning when you arrive at school and notice everyone pointing at you and whispering, you soon discover that this same friend had recorded your conversation and posted it online for everyone in school to see.

Send your entry with your name and the type of book to Anna Myers at: amyers_author@yahoo.com.  Type Contest in the subject line. All entries must be sent between March 1st and March 20th only, not before or after those dates.

Good luck! And I hope to see some of you at the spring conference!

The Amazing Jerry Bennett – Illustrator of Magnificence – The Interview, Part Two

Welcome back to Part Two, the Question & Answer portion of our interview with illustrator and exotic beard cultivator, Jerry Bennett. (To catch up with the goodies you missed in Part One, click here.)

Valerie Lawson: Thanks for stopping by on your busy schedule, Jerry. Welcome back from the New Orleans Comic Con. I hope you enjoyed your time in The Big Easy.

Let’s get right to the questions, shall we?  You’ve recently been appointed to the position of Oklahoma SCBWI Regional Illustrator Coordinator; tell us about the role you play in Oklahoma SCBWI. How do you see that changing?

Jerry Bennett: That’s a good question, as I am still trying to get a feel for the position, since Oklahoma’s never had one before. It’s a tough pair of shoes to fill when the few and gifted group of illustrators we have are spread out across the state. My ultimate goal would be create a united group of Oklahoma illustrators that are able to encourage and fellowship together in our like-minded goals. I have a feeling the best way will be to do that through social media, so I’m in the process of building the best forms of internet communication for the illustrators to share what they are doing, and can help critique and promote each other’s work to strengthen and enable them to be the very best at what they do…I’m in the process of getting some events going that can be done for little expense and can yield valuable time of camaraderie and skill-building. One will be a sketchcrawl, where the artists will meet, whether it be a zoo, a mall or other scenic spot, and draw on location for skill-building, for reference researching or simply for fun. It can be a great chance to get to know the other illustrators and critique and encourage one another.

VL: That’s fantastic. Even though the full title of SCBWI is Society of Book Writers and Illustrators the focus seems to have been more on writers than illustrators in the past. Since you’ve become involved, there have already been exciting opportunities for illustrators at our annual spring conferences, including working with an art director on an art piece prior to the conference, just like one would for a book project. The feedback on that one in particular had to be amazing. How many novices get that kind of interaction? You’ve really helped to energize the illustrator portion of our group. I really look forward to seeing what great things you bring next.

Let’s go back to the beginning of your illustrious career. When did you know you wanted to be an illustrator? When did you start pursuing that seriously?

JB: I’ve always loved to draw. Always. It was in eighth grade, after trying to impress a girl by drawing a portrait of her, and all the gushing from everyone who saw it, made me realize that I could possibly do this as a career. [After the girl saw and loved the portrait, I chanced a request to a school dance with her. She said no.]

VL: I love getting to know someone better by probing into their childhood for embarrassing stories – what can I say, my father was a therapist and I have issues. So, here they come:

Thinking back to your childhood heroes /role models when you were a kid, who were they? What drew you to them? What powers/abilities did they have that you wished you could have? Do you still feel that way about them now?

JB: I see what you did there; ‘Drew’ you to them?

I was very heavy into knowing who made all my favorite movies. I was ‘drawn’ to the process of animation and special effects for the Star Wars movies as far back as elementary school! The power to bring anything, any creature, any ship, to life astounded me.

VL: What did you want to be when you were in grade school? What influenced this choice?

JB: I wanted to be a comic book artist! (All this time and nothing has changed!) Star Wars and Marvel Comics was my main source of influence. Still is.

Jerry’s Favorite Hero

VL: Are you saying you haven’t grown up, yet? Never mind.

 As a young kid, what was the worst trouble you ever got into? And what was your punishment?

JB: Me? I never got into trouble.

The worst I can think of was when my brother and I decided to spray graffiti with graphite on our neighbor’s wall. Our mom caught us, and told to clean it up and go next door to apologize. (We pretended we apologized, and quickly cleaned it up!)

VL: Even when you were getting into trouble you were drawing. Nice.

Were you ever afraid of the dark, of anything under your bed or in your closet?

JB: I think I was, but I also remember waking up under the bed often, so was I afraid of myself?

VL: Bah ha ha! Maybe you were battling monsters in your sleep.

 Tell me about your most memorable adventure you had with your friends outside of school.

JB: When I was with my high school choir in Hawaii, my best friend was having issues with his girlfriend, and he wanted me to fix things with her, and had locked me on our seventh floor balcony until I promised I’d help. I would do no such thing, and climbed over to the next balcony and escaped. Yes, that was crazy and dumb. I was able to enjoy the rest of the trip after that, when he realized I wanted nothing to do with their problems.

VL: Hawaii??!!! I don’t know what kind of budget your school had, but my only band trips were to…oh, wait, I quit band in my sophomore year. Man, I hope they didn’t go to Hawaii. Maybe I should have joined the choir. And that was some crazy spidey stunt climbing over the balcony, if I say so myself. Crazy. Peter Parker wold have been proud.

Did you ever have a clubhouse or secret place of your own? What did you do there?

JB: My brother and I made forts out of our beds with blankets. Does that count? (Yes, it does!)

VL: Oh! Love blanket forts! Definitely counts.

VL: Did you ever have to deal with a bully? How did you handle it?

JB: Ugh. I remember when I rode the bus, two kids wanted to look at my Swatch, and I was naive enough to show them. They never gave it back, as they got off the bus and pretended they didn’t have it. When I pressed, one got in my face, while the other got behind me on his knees to trip me as I was pushed over. Days passed as I fantasized what I wanted to do, but eventually resigned that my Swatch was gone, and I went on with life, thinking that they will end up in prison one day while I lived a better life than them.

VL: Wow, that was pretty was a pretty mature attitude. I probably would have made an ineffective voodoo doll or something.

Tell me about the most interesting place you have ever lived. What did you like/hate most about it?

JB: I was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and at the time, found nothing interesting about living here. It may be why I

Oklahoma City Gazette Cover – OKC Thunder Avenger Style

drew and played video games all the time: to get away from such a boring world I lived in. But now I can look with grown up eyes at all the awesomeness we have here now. The culture, the diversity, the friendliness that is a trademark for Okies.

VL: What was the worst job you ever had while going to school? Did your friends ever come by while you were working and embarrass you?

JB: In high school, I worked at Foleys (which is now Macys) as a sales associate, and I loved it! Friends did come by, but it was never embarrassing, though I was glad they never came by when I worked in handbags. I had always worked in the men’s and young men’s departments, then soon started working in all these women’s departments, housewares, and Godiva. I think they thought I was gay and better suited to work in ladies’ clothing. I didn’t mind it one bit.

VL: Ha! I can so see you selling the heck out of some ladies’ clothing. Best way to meet girls, too.

What is the most embarrassing thing one of your friends ever did to you?

JB: I remember in sixth grade, while stuttering and getting the nerve up to ask a girl to be my girlfriend, my brother, who was waiting impatiently to walk home with me, piped up and asked her if she wanted to be my girlfriend. She politely refused, citing she already had a boyfriend.

VL: Who was your childhood best friend? Are you still friends today?

JB: Honestly, I think my brother was my best friend. He was killed in a plane crash over 17 years ago now. It was understandably difficult.

VL: Very understandably. He must have been a great guy.

What would be your dream illustrating assignment?

Star Wars Tee Design

JB: I’ve always wanted to draw a Spider-Man or Superman story, but now I’d throw in a Star Wars story into that mix, since Star Wars is a huge comic book property now, too! It would be amazing if I was approached by Scholastic to do a graphic novel series based on the Gregor the Overlander series by Suzanne Collins!

VL: Oh! Gregor the Overlander, that would be very cool as a graphic novel.

What has been your favorite book to read/book you’ve been most excited about over the past year?

JB: I have really enjoyed the graphic novels of Doug TenNapel. I’ve discovered and read several this year, with Cardboard being my favorite, but they all have such heart, humor and action, all packed in very well flowing panels. Check ‘em out!

VL: Speaking of graphic novels, what are you currently working on?

JB: I’m multi-tasking, creating a sci-fi comic book, Nadir’s Zenith, creating several tee designs, selling prints of my work at comic book conventions, and deciding if I want to do another picture book for a local author. Something I’m very excited about is I’m writing, or more accurately, learning to write a graphic novel I will illustrate.

VL: I hear that you and your lovely wife are working on writing every week. If you’re putting in the work, then you ARE writing it! I am really looking forward to the graphic novel, Jerry. It sounds exciting. Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!

Check out more of Jerry’s artwork here.

Become a fan of Jerry’s on Facebook here.

The Amazing Jerry Bennett – Ilustrator of Magnificence – The Interview, Part One

If you are ever anywhere near Jerry Bennett’s vicinity, you will know it when you hear his boisterous and unmistakable laughter. His is a personality that fills up a room and yet graciously makes plenty of space for others to share in his bright light. Jerry is the Regional Illustrator Coordinator for Oklahoma SCBWI and recently he did a fantastic presentation for our Tulsa group where he walked us through the illustration process of a picture book manuscript. One lucky soul had her words chosen at random for Jerry to bring to life right before our eyes as he talked with us about his process and his history of being an illustrator. I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t write a story while telling others how I write a story.

That’s talent.

He should be talented; he started drawing at the age of two and never stopped. His dad worked at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City while he was growing up so some up his very first drawing were of airplanes. Then came Star Wars. He knew right away that would be a life-long obsession. As he is a part of the JediOKC, an Oklahoma City Star Wars fan club that does some awesome charity things, I guess you can say that was an accurate prediction. Other things influenced his art in his youth – Transformers, Spiderman, Garfield (really? Okay, he’s a fuzzy cat person). Then came a seminal moment when he realized that he might actually make art a career.

It all started with a girl.

It was eighth grade and he was shy. So, how to get her to notice him? By drawing, of course. He drew her portrait and everyone who saw it thought it was great. That gave him the confidence to ask her out.

Yes!

She turned him down.

No!

His first rejection. He took it in stride and thought about how he might actually be able to make money with his art. He was on his way to becoming an artist. He developed an even tougher skin in art school where he learned to accept critiques of his work weekly. Meanwhile he had begun working on t-shirt designs during high school, something he is still doing to this day. His top seller, the Star Wars/Ghostbusters mash-up “It’s a Trap” has sold over 3,300 shirts. Marvel even licensed him.

More recently, he’s done some illustrations for a self-published series of books, The Pirate Bride and its sequel, The Lost Crew. He has also done the illustrations for the comic series Nadir’s Zenith.

We were ecstatic that Jerry was going to share his talents with us.

He began by reading the text aloud.

The first step is to read the story.

Here is all he had to go on:

“Two hippos sailed a sky blue boat.

Jack wondered how they stayed afloat.

They only had one ruby oar,

Which made it hard to get to shore.”

(Thanks to Linda Mai for allowing me to share her text.)

You have to understand the plot, the characters, and the details before you can begin to illustrate. Jerry reads through the story several times. He’ll read it aloud with different inflections, using different voices – some funny or silly – to get a range of ideas. He said just as readers get images in their head when they read a novel, so do artists, yet artists are able to translate those images into illustrations.

One thing Jerry mentioned that made the inner editor in me cringe a bit was the reminder that if you’ve received the manuscript from a publisher, you won’t have much say in changing the text. You are stuck with the words you are given. Your job as the illustrator is how to best interpret the words and how to make the biggest impact on the story with images. You have to remember that in the author/illustrator partnership, you have two completely different artists, two owners sharing the same creation, yet working independently of each other.

As an illustrator of picture books, you should always be looking for ways to enhance the story. In the example that Jerry chose, there were hippos in a boat with only one oar. He decided Jack was the observer of the story and the illustration should focus on the hippos. He also thought that it would be funnier if the size of the oar and the boat were exaggerated compared to the hippos to make their predicament seem more outrageous. Nothing in the text said anything about what type of boat or how big it was – that was left up to him, so he took advantage of it to add something visually enticing for the reader.

The second step is to create a thumbnail layout.

For picture books, this is usually a layout of thirty-two pages of quick and simple sketches, just to place things. This can be in any format that works for you – a simple sheet of paper with thirty-two boxes marked out, a mock dummy with pages, etc. Jerry now does this digitally on his Wacom tablet. This purpose of the thumbnail sketching is to figure out the best possible way for the story to look. All aspect of the text is included as well as the imagery.

The third step is creating the individual pages of art for the initial layout.

When drawing free hand, he starts with the lightest sketching. Normally at home his work starts out on his Wacom tablet, then he moves it over to a pro tools program. His workstation is set up in an easel so he can draw naturally. Jerry usually listens to music, often movie soundtracks, while he is creating. The amount of time it takes him to complete a project can vary. For a comic, it takes him about a month while working eight to ten hours a day.

The fourth step is to send layouts to the editor.

If any changes need to be made, the editor will send it back with notes. He will rework it before the final layout. This step can be repeated as needed, just like with novel revisions.

Until at last everyone is happy with the end result.

Not bad for less than sixty minutes while giving a presentation, eh?

Stay tuned  for PART TWO, the Q & A with Jerry!