Dear Alison f rom one fangirl to another, Thank you for your recap on Alvina Ling's Plotting Session . It's times like these when I wish I had a clone so I can listen to all the different breakout sessions and take notes--I know, I know. Geek alert. And the Vomit Draft concept? That's exactly what my first drafts feel like, but a good kind of vomit you know--the dumping of words onto paper instead of other places. I should probably change the subject. So, we spent the morning in Rai nbow Rowell’s Breakout Session. Officially, as Regional Advisors for SCBWI, we collected tickets. Unofficially, we considered ourselves bouncers, but you know what, all those fangirls and fanboys who came to her session LOVE Rainbow, and they were just as excited and starry eyed as we were. We kept our cool though, didn't we? On the outside, we were professional, calm, cool, collected, but on the inside, we were, well we were... Levi and Cath Kanye West Styl...
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Dear Kim, Thank you for the William Joyce recap. I really enjoyed his talk and more so was impressed with the way he kicked off the #NY16SCBWI conference. There was a certain amount of: MAKE IT WORK air to this year's conference. Don't you agree? It seemed to pulse with themes like HARD WORK, WRITE...NOW, and DO THE WORK. All themes that I can get behind. I was also pleasantly surprised with the level of guidance in each breakout session this year, at least the sessions that I was able to attend. It is difficult to fit lecture, writing exercises, and leave time for questions when only given one hour per breakout session. Alvina Ling's session on plot gave me a bucket full of strategies (and tangible models from Alvina's rockstar editorial perspective), all crammed into a single hour. Alvina began her session with a show of hands. How many start with character? Setting? A single scene? And how may start with plot? In the room of one hundred or so folks the fewest ...
Dear Alison, I decided to send you a Sunday bonus letter, but I'm not going to talk about #NY16SCBWI. I'll return to my #NY16SCBWI recap sessions in my next letter. Today, I plan to gush about another fellow Inkspell-er, Susan V. Vaughn, and her book that's coming out Knockout Love. It's available for Pre-Order. The book cover alone makes me want to read this book. Here's the Blurb: She just might be the woman of his dreams…. Maggie Heugan has her life all planned out, from her engagement to a handsome doctor, to her perfect nursing career. Then why does a chance meeting with a captivating stranger, have her questioning everything she has ever known? Pro wrestler, Sean Miller is on a fast track to his destiny, until an unexpected injury derails his course. Now he can’t refrain from chasing the enticingly beautiful Nurse Maggie, when she just might hold the key to healing him in more ways than one. For these two conflicted lovers, life spi...
Dear Alison, Last weekend, we spent all our waking hours absorbing the amazing energy of the NY SCBWI Conference. William Joyce kicked off the #NY16SCBWI Conference Saturday morning with his keynote: Books are Like the Ice Cream Sandwich: How New Technology Doesn't Change Much of Anything but it's all Kinda Cool." Any speech revolving around an ice cream sandwich is going to peak my interest, and he did not disappoint. I knew William Joyce was a gifted author illustrator--I just never realized how HUGELY talented he is. Check out his extensive book collection: And I hate to admit it, but I didn't realize the movie, The Rise of the Guardians, was based on his book, Jack Frost . It's surprising that when the movie came out no one capitalized on his book--or at least I didn't notice it. And the art, oh Alison, the art in JACK FROST is amazing. Joyce's well-known bold characters bu...