Dear Alison, There I’ve said it. We’ve said it. Rainbow Rowell is the Queen of Contemporary Fiction. I use the generic Contemporary Fiction because she writes both young adult and adult contemporary fiction better than anyone else. Sure, I’ve read a wheelbarrow load of contemporary fiction that one could argue rivals any of one of Rainbow Rowell’s single titles, but taken as an entire collection? There is no one. NO ONE who beats her. Rainbow writes about love. She writes about kissing. She writes about relationships. What I love about Rainbow is that her books don’t teach lessons. She reaches out her hand and asks the reader to follow her on a journey, and we do. We always follow. I’ve read several interviews and blogposts featuring Rainbow. Heck, I wrote a post about her #NY16SCBWI Breakout Session: Creating a Teen Voice. You wrote about her in The Value of Rainbow and Scones. But it wasn’t until the Lackawanna Country Library System Lecture Series ...
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Dear Alison, I feel vanquished. We've spent the past week volleying back and forth about Rainbow Rowell and all her awesomeness at the #NY16SCBWI conference. We've talked about scones and her books and more scones, and I promise to try that recipe you gave me in your last letter. Perhaps you too will find the deliciousness I've come to equate scones with, but alas, it's time to leave Rainbow. Though I'm sure we'll return to her again--after all, we will see her in a few weeks here in Northeast PA, and we'll both need to talk about that. I've also devoured her remaining books, and I will need to talk about each book--I'm thinking video. I do enjoy making videos. So back to #NY16SCBWI. For my afternoon session, I attended Rubin Pfeffer's Ready, Set, Go. Rubin Pfeffer: Editor/Agent/Superhero? Rubin didn't wear a cape. I didn't notice any wings or x-ray vision, but he is a superhero isn't he? I've heard he works magic in the...
Dear Kim, I'm still not convinced about scones. Even if Simon Snow loves them, even if by deduction we can assume that Rainbow Rowell must enjoy them because she created Simon Snow and his love of scones. I still cannot see the scone value. Taste the scone value? Just not convinced. I'll tell you what I am convinced about-- Rainbow Rowell Rocks! And not just the holy-crap-I-love-everything-she-writes kind of thing (though that is true). She rocks to the highest magnitude of awesomeness because of her response to Lin Oliver's question, "What are your assumptions about people?" Rainbow, during her fireside chat with Lin, replied, "We are mostly good people who try hard." She went on to say that she hopes her characters fulfill that assumption. Lin Oliver and Rainbow Rowell at #NY16SCBWI In both #NY16SCBWI sessions Rainbow shared her hopes for her characters. She let us know just how deeply she feels for her make believe friends (and her vill...
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...
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, 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...