The magic of Marching for Freedom launch and a Publishers Weekly interview

Some days are just amazing. I woke up feeling something special was happening, then remembered that today's the day. It's launch day for Marching for Freedom.

I had a great celebratory morning appearing at the Koret Auditorium in the San Francisco library with four other writers. Here's Lewis Buzbee talking with Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Summer Dawn Laurie (tireless coordinator who made all this work seamlessly) and Wendy Lichtman. I missed getting a photo of Hillary Homzie, who was the funniest of all of us, getting the kids rolling in the aisles with her story about how impersonating the Cookie Monster saved her from being mugged.

Our audience was 6-8th graders, who ranged from lively to snoozing (see photo) with one small, totally adorable, girl in Hello Kitty boots who sat listening intently with a stack of books beside her.

When I arrived home, I found an interview I'd done several weeks ago with Kathy Weeks was up on Publishers Weekly. I had so much fun doing this interview. Kathy asked me really compelling questions about the process of putting together the book. Thanks you Kathy for such a great interview and for pulling together so many strands!

Publishers Weekly interview.

Beautiful Toni Morrison quote

Toni Morrison grew up in a family where reading was considered sacred, with enormous power attached to it.

"If you can read, they can't cheat you; if you can't read, they can defeat you."

At the launch of the Free Speech Leadership Council in NYC last week, with thanks to Shelf Awareness.

And while I'm on quotes, here's another that has been sticking in my head for months: Last winter I spoke on an NCTE panel with Marc Aronson, Tanya Stone and Tanya Bolden, chaired by Teri Lesesne. Tanya Bolden said if she'd been able to read about African Americans in books when she was a kid, she would have been "shed of shame" earlier.

What a perfect phrase.

Author promo ideas from Flying Pig, Kids Otter Read

Elizabeth Blume who is an awesome, wonderful person and a bookseller as well (co-owner of Flying Pig Bookstore) blogs regularly on School Library Journal. She's just written a long post on how publishers can use their PR money effectively for book store promotion. Thank you Elizabeth! It's clear she gave a lot of thought to her post. There are some great ideas for authors as well. For example: What makes a good postcard or bookmark, or how much a personalized note means from an author. With PR budgets shrinking dramatically, we authors have to roll up our sleeves and help in any way we can.

Check out her To Market To Market post.

Saturday is Kids Otter Read day -- more than 50 authors in the SF bay area are doing great events at book stores. Drop by a store near you! I'll be at Laurel Bookstore in Oakland, run by another terrific woman who owns a book store, Luan Stauss. I'll be with Christina Meldrum, Lea Lyon and Debra Sartell. Hope to see you there!

Los Angeles Festival of Books

I had a fantastic time at the Los Angeles Festival of Books yesterday. People, people, people everywhere. Excited about books.

Moments: The wonderful "green room" where the food was terrific, and the staff had authors moving in and out to their presentations as if it were an airport. Seeing Steve Wasserman, a fellow Berkeley High School student. Heused to be Mr. Los Angles Book Review, and is now in NYC agenting, doing well in his new life. Tea with Susan Patron, another tea with Judy Blundell, a member of my beloved posse, and our friend Jane Mason. Our National Ambasador for Young People's Literature, Jon Scieszka, on the big, empy, windswept stage telling his funny story about pee and urine to an uneven audience who just couldn't quite get with the boy humor (not for lack of trying of Jon's part!) The panel I moderated was terrific -- great stories, laughter, serious moments, lots of information imparted.

But my photo taking capacity fell far short! Actually, the digital-moving-of-photos was where I really scrubbed. I seem to have erased rather than moved most of the photos. Here's just a couple.
Candace Fleming on the left, Kathleen Krull in the middle, and Kadir Nelson on the right.

Candace's husband, Eric Rohmann, was with her, and I fell in love with his scrapbook/journal that he carries with him, drawing and jotting notes. He let me take these two photos of a couple spreads. Wonderful to see his process of leaping from idea to idea.

Virginia Euwer Wolff

There's a wonderful interview with Virginia Euwer Wolff (you know, Make Lemonade) on Publisher's Weekly Children's Bookshelf. A wonderful read. Check it out. Virginia is one of the few people who can leave me holding my aching sides laughing while she looks at me, all innocent-like. And she writes beautiful, intense, breathy novels. And plays the violin.

If you are really lucky some day you will hear her speak and you'll laugh so hard you have to gasp for breath. Except for the parts where she'll make you weep. And if you aren't going to cross paths with her soon, you can pick up her new novel, This Full House, which is the third (and I think final) book in the trilogy about Jolly and La Vaughn.

Five Years On for the Martha Weston Grant

For the past five years, I've been the chair of the Martha Weston Grant through SCBWI. I'm turning the reins over to Lissa Rovetch now. I wrote to all the past winners to hear how they are doing, and got back lovely replies from all of them.

Reading over these replies has made me feel proud and gratified what an award like this can do to encourage people. Publishing is not an easy business, and it's wonderful to see how people can soak up a little bit of juice and transform it into book making. In the end, authors and illustrators, teachers and parents, and especially kids benefit.

I feel incredible grateful to Martha's family for funding and supporting this award.

And Martha, wherever your spirit is these days, I love you. You're still touching us here through your books and your grant.

Steve Mooser and Lin Oliver will give a presentation on the previous winners at this year's SCBWI conference.

ROBERTA COLLIER-MORALES
Hi Betsy-

Since winning the award, I've submitted a book dummy and have had 6
people turn me down. I'm working on a series of board book ideas that
I'm writing and illustrating and am still working on "The Running
Quilt" manuscript for the teen crowd. I have to support myself and
family as an illustrator and because much of the educational
illustration work is now being outsourced to Korea, South Africa and
India, many of us who depended on that work to support ourselves are
scrambling to find ways to make a living. As a result, I've been
learning about and pursuing Licensing my art so have been in two trade
shows - CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) as well as the International
Licensing Show and will have booths in both of those shows again in
2009. I'm determined to continue supporting myself in the arts and
one of my major goals is to have at least two more manuscripts and
book dummies ready to present before the end of 2008, I'm
concentrating on the board books as I think I have a bet
ter shot at getting these published than my chapter book. I'm still
the Illustrator co-ordinator for the RMC-SCBWI and am getting ready
for our fall conference, followed by my daughters wedding in New York
City, followed by Open Studio's here in Boulder- it's going to be
quite a ride!
Winning the Martha Weston Award was one of the highlights of my life
- I will make you proud- it's just taking longer than I'd hoped due to
the turn of events in the publishing arena. Life is always full of
unexpected turns, and learning to ride the waves is a life-long
challenge for all of us! My motto is "onward and upward", I'm not one
to give up, I just dig my heals in and become more determined than
ever!
Thank you again, for the honor! Roberta


FIONA BAYROCK
Hi Betsy,

The four years since I received the Martha Weston Grant
have been full ones for me. In this business that always seems to move
glacially and be riddled with rejection and wishes, it's good to stop and
reflect about all that *has* gone well. So thank you for sparking that
reflection in me this week. :^)

Since I received the Martha Weston Grant four years ago I've continued to
enjoy successes in my established genre of science writing, including 14 books
published for education and specialty markets for Scholastic U.S., Scholastic
Canada, and Capstone Press; articles in Highlights for Children, YES Mag,
KNOW, and Hopscotch for Girls; and a contract for my first trade book, BUBBLE
HOMES AND FISH FARTS (Charlesbridge, 2009 Carolyn Conahan, Illus.), which
I've just found out has been named a Junior Library Guild Selection.

I applied for the Martha Weston Grant to support my branching out into
humorous fiction. Let me express again my gratitude for being selected for
this grant. It was a huge boost to my fiction writing. The 2004 SCBWI-LA
conference was chock full of award-winning humour writers---Bruce Coville, Jon
Scieszka, Sid Fleischman, Gordon Korman...wow. To listen to each of them talk
about their process and approach, and to benefit from their tips and advice
was an amazing education. It put a lot of things in perspective and unlocked
many doors in my head. Since then, I've been hard at work learning the craft
and developing my fiction skills on several projects, two of which I've just
begun to submit to publishers (a surprisingly scary thing to do! :^). No
fiction book contracts yet, but I have had one encouraging humorous fiction
success---a poem sale to Highlights for Children.

An interesting anecdote from the conference...
You know how you hear stories about an author who meets an editor in an
elevator and they go on to sign a book contract together? I thought it was an
urban myth, but it turns out it really does happen---it happened to me at the
2004 SCBWI-LA conference! As I was heading up to my room for 20 minutes of
quiet time before the next conference session, one other person waited beside
me for the elevator. As is the delightful custom at these conferences, we
introduced ourselves and struck up a conversation. After we'd established
names and hometowns, she asked what I did. "I'm a children's science
writer." "Oh?" she said, "What a coincidence. I'm a children's science editor.
Say, would you like to find a quiet place to talk?" By this time, we were in
the elevator and on the way up, so we exited at the next floor, called an
elevator car going down, and found a corner in the main hall, where we
proceeded to have a 45-minute chat, The editor later treated me to supper in
the hotel restaurant. I ended up writing eight books for her publisher. :^)

Sincerely,

--Fiona


BARBARA JEAN HICKS
Hi Betsy,

It's been almost a year since the Martha Weston Grant sent me to the
SCBWI Summer Conference, and it's been a busy and fulfilling twelve
months!

You probably remember that as a picture book author, the new genre I
was interested in pursuing was picture book illustration. As a result
of the grant, I put together my first art portfolio and displayed it
at the conference—the first time I had ever shared my artwork in
public.

Since that time, I've also had my first portfolio review from an art
director at a major publishing house (extremely instructive!), printed
and sold a line of greeting cards through my local children's
bookstore, and developed a series of visually appealing marketing
materials to sell my visiting author services. I'm even using one of
my cut-paper illustrations as a personal "brand" to help potential
clients remember me—an idea I picked up at one of the workshops at the
conference!

I have an idea for an author-illustrated book I'm very excited about,
but it's still in the "thinking" stage. Meanwhile, after a long dry
spell, I've signed a contract for my fifth children's book, a picture
book called MONSTERS DON'T EAT BROCCOLI illustrated by British artist
Sue Hendra and scheduled for release in Summer 2009. I have another
picture book manuscript ready to send out and several more that are in
various stages of revision.

Also, after participating in 33 promotional events last year, from
bookstore signings to school and library visits to charitable events,
I've recently hired a booking agent to help me find and manage
additional speaking opportunities around the country. I'm very excited
about the possibilities!

I feel as if my career as a children's author and speaker has jumped
into high gear since last year's conference. Although I'm not there
yet, for the first time I feel as if it might really be possible to
make a living in this crazy children's book business! I am so grateful
for having been the recipient of the Martha Weston Grant. Thanks again
to you and Anna and Martha's family for giving me a chance to explore
and develop my gifts as an author, artist, speaker and entrepreneur!

Barbara Jean


LUPE RUIZ-FLORES
Hello Elizabeth,

How wonderful to hear from you. Yes, I do have some good news since my Martha Weston Grant. My second bilingual picture book, The Woodcutter's Gift, came out in October 2007. I just signed a contract for a third bilingual picture book, The Battle of the Snow Cones, due out in 2010 by Arte Publico Press. I have a historical fiction middle-grade manuscript being looked at by an agent in New York (keeping my fingers crossed).

I've been doing a lot of school visits and my latest one was on July 8 in Weslaco, Texas. It was a Title I Migrant Summer Program. Since I was a migrant worker myself at one time, the children could relate to that when I did my reading/presentation. Every student got one of my books (over 250). It was great. The pic is on my website.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to have attended the LA SCBWI. It was an experience I will never forget. Maybe one of these days, I'll be able to attend another one. Best of luck in your new venture. And thank you for your dedication and wonderful work on the committee.

Sherman Alexie

Last summer and fall I had the privilege of heading the National Book Award for Young People. As I've posted before, we agonized once we got to about twenty titles: how to cut down further? We debated hard, cast secret ballots and eventually had our five finalists. I feel a special connection with those books, a kind of pride that we recognized how brilliant they all are.

We finally chose Sheman Alexie's book, The True Diary of a Part Time Indian as THE ONE. He's reaping the rewards of his deserved success with the book right now, on tour to high schools acorss the country. He's written a beautiful piece about his tour for Publisher's Weekly.

The guy can sure write.

Jon Scieszka, literature ambassador

Children's Bookshelf has run a letter from Ambassador Scieszka. That would be Jon Scieszka, who writes books for kids (Stinky Cheese Man, Math Curse, True Story of the Three Little Pigs). He's hysterically funny and irreverent. Silly. Ingenious. Twisted. There's lots of interesting words to describe him.

He goes after kids who are having a hard time with reading. Especially boys. He's been appointed literature ambassador of children's books by the Library of Congress, and he's off to a flying start. You can read the whole letter, or here's a taste:

"But the best, the absolute best tribute so far was my reception at the La Jolla Country Day School. The room was packed with 200 pre-K through first graders. As I entered, they presented me with a red satin Ambassador sash, and the fifth/sixth grade music class played an original composition, "Ambassador Fanfare," on kettle drums, trombone, trumpet, and xylophone.

I liked it so much that I went out and came in three more times. And Dave Shannon was with me, so I had them play it for him as Vice-Ambassador—only half of it, and twice as fast."
Buried under all the humor is this:

"I'm also working on a plan to promote the best of every publisher's list for Reluctant Readers, deputizing teachers, librarians, booksellers, parents, kids, and anybody who's found a book that works. Details to be released soon."

There's a great interview with Scieszka on NPR.

And extra points if you can spell his name wtihout looking.