Tag, you're it!

I was tagged by Rachel.
Here are my sentences:
"He could no more explain why his life had turned bad than he could explain why his life had been so good up to that point. Did he choose to grow up in a stable family? Did he have control over where he was born, when he was born, or to whom he was born?"
This is from A Grace Disguised, How the Soul Grows Through Loss, by Jerry Sittser.
(It's excellent by the way.)

SCBWI spring conference

Angelle Pilkington, an editor with the Penguin imprint Puffin Speak, spoke about the reasons 90 percent of "slush pile" manuscripts are rejected outright.

Top 5 Reasons:

1. It doesn’t fit the list. For example, it’s too institutional for paperback or too similar to what’s already on the list. That’s why it’s so important for writers to do their research first. Check Publishers Marketplace online on a regular basis because that gives clues to what an editor wants.
2. There’s too much like what you’ve written already out in the market.
   
3. There’s no hook—no commercial appeal. It must have marketing/promotional potential. You should be able to sum your book up in a sentence that’s going to grab people, especially in paperback. It needs broad appeal.
4. Characterization doesn’t have enough depth. Characters must grow, and must have appeal. They must be age appropriate and have natural dialogue.
5. The writing just isn’t there. Don’t have time to mentor and guide a writer even if the story itself has potential.

Nothing she said was startling, but I still thought this was a helpful list.

I cleared my whole day (well, practically the whole day) for writing. I finished writing the first draft of a fact-based nature picture book that's been in the making for a year. I conducted interviews last April, so it feels wonderful to have finally used that information. I plan to do a separate, and very different, version for a Highlights non-fiction article.

SCBWI spring conference

I'm going to post some notes from the editors' speeches at the Orange County SCBWI conference last week in Temecula. I'll start with an excellent talk by Stacy Cantor, editor with Walker Books for Young Readers.
She focused on picture books, and discussed how essential it is, in a story of 500 words or fewer, to make sure each one is exactly the right word. She had some fun examples from the first draft of Where the Wild Things Are, which was originally called Where the Wild Horses Are. What a powerful change just in that single word in the title (prompted, I believe, by Maurice Sendak's inability to draw horses. But whatever the reason, it changed the whole tone of the story.)
Cantor also handed out all of the drafts of and editorial notes for a charming picture book called Chicks and Salsa, written by Aaron Reynolds and published by Bloomsbury. It was a fascinating peek into the working relationship between an author and an editor, as well as a lesson about how critical revision is.
Finally, she listed five "rules" for picture books:

1. If you’re going to use repetition, make sure it’s there for a good reason and doesn’t talk down to your readers.
2. Introduce your main character and main conflict right from the beginning.
3. Each sentence you write must, in a very clear way, further the story.
4. With every step and with every word, you must be thinking about your PB illustrations. They should tell about 50 percent of the story.
5. They must be kept in childlike situations. Be thinking like a child and never forget who your audience is. What concerns do they have? What feelings do they have?

These are all fairly basic points, but ones that picture book writers ignore often. The next time I revise a PB text, I plan to go through each of these points to make sure I've adhered to them.

"Lets Play Two"

Poor Ernie Banks. The statue designed as a tribute to him and his famous slogan became infamous immediately for what it was lacking: an apostrophe.

The Cubs quickly fixed the error, thanks to all the amateur copyeditors out there.

Writing tips on www.SecondSetofEyes.com

I've posted a new writing tip, explaining the difference between active and passive voice. It's an issue that confuses many people, but is vital to strong, clear writing. Here's the link to my home page: www.secondsetofeyes.com.

San Diego SCBWI conference

On March 8th, I attended the SCBWI's annual Editors and Agents Day in San Diego. Local agent Kelly Sonnack, of the Sandra Dijkstra Agency, was impressive, both articulate and forthright. In the First Pages' critiques, her editorial comments were dead-on every time.
Andrea Welch, editor with Harcourt Children's Books, discussed the editor-author relationship, and talked about what she looks for in a manuscript. She said every book must have an essential story, or heart, and that emotional content is the main reason a parent and child will return to a book again and again. She also emphasized that humor and heart should go hand in hand. She looks for a story that is both funny and emotionally engaging. When reading a submission, she asks herself what the essential, universal story is that underlines the manuscript.

Short story in March issue

A story that I'm very fond of, STOP the Sign, is in this month's edition of Stories for Children magazine, http://storiesforchildren.tripod.com.
This was the very first story I ever wrote for children, after my first SCBWI conference. It's been revised quite a bit since then, and I had originally planned for it to be a picture book. And though it's not the type of story I'd write now, I'm glad it's found a home and hope online readers will enjoy it.