SCBWI-MI Shop Talks and Much, Much More!

Shop Talk – a gathering of writers and illustrators for the purpose of resourcing, sharing and encouraging each other.

Thanks to the dedication of many members in SCBWI-Michigan, we have four very active Shop Talk groups throughout the state:

•             Lansing Area – LAST – led by Charlie Barshaw and Ann Finklestein
•             SE-Mitten - Farmington Hills – led by Patti Richards and Jennifer Rumberger
•             Grand Rapids West – led by David Stricklen
•             Ann Arbor Area – led by Betsy McKee Williams

Each group has their own schedule and meets regularly every four to six weeks. Everyone is welcome attend. A variety of topics are covered by the groups from speakers on craft, social media, critique sessions, sharing resources, hearing author behind-the-scenes stories, etc. Each group is tailored to fit the needs of their attendees.

If you are interested in attending a Shop Talk near you, please check our Calendar of Events on the SCBWI webpage or contact the coordinators. Contact information can be found here. Also be sure to follow our chapter Facebook page and join the MichKids listserv. Future dates are always posted on both locations.

If your area of the state doesn’t have a Shop Talk, please consider starting a group of your own. All you need is a space to meet (library, park center, coffee shop, book store) and the desire to meet with fellow authors/illustrators. It’s easy! The Shop Talk coordinators share ideas and are a great resource for meeting topics. We can also help you advertise and share you group with your area of Michigan. Please contact Jennifer Rumberger if you would like to discuss leading a new group.

We hope to see you at a Shop Talk this winter!

Jennifer Rumberger is a wife and mom of two very active boys. She is an administrative assistant during the day and a children's writer in her free time. She has been published in a handful of children's magazines and her picture book, DUCKLINGS ON THE MOVE, is available from MeeGenius/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Our SCBWI-MI authors will be busy this weekend with a number of events. Take your pick or hop around to several. If only they weren't all happening at the same time!

*  SCBWI-MI Shop Talk, Ann Arbor: Sat, Nov 12 – same place, but different time: 1-4pm
AADL Downtown library, 3rd floor freespace meeting room

This will be an informal meeting. We will start, as always, with introductions. Next we will have a sort of Wisdom Circle. Everyone will be invited to write down questions or problems which they are currently struggling with. We will pull questions from a hat and discuss one at a time, sharing our collective expertise. People can choose whether to claim their question, or to have it remain anonymous.

Questions? Contact Betsy McKee. For Shop Talks later this month in other cities, go here.

*  Picture book author trio at the Book Beat in Oak Park, Sat. Nov. 12, 1-3pm

Lisa Wheeler will be reading from The Christmas Boot, her classic holiday tale newly illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. She will also be giving a “story behind the story” talk. Lisa Rose will be reading from her book, Shmulik Paints the Town. Deborah Aronson will be reading from her book Where’s My Tushy? and her new book, Dragons from Mars.

*  4th Annual Children's Author Meet & Greet. Sat. Nov. 12, 1-3pm. Frenchtown Dixie Branch Library, Monroe. 

Enjoy an Autumn afternoon with 11 amazing authors of books for children of all ages.

Coming up on the Mitten blog: Learn more about Capital City Writers Association, an SCBWI Magazine Merit Award Winner, and the SCBWI PAL program.

*  Our amazing SCBWI-MI PAL leader, Dawne Webber, has been hard at work on the upcoming Merry Mitten Holiday event. More details to come, but for now, here's a peek at the website and Facebook page. They just went live and are ready to "like" and follow and share, but the official logo and artwork is still to come.

Have a wonderful book-ful weekend!
Kristin Lenz

The Cybils Awards by Jennifer Rumberger

In the next week or so, a call for judges for the 2016 Cybils Awards will be announced. The Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards are an annual event for all of us. Whether you nominate a book, apply to be a judge, tweet or blog about the books everyone can participate.

In 2013, I was chosen to be a first round judge for the Middle Grade Fiction category. While it was exciting to be chosen, it required lots of work. Over the span of a couple of months, my group of judges was required to read around 100 middle grade books that were nominated. (It definitely helped if you had read some of the books already!) We kept lists and chatted together and slowly narrowed the books down to our top five. That’s when our job ended. The second round judges then took those five books and picked the winner.

So what did a book need to have to be in the top five? Not only did it need to be well-written but it also needed to appeal to the children or young adult audience. Not an easy task. Many books were high on the literary merit scale and many definitely appealed to kids. But finding books that meshed the two ingredients, only a handful.

If you blog regularly, which can be as little as once a month, I encourage you to submit an application to be a judge. 15 different categories existed last year from poetry to easy readers to non-fiction to fiction young adult. The time spent with your fellow judges (albeit cyber time) can be a valuable tool in your own writing process as you learn what works and what doesn’t to make a book successful.

And if you aren’t a blogger, there’s plenty for you too. The nominations lists for all categories are a great way to find new books to read. And the lists of finalists are a must read for the genre in which you write.

For more information about the Cybils Awards, visit their website www.cybils.com.

Jennifer Rumberger is a wife and mom of two very active boys. She is an administrative assistant during the day and a children's writer in her free time. She has been published in a handful of children's magazines and her picture book, DUCKLINGS ON THE MOVE, is available from MeeGenius/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

See the 2015 Cybils Award winners here.

Coming up on the Mitten blog: Back to School with MFA Week. Yes, it's finally here - 7 days of posts packed with everything you've ever wanted to know about getting your MFA. The fun starts next Friday - see you then!

Kristin Lenz

Tips, Pics, and Congrats from the 2015 Homegrown Talent Conference

Conference co-coordinator Jennifer Rumberger is here to share her conference take-aways, but first we want to say congratulations to SCBWI-MI members Dan Burns and Ann Dalman! Dan won the 2016 Michigan Mentorship Award that featured diversity, and Ann was the first runner-up. This award considered picture books, novels or nonfiction manuscripts that were either written by a person of diverse origins or included elements of a multicultural perspective.

Patricia Hruby Powell

The grand prize is a one-year mentorship with Patricia Hruby Powell, a storyteller, author and former dancer. Her most recent picture book, JOSEPHINE, won The Coretta Scott King Book Award, Robert F. Sibert Informational Book Award, Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, Parent’s Choice Award, Wall Street Journal’s 10 Best Children’s Books of the Year List, and the Bologna Ragazzi Nonfiction Honor.

We'll catch up with Dan and Ann in another post to learn more about them and their work. 

Here's Jennifer's conference recap:

This past weekend SCBWI-Michigan hosted a Homegrown Talent Conference at Thomson-Shore publishers in Dexter, Michigan. The amazing speakers: Ruth McNally Barshaw, Deborah Diesen, Kelly DiPucchio, Lynne Rae Perkins, Katherine Jacobs, Kathleen Merz, Mary Bigler and portfolio reviewer Wong Herbert Yee (all from Michigan or currently living in Michigan) shared much to keep those in attendance inspired. To help those of you who missed the conference find inspiration as well, below are five tips as you continue to write.

1. Dig deep and figure out why you’re writing for kids.
2. Fall in love with your main character. It’s the best way to make your reader feel something for them as well.
3. Make sure you are committed to your story before going too far with it. If you can’t totally commit, your reader will know.
4. Round characters are a necessity in every good story.
5. The influence our writing can have on today’s children is a power not to be taken lightly.

As you sit down to type that next story or pick up your pen and paper, remember that a community of writers is cheering you on from their own computer or notepad. 

Jennifer Rumberger is a wife and mom of two very active boys. She is an administrative assistant during the day and a children's writer in her free time, which can be at home or at one of her boys' many sports practices (never during games!). She has been published in a handful of children's magazines and her picture book, DUCKLINGS ON THE MOVE, is available from MeeGenius.

Thanks to Pat Trattles who coordinated the fall conference with Jennifer and the many volunteers who helped - what a great event! Here are some photos from the fun, informative, jam-packed day. Thanks to Kirbi Fagan for taking the time to capture these moments.

Co-Regional Advisors Leslie Helakoski and Carrie Pearson kick-started the day with an audience dance.

SCBWI-MI webmistress Deb Gonzales with editors, Katherine Jacobs and Kathleen Merz.

Ready to start the day.

Kelly DiPucchio during her funny, inspirational speech. Bulldogs, Babies, and Bacon: Everyone Has a Story

Perusing the portfolio display

Thank you illustrators for sharing your work.

SCBWI-MI Illustrator Coordinator, Ruth McNally Barshaw led a session for illustrators: Packing the Perfect Portfolio

Nick Atkins, creator of the Homegrown Talent Conference logo, with his wife Ashley.

Save the date! The SCBWI Wild Wild Midwest Conference will be held in Chicago, April 29- May 1, 2016. Five regions are hosting —Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa. More info soon!