April 2025

Words from your Houston SCBWI Assistant Regional Advisor

Some of the crew at Buy the Book in The Woodlands to celebrate Sydney Dunlap's Racing the Clouds launch!

Happy spring, everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the cool temps before we go hurtling into the summer heat.


For our April meeting, we're delighted to have author-illustrator Robert Paul, Jr. as a presenter again. Join us in person or online for "Casting Characters For Children's Books."


In addition to our regular monthly meeting, we're excited to be hosting a webinar this month by an amazing author and outstanding presenter, Tracey Baptiste. Join us to level up your world-building!


Read on for more info about our upcoming events and other SCBWI news.



Remember to check out local bookstore events! I went to John Green's Everything Is Tuberculosis presentation hosted by Blue Willow Bookshop and found Christina Mandelski

Lynne Kelly

Assistant Regional Advisor

Houston SCBWI

Notice: We are looking for local social hosts and an updated list of all our self-published authors. If you want to know more, keep reading till the end!

HOUSTON CHAPTER EVENTS

Critique Groups

About Us

Houston Events

We encourage you to register for all events via our website.

Upcoming Meetings

Register for April's chapter meeting

Houston Chapter Critique Group


Where: Tracy Gee Event Center

When: April 7th, 2025

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM CST

 

What: An informal critique group to meet before most of our chapter meetings.


Details: All written and illustrated works-in-progress intended for the children’s market are welcome.

Please view the group's guidelines prior to attending. Free to all.

Webinar with Tracey Baptiste

Register here! 

May's Chapter Meeting

Register here! 

Fuel Your Craft

Sign up for our region's many activities below!

We will visit and share for the first 10-15 minutes and then it is independent work time. I will provide some inspirational music for your listening pleasure as well as an optional drawing prompt. When the music stops, we will share our work! Just think, all the advantages of a peer group but without the drive in Houston traffic!

Click here to register

Houston Liftoff!


With the power of community, we are creating stories and illustrations in just 30 minutes! Join us on April 8th for the next community session. Remember, after the 30 minutes, we open the mics to share.

And maybe one of these stories or illustrations will be added to a Houston Lift-Off anthology.


Many thanks to Jill Wegner for the new logo!

Click to let us know you're coming

Stay In the Know

Click to email Tiffany
Click to email Sanyu

Come join us at our first social! The Central Houston SCBWI Social Team invites you to a casual dinner meetup at Betsy’s in Evelyn’s Park.

All SCBWI members are welcome!

Please note that everyone is responsible for their own food and drink purchases.

Let’s enjoy the beautiful outdoors and connect with other members. Smiles, laughs, authors and illustrators included. -Sanyu😉

Register

A stronger community- Together on Discord


Ever wish you could reach out to your SCBWI community? Isn’t that supposed to be one of the biggest benefits of being part of an organization with like-minded creatives? Houston SCBWI has heard the need for a stronger, more active community, and we’re answering with a dedicated server where we can share our joys, frustrations, ideas, and creativity—all in one place.


Have a question? Find the right #channel and let the community help.


Have a piece you are especially proud of and your spouse doesn’t want to hear about it for the hundredth time? We do! Post it in #pitch-me, or #finished-it! We’d love to celebrate with you


Stuck in a plot hole? Jump into one of the genre-specific channels and brainstorm your way out.


Forgot the link to the next chapter meeting? Look at my scribbled red circle. That’s where our chapter events are; jump in and grab the link.


Want to connect one-on-one? Check out the voice channels at the bottom of the list (with video and sharing capabilities like Zoom). Whether it’s for a critique session or just a chat, they’re available for all members to use—except for the Chapter Critique Group channel, which is reserved for chapter events.


This only works if we come together as a communitychecking in, sharing ideas, lifting each other up and being lifted up. Please, join our server  and check in and participate in whatever way fits your life: once a day, once a week, or even once a month.

We are Houston SCBWI-- watch us Lift Off! 🚀

Space City Scribes Blog

Read the latest interviews here!

FOLK WISDOM & OTHER THOUGHTS


By Jim Smolski


Told


Write it down and share it.

A happy solid gold.

The only sad story.

Is the one that wasn’t told.


-Jim


If You


If you can keep your books when all about you,

are banning books because they say they’re wild.

If you can read them growing up when others doubt you.

And then again aloud to every child.

If you can share your warnings to those who listen.

Take the time to try much more to those who don’t.

If you build friendships by showing what they’re missing.

Keep trying harder to convince the ones who won’t.

If the struggle that at first was a burden felt.

Then defeated it with compassion given strength.

If you create fire in other barriers and make them melt.

Then you will stand atop your ladder’s tallest length.




Have News? Share It With Us For Our Members Corner Newsletter! (published the 10th of each month)

Submit author & illustrator news for the next newsletter by the 5th of each month via this form. Event submissions for member book launches and signings can be added to our regional calendar! Please be sure to include the date, time, and location.

SCBWI Awards & Grants

Go to "Member Home" then click "My Awards" to find monthly opportunities!

SCBWI Regional Events

Remember to check out webinars hosted by SCBWI regions! See the Regional Virtual Events page to see what's coming up for novelists, picture book writers, illustrators, and more

Our Volunteers

From left to right: Jacob Reynolds, Margaret Lea, Tiffany Obeng, Jennie Smith (above), Sabina Grey (below), Annie Harmon (above) Lynne Kelly (below) Kaye Marc-Charles, and Jim Smolski. Missing: Cheryl McCosh, Sydney Dunlap, Sanyu Ntanda, and Sam Kelty.

Regional Team

Co-Regional Advisor:

Kaye Marc-Charles

Co-Regional Advisor:

Annie Roi Harmon

Asst. Regional Advisor:

Lynne Kelly

Illustrators Coordinator:

Jennie Smith

Regional Advisor Emeritus:

Vicki Sansum


Chapter Volunteers

General Webmaster

Sabina Grey

Newsletter Editor

OPEN!

Critique Group Coordinator:

Jacob Reynolds

Newsletter Column Writer: 

Jim Smolski

Kidlit Correspondents

Margaret Lea

New Membership Coordinator

Sam Kelty

Programming Chair:

Cheryl McCosh

Social Event Coordinator

Sanyu Ntanda

Local Event (Pod) Coordinators: 

OPEN POSITIONS!

PAL Coordinator

Sydney Dunlap

Self-Pub Coordinator

Tiffany Obeng

Social Media Crew

OPEN! 


OPEN Volunteer Positions

We want to create a chapter that is more involved, engaged, and active, and we need your help to do it!


Click here to apply.

Stay on top of the latest SCBWI News!

Join the conversation in Discord! Sign up here! 


Newsletter Tip: Be aware of message clipping! To make sure you're getting the full newsletter, by looking for this message at the bottom of the email:

"[Message clipped]  View entire message"


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Chapter Logo and Header Design by Marissa Valdez

Houston Liftoff Design by Jill Wegner


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