Your August 2019 SCBWI Houston Newsletter
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Upcoming Meeting: Sept 3 (Tuesday), 2019 7-9 PM
The Next Month's Meeting: Oct 7
Please join us on the first Monday of every month from 7-9 p.m. at the Tracy Gee Community Center, 3599 Westcenter, Houston.
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This month: Panel Discusses
The National LA SCBWI Conference
What news came out of the conference? Who was there? What pearls of wisdom did our attendees pluck from this experience? Come to the meeting to hear it straight from their fresh memories!
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Next month: October 7:
An Agent & Author's Perspective of Intellectual Properties:
Contracts, Clauses, Foreign Rights & More with
Ann Rose
,
Agent & Author
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Cheryl Pilgrim's newest is now available for preorder
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The Littlest Voyageur
(Holiday House, March 2020) written by
Margi Preus
and illustrated by
Cheryl Pilgrim
Cheryl will also be reading and signing
Big and Little A Story of Opposites
at the Children's Museum in The Woodlands, TX September 23 at 11 am.
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Launch of MG Novel
from Varsha Bajaj
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Releasing August 27,
Count Me In
is an uplifting story of the power of empathy and community when faced with hate told through alternating voices. The book launch is on September 7 at Blue Willow Bookshop.
Learn more here.
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Voyagehouston
broadcast an interview with
Michelle Nott
before she departed for her new home in Charlotte, NC. Michelle, in parting, expressed her gratitude to everyone in this chapter. We wish her all the best in her new home!
Listen to her interview here.
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Lynne Kelly Receiving Great Support from Random House
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Song For a Whale
is getting some well deserved love from its publisher, Random House. Recently supported by a full page email blast in Publishers Weekly and its own page on their
website
, Lynne's novel is on a fast ship to success.
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Diann Floyd Boehm Launching Book Inspired by Dubai Desert
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Harry the Camel,
Diann's fourth PB, will launch on Sept. 8, International Literacy Day. The book will simultaneously launch in English and Arabic to honor the language of the main character's country of origin.
The overarching theme of all of Boehm’s children’s stories is to embrace diversity and for children to accept themselves and others the way they are.
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Have You Donated to Our Silent Auction Yet?
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Please consider helping make our annual fundraiser a success. The silent auction funds chapter events, scholarships, and our conference. Could you donate a piece of art, a critique, a weekend retreat at your beach house, a service, or a basket of goodies...? Donate today!
Our committee has worked hard. Take a look at some of the items up for bids:
Critiques
Tickets to Schlitterbahn, SeaWorld of Texas, Houston Zoo, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Children's Museum of Houston, InnerSpace Caverns, Urban Air, Cynthia Mitchell Woods Pavillion, Air Terminal Museum, Scream World,Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Main Street Theater, and more.
Wine Tastings
Autographed award-winning titles
Subscriptions to Scrivener
Catering service by La Madeleine
Craft books
Dental kit with Platinum Sonicare toothbrush
St. Arnold's Gift Basket
Writers Retreats
Knitting kit
Doggie Baskets
Baskets of cultural delights from Peru, France, Mexico
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New Animated Book by Margaret McManis in iBooks
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"Our first ever ebook is finally finished after three years of challenges working with an illustrator from the Ukraine who spoke no English and other interesting dialogues with our very youthful animator from Dallas, Nick," reports Margaret.
See
‘Glammaw and Nannerd Get Historical’
in the ibooks library and download it to have fun with the two zany grands as they travel Miss Frizzle style to famous historical sites and send their granddaughters souvenirs and wait for the surprising ending to their travels and their granddaughters reaction to the gifts.
Margaret McManis
and
Richard Barrett
Nadji Makovetska
-illustrator
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Alissa McClure's
Oggie the Otter
was the very first book featured
on KHOU's
Turn the Page
literacy initiative, kicking off a summer program that included many works by our chapter's members.
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SCBWI BookStop Unveils New Templates
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To celebrate the fifth anniversary of the popular program, SCBWI BookStop is getting a dramatic makeover. Starting on
August 26
, SCBWI members will be able to choose from a new line of pre-designed templates to create a customizable webpage for their 2019 new releases. On
October 8
, the BookStop pages will be collected in an online gallery that SCBWI will promote across the reading community. This promotion will last through Thanksgiving weekend in order to make the most of the holiday shopping period.
Last year’s BookStop program included a gallery of nearly 800 member titles. Thanks to targeted advertisement and promotional features like the Thursday Crawl, the 2018 collection garnered over 55,000 unique pageviews—a 60% increase from the previous year. We have good reason to hope that the 2019 gallery will draw in even more readers and shoppers.
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WEBINAR:
Paper Flat to Three Dimensional
: How to make your characters feel real. With Ann Rose (A Recent Conference Faculty member with a new Offering!)
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Struggling with your characters? This webinar is for you!
Literary agent Ann Rose from Prospect Agency will talk about how to create characters that bring your stories to life.
During this webinar she will:
* Go over the building blocks of creating characters
* Discuss what makes an unlikable character likeable
* Review the importance of character goals and character arcs
* Discuss why backstory is important but why you don’t always have to have it on the page
* Answer your questions about characters and characterization
Attendees will also have an opportunity to query Ann following the webinar and receive a guaranteed response.
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Oct 22, 2019 at 5:30pm
Agent,
Abigail Frank
is lucky to work with brilliant children’s book writers and illustrators at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates. She loves picture books, middle grade, and YA equally, but for very different reasons.
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October 12, 2019 Southwestern University
An annual event featuring 30–40 authors (from Texas and beyond) whose books have been published in 2019 for a teen audience. Authors chosen for the event will participate in a panel or a special session.
Learn more and register here.
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A new Opportunity from a Conference Faculty,
Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 7:00 PM Eastern/6:00 PM Central/5:00 PM Mountain/4:00 PM Pacific
The first page of your manuscript can hook an agent or editor right away – or turn them off immediately. In this webinar, Talia Benamy, associate editor at Philomel Books gives live feedback on anonymous first pages from picture book, middle grade, and young adult fiction and nonfiction manuscripts. Go to link for more info.
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Thursday, November 14, 2019 – 7 p.m.
(Central Time)
Short description: How can you know when your manuscript is really ready to submit to agents or editors? Learn ten actionable tests for knowing when a novel is really ready to submit—along with ways to whip the manuscript into shape if it fails a single one of them.
Cost: $20 SCBWI Members
Cost: $30 Non-members
Region Hosting: Texas Southwest
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SCBWI Podcast Goes Public
In a bold expansion to new platforms, SCBWI has made the first season of its popular podcast,
SCBWI Conversations
, available to the public. Our library of in-depth, insightful episodes feature the best of editors, agents, authors, and illustrators in the children’s book industry. As of today, we have over nine thousand listeners on six continents who have joined us since our public launch in May. The most current season will remain exclusive content for SCBWI members only. It is available for streaming from our website
here
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An Ongoing and Updated List of Webinars
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The Nevada SCBWI chapter has a new feature listing and updating webinars of interest to our members. Be sure to bookmark this page to stay abreast of new opportunities...
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Austin's Cynthia Leitich Smith Is Compiling
an ever growing list of Texas children's-YA
authors and Illustrators.
Howdy! Texas is bursting with talented children’s-YA book creators.
Once again, my Cynterns and I are updating the ever-growing list of
Texas children’s-YA authors and illustrators at:
It’s a popular resource for event planners, gatekeepers and Texas book lovers.
listings or updates to existing listings.
Those who currently live in Texas or have previously lived in Texas are
eligible for inclusion.
Please reply with byline, official website URL, preferred titles to
highlight, and current city and/or state of residence.
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From SCBWI Pro Insider:
The Golden Age of Children’s Nonfiction
Right now, more than ever, is the best time to be an
author of children’s nonfiction.
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Torn apart: the vicious war over young adult books:
Authors who write about marginalised communities are
facing abuse, boycotts and even death threats.
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From BookBub: 45+ Author Websites with Stellar Designs
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Many successful authors have websites that are the hub of their online marketing activity — they provide a central platform for everything from blogging to book sales and email newsletters. But what should you include in an author website?
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Booklife First Lines June 2019
"It was a dark and stormy night” is not one of them!
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Booklife: How to Avoid Self-Publishing SCAMS
Being able to identify when a particular service is overcharging—or just overpromising what they are actually able to deliver i
s
an important skill for any author to master.
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Monthly Meetings
When: Meetings are held on the first Monday night of each month (first Tuesday if first Monday is a holiday), 7-9 pm. Fiction, Nonfiction and Illustration critique groups meet from 6-7pm.
What: All regular monthly meetings are open to all at no cost or obligation. To suggest speakers or topics and/or to be added to our monthly meeting reminder e-mail list, contact Program Coordinator via our Contact Us page.
Where: The meetings are held at the Tracy Gee community center, located at 3599 Westcenter Dr, Houston, TX 77042-521
October 7
- An Agent & Author's Perspective of Intellectual Properties: Contracts, Clauses, Foreign Rights & More with Ann Rose, Agent & Author
November 4
- The Illustrated Biography of an Illustrator & Muralist by Bill Ferguson
December 2
- Self-Publishing: 1st Impressions, Book Trailers, Editing, Promoting & More
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Our Staff
Regional Advisor:
Asst. Regional Advisor:
Lynne Kelly
Illustrators Coordinator:
2016 Conference Chairs:
Lynne Kelly
Mary Riser
Monthly Program Chairs:
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Listserv Coordinator:
Twitter Coordinator:
Newsletter & Website
Art Credit
Header Design:
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Copyright © 2019 SCBWI-Houston, All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
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