Beth McBride

by Elizabeth McBride  

Starving artist? No thanks. I've noticed that life seems to come around once, and despite my love of writing, I prefer to forego needless suffering. My mirror is the best proof of this, but I've also decided that positive motivation, encouragement, and rewards beat threats, anxiety, worn grindstones and battered chairs any day!

As writers and artists, our work is done alone, often after doing everything else with everyone else in order to meet their needs first. We fit our closest held work and dreams into the crevices between our other commitments. Many times we live out our public hours doing and being something other than the artists that we are, in order to make financial ends meet. It is no wonder we feel unrecognized, unsure of ourselves, and discouraged by the world's lack of response to our dreams. They may be so well hidden from view that even we haven't clarified them for ourselves!

If we are going to take part in making our dreams come true, we need to know what we are waiting for and see where our efforts can most easily make a difference. Make a list. After all, watching and waiting for life to hand out joy just the way you hope it will arrive, is like closing your eyes in the ice cream shop, refusing to point, and hoping you'll get your favorite flavor.

What would it be like to live your dream of an artist's life? What stops us from living as the writers and artists that we want to be? Most of the time, we are our own first hurdles. 

Are you waiting for some outside authorization, the validation of a contract, a certain length of time on the bestseller list, a specific number of titles in print, or illustrations sold? So ask yourself: What stops you from believing in the artist and writer that you already are? 

"How we are limited by the poverty of our dreams!" writes Carolyn See in Making a Literary Life."If you can't really believe you're a writer [artist], why not pretend you're one?...If you were a writer, what would you have?... You're creating a world of icons and talismans. Anything that you can do to pretend to be a writer [artist]--do it," she says. 

I can't live at the beach and listen to the waves while I work, but I did fashion a small fountain out of a big flowerpot outside, and when I sit near the sliding door to write, I can hear the water splashing. And I don't live in a city with charming and aromatic coffee shops offering empty booths to writers for hours on end. I can go to the Starbucks at our grocery store and pick up a cup of cocoa to bring home and enjoy while I work. Why deprive ourselves of the joys that feed our art, while we go about the tasks of making it? 

We cannot keep reaching into our own well without filling it sometimes. The tension that exists between the lives we lead that enable us to work toward the creative lives we desire could use the relief of encouragement and reward along the way! Perhaps we need to work both ends of our dreams in order to live them into fruition.

When we can, why not participate in the circumstances that facilitate our creativity, our energy, and our successes? In this highly invisible business of creating art through words and images, perhaps we have to be more willing to feed ourselves before the world will be inclined to join us. Go toward your goals, and give yourself the mercy, validation and encouragement to help make the journey as pleasant and rewarding as possible along the way. 

Elizabeth McBride writes children's fiction and non-fiction, poetry, essay, and inspirational literature from her home in Grand Ledge. Her favorite rewards are chocolate, new books, going for walks, a waterside setting for writing--and more chocolate.

by Elizabeth McBride  

The results are in!  In September, 46 of our members gave us a peek into their writing lives and shared how they motivate themselves and celebrate meeting their goals. Any opportunity to understand what helps us do our best work is helpful, and our thanks go out to all who took the time to enter into this conversation-starter among our group. 

In summary, nearly 72% of our respondents said they reward themselves for their accomplishments and/or progress toward reaching their writing goals. Forty-one percent of those who reward themselves for their writing accomplishments or progress reported doing so based upon the size or difficulty of the task, while 38% said their writing rewards were a matter of serendipity, and almost 12% of the group said they make specific plans to fit rewards into all of their writing efforts.

After meeting daily writing goals of pages, word counts, assignments, deadlines, or revisions, many of our members change their activities or add something pleasurable and/or relaxing to their tasks. Examples are: reading, a run or walk outside, new writing supplies, TV time, or chocolate.  (As a group, we are rather fond of including chocolate in the writing process to keep ourselves moving along!) 

Most commonly, our members cited a nice dinner out with their spouse or family was their planned reward for long hours worked toward specific goals. Larger achievements yielded more distinctive and sometimes delayed rewards such as trips, conferences, and writing getaway weekends. Notably, such larger rewards were usually something that brought additional returns to the receiver's writing career. For example, one member responded, "I like the work and so it is self-motivating. However (my rewards) do help me to keep taking steps forward in trying to get published." Another said, "My rewards are mostly small. I go out to dinner when I finish my first draft, or buy myself a book when I finish an edit. When I sold my first book, I set aside some money to go to New York and meet my editor in person, and that was absolutely worth it! It helped me career-wise and was a heckload of fun too!"

Many of our members write in several genres. Twenty members answered the question regarding which genres are most likely to inspire them to reward themselves. Eleven reported young adult novels would do the trick, followed closely by Picture Books for 10 of us, non-fiction for eight respondents, middle grade novels for six (despite my omission of the category!) and four named adult novels, three listed essays and short stories, and two listed mystery and biography. One respondent summed it up like this: "The harder it is for me, the longer it takes, or the more complex it is, the more likely I am to reward myself.  However, putting together a collection of poetry, or doing the horrific work of sending out my manuscripts to publishers' mercies could generate a reward!" Several members wrote that revision is a stage in the writing process that necessitates rewards for them.

Of the 17 respondents who do not provide their own rewards beyond publication, earnings, and/or speaking engagements, 13 said that the feeling of completion is its own reward for them. Four said that rewards from outside sources are the only ones that would feel satisfying to them, while three commented that they do not need rewards along the way to keep them going. Three people also reported that they would feel foolish or unjustified for rewarding themselves for their work. One commented, "Writing is my reward. It's my treat from the other stresses of life. So after working all day on my business, I reward myself by sitting down to "work" on my manuscript--for, of course, that ultimate reward: publication."  Another member states, "The time spent in my quiet office, away from the rest of the world, is a reward to me, whether I'm writing or doing other writer-type business." Still another member comments, "As an unpublished children's writer, I still need some outside verification for my work. Still difficult to judge what sells.  Also, lacking confidence."   

The group expressed varied thoughts about how they fit rewards into their writing experiences. One member says, "I think this would be a really good and sound psychological theory. Which doesn't explain why I fail to do it. Maybe I need to re-think."  Another says, "Since I write mostly books, it takes a long time for a project to come to fruition.  My last book took three years to make it onto the shelf. So my motivation wanes if I don't reward myself for the milestones along the way."  One member exclaims, "I should reward myself more!!"

Other members commented on the power of rewards as validation of their choices to be writers in a culture that does not always respect such career selections. "Because I have felt that I have earned it at last (despite the lack of book manuscripts published), I have rewarded myself with saying aloud, to other people even, that I am a writer. That has been a great reward."  Another member has a similar view: "My rewards have varied from large to small, from practical to utterly frivolous. It's not so much about the reward as a motivator. For me...it's a bit more about validation. For some reason, it seems to me that people who are writers often have a difficult time voicing that out loud and with conviction. It's as if they fear that people think they have "real" jobs or responsibilities and the writing is viewed as a hobby, something nice to dabble in. My rewards system, as sporadic and unpredictable as it may be, goes a long way toward reminding me that I alone can define what I mean by proclaiming myself 'a writer.'"

As a group, we love what we do. We want to do more and do it all better. By and large, we reward ourselves in order to meet our goals rather than escape our work. Our most common rewards are small pleasures that keep us going, and our most expensive rewards are those that feed our writing careers with education, contacts and experiences that support our development.  

What a glimpse into some of the reasons for the many successes of our Michigan SCBWI members! Thank you all!

Author Vicky Alvear Shecter

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

by Kristin Lenz 

I recently had the opportunity to interview Cleopatra's Moon author Vicky Alvear Shecter, and I asked about her path to publication, and how she made the leap from non-fiction to fiction publishing.

Vicky:  When my kids were little, I often told them wild, action-adventure stories about Alexander the Great. They ate it up, so naturally, in my cluelessness, I thought, "Hey, I should write a kid's book about him!"

So I did. Only to discover that writing it was the easy (okay, easier) part. Finding a publisher was the real challenge. After 30 submissions, Darby Creek Press finally picked it up. I did not have an agent because agents in general don't want to do kids nonfiction (NF) because there's hardly any money in it. We were in the midst of working on the second book in the series--on Cleopatra and other ancient queens--when Darby closed its doors. I had to find another publisher. Talk about disheartening! But, here's where SCBWI really came through. I had attended a conference where Larry Rosler from Boyds Mill Press was the keynote speaker. Boyds Mills Press is one of the few houses that specializes in non-work-for-hire nonfiction. So I submitted the book to him (as well as many others).

Meanwhile, a friend told me that Cheryl Klein had initiated a thread about NF on a discussion board, suggesting that perhaps she was interested in looking at NF manuscripts. So I sent Cleopatra Rules! to her as well. Larry Rosler ended up buying it. Long after the book was into production, I received a letter from Cheryl Klein saying she was interested in seeing more of the manuscript. I found myself in the strange position of having to tell Cheryl Klein (of all people!), "Oops, I'm sorry--the book has already sold."

But by then, I'd been seriously working on Cleopatra's Moon, the young adult, historical fiction novel based on the life of Cleopatra's daughter, Cleopatra Selene (for which the idea came out of the research for the NF book). I knew I could not sell YA fiction without an agent, so I'd gotten one. My agent, Courtney Miller-Callahan at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, coached me on getting back to Cheryl with a note that basically informed her about the status of the NF book, but at the same time pitched her on the novel I was working on. It turned out she was very interested in the pitch and responded quickly to tell me to be sure to send it to her when the novel was ready.  

Getting an agent, by the way, also wasn't easy. I narrowed my search to those agents that repped YA and were interested in historical fiction (using www.agentquery.com). Thanks to my experience with submitting on my own, I knew it was a matter of doing my homework and sticking it out until I found someone willing to take a risk on me. I'm becoming convinced that those of us who get published do so as much out of pure doggedness as anything else. If you're willing to suffer through the rejections and keep working on your craft, then it can happen!

Cleopatra's Moon, below. 

BOOK REVIEW

By Kristin Lenz

Cleopatra's Moon by Vicky Alvear Schecter. Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic, 2011.

"Get rid of that body now, or my men will mutiny!" the captain yelled from the other side of the door.

A stylus on the floor rolled with the movement of the ship.  The flame from the hanging bronze lamp flickered.  Still, I did not respond. 

Those are the opening lines of Cleopatra's Moon. I had high expectations for this YA historical due to the author's non-fiction books and the stamp of approval from editor Cheryl Klein.  Reviews like this were intriguing, too: 

"[A]n intelligently written and stately meditation on fate, free will, and political power, a worthy challenge for readers up to it." --Horn Book

When I finally got my hands on a copy to read, I was truly blown away.  This gorgeous book is stunning inside and out.

The story of Cleopatra's daughter is fascinating, and the ever-present danger and high-stakes kept me turning the pages. But this isn't a book to race through, you'll want to linger and savor the lovely prose and rich details. As a writer, it's worth studying the author's use of sensory description.Throughout the novel, you will see, taste, smell, and touch the details that draw you into this ancient world.It's also worth studying how the author raises the stakes as the story progresses.Cleopatra Selene faces horrendous circumstances, impossible choices, and she takes action.This story is a perfect example of that elusive blend of character/plot-driven narrative and literary/commercial appeal.

Kristin Lenz lives in Royal Oak and contributes to the YA Fusion blog.To read an interview about the author/editor collaboration for Cleopatra's Moon, visit the YA Fusion blog here.

Beautiful Mackinac Island Photo courtesy of Cathy Bieberich

ON THE ISLAND  

WITH KRISTIN NITZ 

By Vicky L. Lorencen

Award-winning children's novelist Kristin Nitz packed enthusiasm to spare for our fall conference on Mackinac Island. During her presentation, "Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Writing Novels, I Learned Through SCBWI," Kristin shared insights she's gleaned from a variety of conference speakers since 1993.

As an aspiring middle grade author, a take away that was especially helpful to me was in regard to suspense.  I came to understand that while it's the author's job to construct scenarios that escalate tension, conflict and suspense, the main character has to have sufficient motivation for putting himself in danger. For example, why would my character (who can't swim) dive into the deep end of the pool to save his friend when there's a lifeguard on duty? The character's actions need to seem inevitable and organic to the plot, not forced simply for drama's sake. Unless, of course, my character is a drama queen!

Sketch of Beverly Horowitz copyright by Nancy Walker

ARE MERMAIDS THE NEW ANGELS? 

by Cathy Bieberich

This is one of the many questions Beverly Horowitz, V. P. Publisher, Delacorte Press Books for Young Readers, answered for 2011 SCBWI-MI Fall Conference goers. A veteran of the publishing business for over twenty years, Beverly believes in understanding and embracing new trends. She is savvy enough to realize that change is neither good nor bad. It simply is.

Change is certainly evident in this current era of the iPad, Nook, Kindle, and whatever else is available virtually. But none of these devices or trends can diminish the power of a good story, well told to a hungry audience. I was forced to tamp down my snobbish distaste for all things "e" when Beverly described high schoolers with lower reading levels reading stories on their phones while riding the subway. These readers were probably not consumers before the e-word.  

DONNA JO NAPOLI: INTENSE, ENLIGHTENING, UNFORGETTABLE

by Michelle Bradford 

Donna Jo Napoli is a gem. Her key note address on Friday evening began a weekend rally full of intense workshop training. Because I had the opportunity to attend all three of Donna Jo's workshops, I tried to hold back my hand (like a kindergartener) in her tension workshop grand finale. What began as her amazing publishing story on Friday continued on through Saturday as we participated in an intense character development workshop and a then another workshop  designed to raise tension within our manuscripts. Her trio of presentations created a series of unforgettable workshops. Thank you, Donna Jo!

MATT FAULKNER INSPIRES ILLUSTRATION NATION CITIZENS

by Ryan Hipp 

During the Illustration Nation track of the Fall conference, master picture book illustrator and instructor Matt Faulkner gave his tribe quality time and attention. The attendees walked away with one of Matt's greatest insider secrets--the warm/cool base effect--and every illustrator in the room will never look at color the same way again. Matt also spent a great deal of time challenging his students to improve their techniques and become the best scribblers they can be. A supportive and patient teacher, Matt's valuable lessons will be taken to heart and treasured.

Winter Conference Scholarship Sponsor Shutta Crum

Shutta is a long-time member of SCBWI-MI, and is dedicated to giving back to the organization that she says contributed to her success. Visit Shutta's website at www.shutta.com. 

SCBWI-MI FUNDRAISER VILLAGE 2011

by Michelle Bradford

Once upon a fall conference

On an island

In the middle of a lake-

There grew a village.

It was a strong village;

A village of generosity.

And in this village lived

Donors,

And bidders,

And book lovers,

From all walks of Main Street.

And the village thrived!

Generosity fashioned

Heart-filled clouds,

Which became nests of books

Departing to another village

On an island-

Across the ocean.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to relief efforts for

SCBWI-Japan. Your banner contributions totaled $1,012.

Fundraiser Village donors include:

Writer & Illustrator Heidi Woodward-Sheffield;Author Carrie Harris;Author Shutta Crum; Author & Illustrator Matt Faulkner; Editor Tamra Tuller, Philomel Books; Professor & Author Donna Jo Napoli; Author & Illustrator Ryan Hipp;

Author Julie Angeli; Illustrator Nancy Walker; Professional Photographer & Author Doris Holick Kelly; Mackinac Island Carriage Tours; Mission Point Gift Shop; and Grand Prize from Mission Point Resort.

Michelle Bradford was this fall's Fundraiser chair, and serves on SCBWI-MI's advisory committee.