Goodbye Summer, Hello September Insight

September 2017

Remembering Dianne de las Casas

We are saddened to announce the death of one of our most beloved members, Dianne de Las Casas, writer storyteller and founder of Picture Book Month. Dianne passed away in August in a tragic house fire. A longtime member of SCBWI, she was an avid supporter of SCBWI, spoke and performed at many conferences, and astounded us all with her love for children's literature, her dynamic personality and her ebullient spirit. This is such a loss for our community. Our hearts go out to her two daughters and her partner, John. Dianne was a shining light for us all, a vessel of love. May she rest in peace.

In response to this tragic event, SCBWI has established an emergency fund to help members who find themselves in need of quick funds due to a personal emergency. The first grant of $1,500 was sent to the daughters of Dianne de Las Casas, to help cover funeral costs and expenses for them as they transition to life without their mother. We are glad to be able to give them some relief, after the tragic and sudden death of beloved Dianne. More information about the emergency fund will be available soon.

Inaugural SCBWI PJ Library Jewish Stories Award Opens

SCBWI in partnership with PJ Library has established the Jewish Stories Award to encourage the creation of more high quality Jewish children's literature. PJ Library®, a program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, sends the gift of free Jewish children's books to more than 170,000 North American participants each month. Submissions will be accepted from September 1, 2017 through October 31, 2017 only.

$2,500 will be awarded to the author of the manuscript deemed most promising for publication and for distribution by PJ Library. See full guidelines

New Benefit for PAL Members

SCBWI is creating a new benefit exclusively for PAL members: a PAL newsletter! The first issue will hit your mailboxes in October and will include helpful articles and features written specifically for our professionally published members. We don't want to give too much away, but we know this newsletter will help you in all areas of professional development including marketing, publicity, financial, and craft. So, keep an eye out for our inaugural edition!

SCBWI Exclusive with...

Kat Brzozowski, Editor at Swoon Reads/Feiwel & Friends

Kat Brzozowski is an editor at Swoon Reads/Feiwel & Friends. She has edited a wide range of young adult fiction, including Anna-Marie McLemore's When the Moon was Ours, which received a Stonewall Honor and was longlisted for a National Book Award, and new Fear Street books in R.L. Stine's best-selling series, which has sold over eighty million copies worldwide. Kat is looking to acquire young adult fiction across a wide range of genres, especially contemporary, realistic YA with a strong hook; dark, contemporary fiction, mysteries, suspense and thrillers; and sci-fi and fantasy that's mostly rooted in this world. She is especially interested in YA with crossover appeal and diverse characters. When she's reading YA, she looks for a strong sense of voice, multi-dimensional characters and realistic dialogue.

Join the Drive!

Books For Readers book collection is going strong with hundreds of books being donated so far from generous SCBWI members. We're taking collections through Friday September 8, so if you haven't done so yet, please send your donation in of books either you wrote or illustrated or those of other SCBWI members. You can find more information here. The recipients at Kinship House in Oregon and Refugee Dream Center in Rhode Island are anxiously awaiting the books to share with kids and their families.

BookStop is Coming...

SCBWI BookStop is back, providing pages for you to create a home for your book to reach thousands of book readers and buyers worldwide. You might have noticed the title change. We changed the name to better reflect what we want book buyers and readers to do...enjoy, browse and stop to buy your book.

You'll be able to start creating pages as of September 5. The dates the pages will be live to the public are from October 16 through November 30. More details will be sent via email in the next few days.

On the Shelves

Fall is in the Air at Linden Tree Books

What sets Linden Tree apart from other bookstores?

First of all, our history. Our store started forty years ago as Linden Tree Children's Books and Music here in Los Altos, California. We have had only two ownership changes. Six years ago, we re-branded with the emphasis being "Where imaginations Grow."

READ MORE

Faces of SCBWI


SCBWI Board Member Kwame Alexander celebrates his birthday at Parnassus Books in Parnassus Books in Ketchikan, Alaska


	Southern Breeze Unprogramed Retreat with Joan Broerman, Valerie Nelan, Debbie Sanders, Tay Berryhill, Sharon Pegram and Pink Drink with Randi


Sketch and Scribble at Taronga Zoo in Sydney


	Art Director/Board Member Laurent Linn hosts the Red Hot Carolina Conference Illustrator Intensive


A walk through the woods at the Illinois Words in the Woods retreat


	The Eastern PA Wish Upon A Star event

Podcasts

Listen to the newest podcast with Illustrator Sean Qualls . Enjoy these intimate, behind-the-scenes conversations with leaders of our industry, recorded especially for SCBWI members. Listen Here

Five Days Left to Join the PAL Winter Reading List

Our newest PAL Reading List is in the works! For this list, we are taking our current Winter 2017 Reading List, and giving PAL members the opportunity to substitute, or add, their books published in 2017, and add a website to the list. (Each member can only have one book on this list).

This premiere list will be distributed to teachers, librarians, and booksellers. SCBWI will have a booth at NCTE in November, where we will hand out this list on flash drives! If you have a 2017 book that you would like on this list, then send the following information to [email protected] no later than September 5th: Title, Author, Illustrator, Genre, 25-word (or less) Book Description, Your City and State of Residence, Publisher, Publication Date, Grade Level, and your Website. Also, please send your website, along with the book title and author, to the same address.

Illustrator Info:

Processing Feedback

At SCBWI conferences, and other times in life as a children's book illustrator, you receive different opinions and suggestions about your artwork. The recipients of the Mentorship Award receive six different one-on-one critique sessions with industry professionals at the summer conference, so they know what it's like to get a lot of feedback all at once. I asked them this question: When you are exposed to so many different thoughts about your work, how do you process those ideas and opinions? How do you decide which to pay attention to and which to ignore? And when you choose to pay attention to them, how do they influence your work and your process?