Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 111

A Thank You Letter To The SCBWI

Back in May, I wrote a thank you letter to the Society Of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. Stephen Mooser wrote back the following:

Hi Debbie—Wow and Congratulations—we keep a file, and a posting of SCBWI Success Stories and not only is yours one of the best, but it may also be the most entertaining of all time---you have made our day and we are so happy for your well deserved success—looking forward to seeing you again soon—all best wishes from all of us here at the office, Steve

 As I was doing some prep for the SCBWI conference in LA next week, I realized that posting my thank you letter publicly might be of interest to some of you out there…especially those who have never been to an SCBWI event:

-------------------------
May 19, 2012

Dear SCBWI,

I’m writing to thank you all. Since I started attending your conventions regularly in 2009, so many opportunities have come my way.

I first heard about your organization and events from Santa Barbara area author named Lee Wardlaw, who was my writing mentor. Lee also introduced me to her agent at Curtis Brown, Ginger Knowlton, and Ginger eventually became my agent.

I was nervous when I decided to register for the Summer Conference in LA in 2009. I had attended many years before, but Lee had been there to introduce me around. This time I'd be going alone. What if no one talked to me? 

When I got to the conference, I was surprised and delighted to find out that my fears were unfounded. Everyone was friendly, and I met kindred spirits everywhere: sitting beside me while we were waiting for a workshop or keynote to begin, at the many social events throughout the weekend, even in line for the women's restroom. Especially in line for the women's restroom.

 

And the BNA's were friendly and talked with me. Yes, even Jay Asher! 

(You can see other comics I did leading up to the event here: http://bit.ly/xRxKRk )

I learned so much at that event and came away incredibly inspired plus during the year, I kept in touch with many of the people I had met.

Fast forward to the 2010 Summer Conference.

After I was rejected for the manuscript critique (it was my fault; I had misread the rules),  my illustrator friend Beckett Gladney suggested that I enter the SCBWI Illustration Portfolio Showcase instead. I thought she was crazy because (1) I had no art training and (2) I had no portfolio. Beckett went through sketches and doodles I had been posting on Flickr, and helped me put together my very first portfolio.

AND THEN SOMETHING AMAZING HAPPENED.

Not only did I win one of two runners-up in the overall Showcase, but I was also chosen for the SCBWI Illustration Mentorship Program. In addition to one-on-one sessions with six industry experts during the convention, I also met a wonderful group of illustrators who have since become friends. 

We encourage and commiserate by e-mail, launched a SCBWI Mentees blog for children's book illustrators called KidLitArtists.com , and joined forces with Mentees from other years. Late last year, some of us got together for an inspiring, informative and calorie-laden Lost Weekend at the home of Caldecott-winning artist and SCBWI Illustration Board member, David Diaz.

 

 (Photo from Lost Weekend with David Diaz in Nov/2011)

BUT WAIT...THAT’S NOT ALL! Back to the 2010 Summer Conference:

One of the SCBWI Portfolio Showcase judges that year was Justin Chanda, publisher at Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, and he offered me a contract to illustrate Michael Ian Black's new picture book, I'M BORED. !!!

Working with Justin and art director Laurent Linn was amazing. Don't tell anyone, but I couldn't believe that someone was actually paying me to do something that was SO MUCH FUN. I'm blogging about the process at DebbieOhi.com/boredbook , and I can't wait until the book comes out this September.

But wait, THAT'S NOT ALL....

  Earlier this year, Simon & Schuster BFYR offered me TWO BLANK CONTRACTS (!!!). One is for the next picture book I illustrate for them, still to be determined. The other contract is for a picture book that I will WRITE and illustrate...my very first own picture book. I just recently had my first phone meeting about my story with Justin Chanda, who will be my editor on the project.

None of this would have happened had it not been for the SCBWI. 

I’m grateful to Lee Wardlaw (who is on the faculty for this year’s Summer Conference, yay!) for first telling me about the SCBWI.

And I’m especially grateful to the SCBWI Illustration Mentors who have given me advice and encouraged me: Priscilla Burris, David Diaz, Bridget Strevens-Marzo, Cecilia Yung, Pat Cummings and Rubin Pfeffer.

If I could send a message to my younger self, I would tell her the following...

GO TO SCBWI CONFERENCES.

As children’s book author Nancy Parish says: Writing may be a solitary endeavor, but trying to get published doesn’t have to be.

To everyone behind the scenes at SCBWI:

THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi

Email: Debbie@DebbieOhi.com - Twitter: @inkyelbows

http://Inkygirl.com (my blog for those who write & illustrate for young people)

Comic: Lemming Critique

I'm posting some of my older comics here as I catalog and tag them in prep for a print book compilation. You can find my comics for writers on Inkygirl (http://inkygirl.com), Tumblr (http://inkygirl.tumblr.com) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/inkyelbows/comics-for-writers-inkygirl-com)

Judy Blume's FOREVER available in ebook format!

 

Happy to hear that Judy Blume's FOREVER is finally available in digital format. I remember reading this book as a teenager for the first time, riddled with guilt (I had a religious upbringing) but totally fascinated, whispering about it with my friends in school.

It was the first book I'd ever read that dealt so frankly with the physical changes and feelings of teenaged years. I was lucky enough to hear Judy speak at the SCBWI Summer Conference in LA last year - what a down-to-earth, productive and generous woman!

From Shelf-Awareness.com:

Readers may discuss and share memories about Forever (or any Judy Blume book) using the Twitter hashtag #JudyBlumeForever. If you include the phrase "@Judy Blume's Forever is finally available as an eBook" on your Facebook page, it will automatically post to Judy Blume's fan page as well. The Forever home page includes links to purchase the e-book edition, and a link to repin your favorite Blume book covers on Pinterest.

I ran into Judy Blume and Richard Peck outside the conference hotel, and they kindly posed for a photo:

I'M BORED got a starred review in Publishers Weekly!

 

Thanks to my publisher/editor Justin Chanda and art director Laurent Linn for alerting me to the fact that Publisher's Weekly gave I'M BORED a starred review in their July 9th issue, woohoo!

An excerpt:

"It looks to be the ultimate ennui smackdown: a bored-out-of-her-gourd kid vs. an equally jaded potato... Debut illustrator Ohi’s minimalist, scraggly digital drawings are anything but boring, and speak volumes about irritation, desperation, and disdain."

Yaaaay! :-D

For those who aren't familiar with my book...

I'M BORED is a new picture book written by Michael Ian Black and illustrated by yours truly, coming out on Sept.4th from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers. You can read about how the book was created plus see sketches and sample spreads in the I'm Bored Scrapbook. Parents, teachers and librarians may also want to check out the Super Secret I'M BORED Bonus Page.

You can also find I'M BORED on Facebook, Google+ and the Simon & Schuster website, and buy I'M BORED swag on Zazzle. All swag proceeds will go to  Breaking The Chain, a nonprofit literacy cause founded by Riley Carney. Breaking The Chain which works to put new books in high-risk, high-need elementary and middle schools.

Comic: Shades Of Grey-Ish & The Editor

Comic: Punctuation Breakup

I'm posting some of my older comics here as I catalog and tag them in prep for a print book compilation. You can find my comics for writers on Inkygirl (http://inkygirl.com), Tumblr (http://inkygirl.tumblr.com) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/inkyelbows/comics-for-writers-inkygirl-com)

Comic Caption Contest: Man Eating Manuscript

Doing some housecleaning of my archived images and came across this one. Caption suggestions, anyone?

Comic: Housefly Writers

I'm posting some of my older comics here as I catalog and tag them in prep for a print book compilation. You can find my comics for writers on Inkygirl (http://inkygirl.com), Tumblr (http://inkygirl.tumblr.com) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/inkyelbows/comics-for-writers-inkygirl-com)

Interview with Joanne Levy, author of SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE

 

I met Joanne Levy through the Toronto Area Middle Grade & Young Adult Author Group (Torkidlit), and was excited to hear about her upcoming book, Small Medium At Large, published by Bloomsbury. If you're in the Hamilton area on July 14th, do check out Joanne's book launch party. (Note: there will be CUPCAKES!)

You can follow Joanne on Twitter, on Facebook and on her website: Joannelevy.com.

About SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE: After she’s hit by lightning at a wedding, twelve-year-old Lilah Bloom develops a new talent: she can hear dead people. Among them, there’s her overopinionated Bubby Dora; a prissy fashion designer; and an approval-seeking clown who livens up a séance. With Bubby Dora leading the way, these and other sweetly imperfect ghosts haunt Lilah through seventh grade, and help her face her one big fear: talking to—and possibly going to the seventh-grade dance with—her crush, Andrew Finkel.

SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE comes out June 26 in Canada and July 3 in the U.S.

Could you please tell me a little bit about your book? What inspired you to write it? What it's about?

The story of what inspired SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE isn’t all that exciting—it began as a title. Normally, I get about halfway through a book before I come up with something to call it, but this title came to me fully formed one morning when I woke up. I was working on other projects at the time, so I tucked it away, but it nagged at me for about a year until I figured I’d better just sit down and write it. The title pretty much dictated what it would be about. 

Wow, it began as a title? That's great! Has this happened to you before or since? Do you keep a notebook of title ideas?

Thanks, Debbie! I actually have another really great title that popped into my head one day, but I have yet to write the book, so I’m going to keep that one under wraps for now. That said, it’s usually through writing the book that I come up with a title. I try to come up with something that’s catchy but has a lot of meaning at the same time—stuff with multiple layers/meanings are always good. But I will say that it’s nice when my subconscious does the heavy lifting for me and gives me something great to work with!

How much outlining do you do? What is your typical work process or work day?

I do zero outlining. I usually start with about four or five plot points in my head and just sit down and start writing. I’ve tried to force myself to become an outliner (which would save me a lot of trouble down the road) but my brain just doesn’t work that way. As for my work day? Well, I do have a full-time job to work around, so much of my writing is done in big chunks on the weekend and sometimes in the evenings, if I have time after Tweeting and Facebooking. ;-)

Do you do much revision? What's your revision/editing process?

 I’ll be honest: I don’t love editing. For me, the love is in the drafting and discovery of the plot and the characters, so the editing is the really hard work. I edit a lot as I go, so generally my first completed drafts are pretty clean.

BUT, when you don’t outline, editing for content beyond the first draft is really necessary to get everything in order and layer in details.  That means several drafts. I do try to put my first drafts away for a bit (and send them off to beta readers) so I can look at them with fresh eyes after some percolate time.

Then I pull them out and start with big picture stuff, much of which will have come from beta readers. Does the story work? Any big inconsistencies or holes? Are the characters’ motivations realistic? That’s usually two or three passes, especially if I’m adding/deleting scenes.

Then I start in a little closer with the detail work—names, events, timelines – does everything line up? After that, I do a final ‘find and replace’ to get rid of my overused words like ‘that’ and ‘just’ and my many physical tics – head shaking, nodding, winking.

Joanne's office

You originally began SMALL MEDIUM as a YA. What was your reaction when your editor suggested it would work well for a younger audience? 

The first time she came to me to ask if I would consider rewriting it, (and just to be clear, this wasn’t the editor who ended up buying the book) I was flattered that she loved it so much, but I thought someone else would like it as it was, so I respectfully declined.

The second time she came back and asked, nearly a year later, after we hadn’t sold the book, I figured why not? I really had no idea what I was doing, but she suggested some reading and had faith that I could do it. She was obviously right, and although she didn’t end up being the editor who bought the book, I’m grateful for her vision.

 

Do you have any advice for writers who aren't sure whether their work-in-progress is MG or YA? 

Read a lot of both and get a good ear for the voice. I wasn’t familiar with MG, (other than what I read as a kid)  until I started reading it for research, but it made a lot of sense once I got a good really good taste of it. Here’s an excellent list of differences – I particularly like #3 about the focus.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors?

 Read a lot. Write a lot. And prepare to toughen up your skin—this is a tough industry where heartache, rejection and bad news are pretty much guarantees. BUT if you are passionate, willing to put in the time and effort, and can stick it out, the rewards can be amazing!

What books are you reading right now?

 My tastes are very eclectic—as much as I love books for kids, I also enjoy grown up escape reads, too! I just finished an ARC of IN A FIX by Linda Grimes – a book for grownups, but filled with lots of laughs and was great fun. As for MG, I recently read THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN by Katherine Applegate and loved it a lot. Up next is the YA, THE STATISTICAL PROBABILITY OF LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT by Jennifer E. Smith – I’ve really been looking forward to reading this one for a while and I’ve been hearing lots of great things about it.

What are you working on now? Anything else you'd like people to know?

I’m working on several different projects: more middle grade and a funny YA that I’m hoping will be a great follow up to SMALL MEDIUM AT LARGE as my readers get a bit older. Nothing I can talk about specifically just yet, but I can tell you, all the stuff I’m working on will make you laugh! 

Where can people find you online?

I’m all over the place!

Web: joannelevy.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JoanneLevyAuthor

Twitter: @joannelevy

Comic: Fox Writers

I'm posting some of my older comics here as I catalog and tag them in prep for a print book compilation. You can find my comics for writers on Inkygirl (http://inkygirl.com), Tumblr (http://inkygirl.tumblr.com) and Pinterest (http://pinterest.com/inkyelbows/comics-for-writers-inkygirl-com)