Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 18

Advice For Young Writers, Embracing Magic & ENGINERDS: Three Questions With Jarrett Lerner

Jarrett Lerner writes books about farting robots, belching knights, and other serious matters. You can find him online at jarrettlerner.com and on Twitter at @Jarrett_Lerner. You can also often find him at the mgbookvillage.org, which he cofounded and helps run. He lives with his wife, his daughter, and a cat in Medford, Massachusetts.

I first encountered Jarrett on Twitter, where he is an enthusiastic champion of kidlit. When I asked him about ENGINERDS, I loved that he made sure to give credit to the illustrator, Serge Seidlitz, who did the cover and spot illustrations inside the book. Yay for authors who appreciate their illustrators!

Synopsis of ENGINERDS (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin, 2017, for ages 8-12):

"How awesome would it be to have a robot? For twelve-year-old Kennedy, dreams come true when a beat-up old box arrives on his doorstop. Inside is a robot named Greeeg, but he’s not exactly your typical bot: first he assembles himself. And when he devours a refrigerator full of food, his rear end turns into a cube-firing butt. Extraordinary dreams become hair-raising, hilarious nightmares in Jarrett Lerner’s action-packed novel about a group of super-smart, super-nerdy friends who find themselves battling a gang of ravenous rogue robots who just might have a plot to take over the world."

Q. Could you please take a photo of something in your office and tell us the story behind it?

This card was made by Ashley Leath, a friend and fellow writer who operated a letterpress business for a while. She said these words in conversation – on Twitter, over email, I forget exactly where – and I said that they deserved to be on a card of their own. Well, she put them on one, and then I bought a copy of the card and “sent” it to myself.

I keep the card on a bookshelf in my study, right in my line of sight when I’m sitting at my desk. When I’m starting on a new project, the words remind me to let myself make mistakes (see my answer to the next questions for more on that). When I’m further along on a project, the words remind me to be playful, to take risks, to let my imagination lead me where it wants to go – even if, later on, I decide that it’s a place I don’t need or want to be.

I think a lot of writers – and creators in general – are perfectionists. And sometimes, that’s helpful. Sometimes, it’s even necessary. But embracing the magical messiness of life, and letting that infuse your art, can be an exhilaratingly liberating thing. It has led to some of my best work, and many hugely helpful discoveries about my process. There’s a time for perfectionism and a time for loose, wild impulsiveness. Ashley’s card helps me find a good balance between the two.

Q. What advice do you have for young writers?

When talking with young writers, there are a few things I always stress. One is reading. I read as much as, if not more than, I write. Encountering other people’s ideas is a surefire way of getting your imagination searching for ideas of its own, and books are an amazing place to find other people’s ideas – typically people fill books with their very best. Reading also offers you an opportunity to reflect on your own writing. I encourage kids to pay attention to what other authors do, to consider why they might have chosen to do things in that particular way, and then to ask themselves if they would’ve done it that way as well. Why or why not? How might a different approach change the reader’s experience of the story?

Another thing I always tell young writers: to get comfortable making creative mistakes, and then to go out and make a whole bunch of them. When I visit schools, either virtually or in person, I always show kids some of my first drafts. I start most of my projects longhand, in composition notebooks or on sketchpads, and believe me, they get seriously messy.

There are scribbles, doodles, scores of Post-it notes, giant frustrated Xes, crisscrossing arrows, paperclipped-in additions. I call the things “word vomit,” and that’s because they’re sloppy and embarrassing – I’d never want anyone to actually try and read one of those first drafts – BUT, more/most importantly, word-vomiting is a natural thing that everyone has to once in a while do. ALL writers go through the word vomit phase.

 

Writing is revising . . . and revising and revising and revising and revising. I find that lots of kids look at published authors as people who can sit down and, in a day or two, crank out a publishable book. Pulling back the curtain and showing them that this is far (very far) from the truth can be an eye-opening, inspiring, and empowering thing for young writers especially.

One other thing I always encourage young writers to do: seek out kind, caring people with similar interests and share your work with them. It can be nerve-racking, even terrifying to do so. But the experience is an invaluable one. It’ll not only help kids see their writing from a different perspective, but will, perhaps even more importantly, get them comfortable making themselves vulnerable in this way. It’ll help them learn how to handle feedback, both the positive and negative, and, if they are serious about wanting to make a life for themselves in writing, it’ll harden their resolve to keep striving despite bad days and setbacks.

Because becoming a published author requires talent, certainly – but more than that, it requires a tremendous amount of perseverance. You have to work hard – but also be (or have your work be) in the right place at the right time.

There is, for better or worse, a lot of luck involved. Sharing your work and taking seriously the feedback you get will help improve that work, and the more often you put both it and yourself out there, the better your chances are that luck will be on your side.

Q. What are you excited about right now?

I’m excited about some upcoming book projects and future events – but without a doubt the thing I’m MOST excited about is having recently become a father. I’ve already begun filling my daughter’s life (and bedroom shelves!) with books. I read to her every night, and often during the day too. It’s just plain amazing.

What’s more, my daughter’s presence, her simply being in the world, has totally changed the way I approach reading and writing. After finishing a book, I find myself wondering whether it’s one I’ll want to share with her, either now or later on, when she can read it herself.

Sharing stories with her has, in a profound way, confirmed and even strengthened all my beliefs about the power of stories and storytelling. It’s made me think harder – and, I believe, think better – about the stories I spend my time telling, about the books I’m writing now and plan to write in the future.

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For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive.

Comic: The Frog Prince, Revisited

Writing Advice, Indie Bookstores and Classroom Tour: Three Questions with Colby Sharp (THE CREATIVITY PROJECT)

Colby Sharp is a fifth grade teacher in Parma, Michigan. I first heard about him through the Nerdy Book Club (of which he is a co-founder) and Nerd Camp Michigan (ditto). He runs The Yarn podcast with his friend Travis Jonker. You can find Colby on his website, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Thanks to Colby for answering Three Questions for me today!

I love Colby's classroom tour, especially hearing the stories behind some of the art! Did you know that Deborah Freedman created the header for The Nerdy Book Club?

Colby's advice for young writers: Start out by copying the people you love. Doing this can help you eventually find your own style and voice.

What he's excited about now: independent bookstores. Colby described the amazing things he sees indie bookstores doing and encourages us to make sure we use some of our book buying power to support these community bookshops.

Colby is one of the most positive and enthusiastic people I know, especially when it comes to helping kids find the books that help them fall in love with reading. I was honored to be one of the contributors to the just-released THE CREATIVITY PROJECT, published by Little, Brown Books For Young Readers. 

Synopsis of THE CREATIVITY PROJECT (Little Brown Books For Young Readers, 2018):

"Colby Sharp invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything they could dream up. When they received their prompts, they responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work they wanted to share. The result is a stunning collection of words, art, poetry, and stories by some of our most celebrated children book creators. A section of extra story starters by every contributor provides fresh inspiration for readers to create works of their own. Here is an innovative book that offers something for every kind of reader and creator!"

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For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive.

Social media tips for authors and illustrators (Part 1)

I've been using social media since before the term existed and though I am far from expert, I have learned a great deal along the way. I'm going to start posting some social media tips for authors and illustrators on my blog from time to time, in hopes of helping some of you avoid the (many) mistakes that I made.

TIP #1:

There is no one right way to use social media; you need to find what works for you. So feel free to ignore any/all of my advice; I promise not to be offended.

TIP #2:

Remember, the Internet is forever. Think twice before posting in anger. Even if you end up regretting your post and delete it right away, there is always a chance that someone took a screenshot or still has your post in their feed or has shared it.

TIP #3:

Productivity tip: while online, DON’T FALL DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE.

The story behind my upcoming Broken Crayons picture book with Linda Sue Park for Simon & Schuster BFYR!!!

 

I am THRILLED and HONOURED to announce that I will be illustrating a picture book by Linda Sue Park. The announcement appeared Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf last week while I was out of town:
Announcement in Mar. 22, 2018 issue of Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf

As some of you already know, I've been posting "You never know what comes out of a broken crayon" found object doodles for a while now. You can see my full Broken Crayon Gallery so far here and more info about my Broken Crayon art in general (and my Broken Crayon Book!) here. If you're on Facebook, I encourage you to follow my new "You never know what will come out of a broken crayon" FB Page.

I've been approached by a number of people in the industry about collaborating on a broken crayon children's book, but my intention had always been to write and illustrate my own story....and I didn't want to rush the process. I came up with a lot of ideas and made several attempts, but I couldn't come up with a story that I would be excited about illustrating.

Fast forward to SCBWI Northern Ohio conference, where both Linda Sue and I were on faculty:

At the faculty dinner, I found myself sitting between Linda Sue and her husband, Ben. Although Linda Sue and I had exchanged brief greetings in the past (usually during SCBWI conferences in the hallways when we were both each hurrying somewhere), we had never had a chance to have a real conversation. An aside: A big THANK YOU to Mike DeSantis for inviting me to be a speaker at the SCBWI Northern Ohio conference and giving us the opportunity to actually talk. :-) 

Linda Sue told me she loved my broken crayon art. Months before, she had asked me if she could buy a print of my grey robot Broken Crayon:

I had been so excited that LINDA SUE PARK had been noticing my art! I've been a fan ever since reading her Newbery Medal winning book, A Single Shard.

During our conversation at that SCBWI Northern Ohio conference, Linda Sue said she assumed I was already working on a broken crayon story, and I confessed that I was having problems coming up with one that I wanted to illustrate. We talked about this some more, and did a sort of dance around the idea of working together. I use the term "dance" because neither of us wanted to be pushy or make assumptions. It's actually one of the aspects that really appealed to me about working with LSP -- she has SUCH great respect for illustrators in general, and that was clear in the way she approached our potential collab.

Shortly after the conference, Linda Sue emailed me and said that after they had driven home, she woke up in the middle of the night with a potential story idea for the book. It was in rough outline form, and she encouraged me to Brutally Honest, to not feel pressured into saying yes if it didn't appeal to me.

I LOVED HER STORY IDEA. Lovedlovedloved. 

It was a story idea that I could never have come up with myself, and one that would be fun to illustrate with broken crayons.

Linda Sue and I looped in our Curtis Brown Ltd agent, Ginger Knowlton (we both adore Ginger), and we worked on a proposal and sent it to Justin Chanda, my editor at Simon & Schuster Children's. HE SAID YES!!!

I am SOOOOO EXCITED about this book for so many reasons! Thanks to everyone who has Liked or shared my Broken Crayon art, especially those educators and librarians who have been using broken crayon art with their students after seeing mine (you can see some examples on this page). I'll be starting work on illustrating Linda Sue's story later this year, and am delighted to be working with Laurent Linn and Justin Chanda again for Simon & Schuster. Our broken crayon book is scheduled for publication in Fall 2019.

CAN'T WAIT!!!!

And again, if you're on Facebook and am a fan of my Broken Crayon art, I encourage you to follow my new Broken Crayon Facebook Page for broken crayon art, broken crayon ideas for the classroom, and updates about our upcoming book. Thank you!

Comic: Writer's Block Biscotti

Celebrating Judy Blumesday in NYC....WITH JUDY BLUME!

Things have been crazybusy lately, so I've only had a chance to post about this now. And of course I NEED to post about this, because how often am I going to have a chance to say that I shared a stage with the amazing JUDY BLUME?!? Needless to say, I was a wee bit excited:

Thanks SO much to Drew Richardson and Symphony Space for inviting me to help celebrate Judy Blume's 80th birthday last month in New York City - you can read the Publishers Weekly coverage here. I participated in the afternoon event for young readers along with Rachel Vail (Well, That Was Awkward), Soman Chainani (The School For Good and Evil), Jacqueline Woodson (Brown Girl Dreaming), Colby Minifie (actor in Jessica Jones, Glee and other productions) and (of course) Judy Blume herself. 

Symphony Space, by the way, is such a great venue. If you're ever in NYC, do check out their events. 

But back to Judy Blumesday. I arrived SUPER early because I didn't want to take the chance of not being able to find a cab or getting lost on the Metro. I immediately spotted the Judy Blume poster:

And LOOK! My name's on the poster, too!

Here's a selfie I took with Colby, Rachel and Soman just before Judy arrived (Jackie Woodson was delayed but she arrived just in time, yay!):

In case some of you didn't know, I illustrated some of the reissued Judy Blume chapter books and middle grades published by Atheneum/Simon & Schuster back in 2014. Here's how I became a Judy Blume illustrator. 

Even now, I find myself looking those books and still marvel that it all really happened. That those are MY illustrations on those covers and inside the chapter books. Books by JUDY BLUME. 

Another highlight of an evening packed with highlights: having my agent (Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown Ltd) in the audience during this event, plus I got to meet her husband:

Another familiar face in the audience: Mindy Yuksel. It was great to meet her sons (one of whom had entered my Look Again Found Object Art Challenge last summer), who presented me with a box of Turkish Delight (yum).

I was honored to be interviewed by Scholastic News Kids reporter, Josh Stiefel:

Such an amazing day. Drew Richardson of Symphony Space was also kind enough to give me comp tickets for the evening event, so I took my writing critique partner, Carmella VanVleet. Here's the program:

Such a fun night. And we ran into my editor and his wife in the green room! You can read more about the Judy Blumesday celebration at Symphony Place in Publishers Weekly.

And here's a music video that Amanda Palmer that debuted at the event:

THANK YOU, Symphony Space, for inviting me to be part of Judy Blumesday!

Punctuation Is Important

THE MAGIC WORDS: Writing Great Books For Children and Young Adults

I rarely post about books on the craft of writing because I was being inundated by requests from publicists and authors to review their books for Inkygirl readers. To reiterate: I lack the time or inclination to be an official book reviewer, so please do NOT put me back on your lists. Thank you. :-)

I do, however, sometimes post about books I like, and I had to post very briefly about THE MAGIC WORDS: Writing Great Books For Children and Young Adults by Cheryl B. Klein (W.W. Norton). SUCH a wonderful resource for children's book writers!

Not only is this a great book for a beginner, but it also has so much wisdom and insight for more experienced writers. I like it because it's straightforward, explains things clearly and makes sense. As I work on my own middle grade novel projects, I sometimes get a bit muddled and discouraged -- revisiting sections in THE MAGIC WORDS helps me get back on track.

Formerly an executive editor at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic, Cheryl is now editorial director at Lee & Low Books. You can follow her on Twitter at @chavelaque.

 

Behind The Scenes: Illustrator Andrea Offermann and the cover of THE YIN-YANG SISTERS AND THE DRAGON FRIGHTFUL

Don't you love the gorgeous cover of The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful? Written by Nancy Tupper Ling, this upcoming picture book is illustrated by my friend, Andrea Offermann, and it comes out from G.P. Putnam's Sons Books For Young Readers on Sept. 18, 2018.

 

Andrea was kind enough to give a bit of behind-the-scenes info about what went into the making of the cover:

I enjoyed working on the cover for this book especially because it was a very close collaboration with art director Cecilia Yung, editor Susan Kochan and the designer of the book, Jaclyn Reyes. We went back and forth multiple times to make sure the poses and expressions of the dragon and the girls were just right. The dragon had to be imposing and it had to be clear that he could be fearful, but we wanted to add a bit of swagger, too, to hint at possibilities in his character. The poses of the girls had to show their opposite characters and at the same time reflect their weariness of the dragon and their brave resolve to stand up to him. You can see from the sketches how the poses and expressions change ever so slightly in each version.

One thing I love about the cover design is that, thanks to Jaclyn's suggestion, the curves of the dragon's body ever so slightly suggest the lines of the yin yang symbol. I also love Wei's pose ( the girl in red ). If you look at the sketches you can see that we went with a different pose first, but felt that it was not quite right yet. I went back to my research and found this kung fu pose that to me shows perfectly the courage and audacity in Wei's character, and her resolve to protect her loved ones.

Oh, and another thing I am very happy about is that we were able to make it a wrap around cover! So on the back you'll get to see a bit more of the dragon, the landscape, and also some of the townspeople on the bridge.

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You can find out more about Andrea Offermann and her work at her website, on Facebook and on Twitter (she JUST joined Twitter, yay).

Find out more about The Yin-Yang Sisters and the Dragon Frightful on the Penguin Random House website.

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For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive.