Debbie Ridpath Ohi's Blog, page 23
November 5, 2017
Can't wait until Colby Sharp's #TheCreativityProject launches Mar/2018. SO many inspiring stories, comics, drawings!
Excited to be one of the children's book creators in Colby Sharp's THE CREATIVITY PROJECT! Colby invited more than forty authors and illustrators to provide story starters for each other; photos, drawings, poems, prose, or anything we could dream up. When we received our prompts, we responded by transforming these seeds into any form of creative work we wanted to share.
Young People's Poet Laureate Margarita Engle wrote a poem that inspired me to create a story-comic. And one of my creative prompts inspired children's publisher/author (and fellow board gamer!) Daniel Nayeri to write a wonderful story.
So looking forward to seeing how educators use this book in classrooms, and what young readers are inspired to create! THE CREATIVITY PROJECT comes out from Little, Brown For Young Readers in March, 2018.
November 4, 2017
November 2, 2017
November 1, 2017
NaNoWriMo starts TODAY. Good luck with your writing, all!
I'll be posting more NaNoWriMo comics from the archives throughout the month, but if you're looking for tasy fresh NEW comics, my friend Errol Elumir is posting one every day at NaNoToons.net.
October 24, 2017
Advice For Young Readers, Jackie Robinson & Bookshelves: Heather Camlot (CLUTCH) Answers Three Questions
Heather Camlot grew up in Montreal and was raised on Expos baseball and Canadiens hockey. After graduating from New York University with a degree in journalism, she became a writer, editor and translator. She lives with her husband and two children in Toronto, but still calls Montreal home. Clutch is her first novel, from Red Deer Press. Check out the starred review in Kirkus! And congrats to Heather on the recent Silver Birch nomination!
You can find out more about Heather and her work on her website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
SYNOPSIS: Set against Jackie Robinson’s pivotal year with the Montreal Royals, Clutch follows 12-year-old Joey Grosser as he strives to make money any way he can to get out of his impoverished neighbourhood. But by summer’s end, he’s worse off than when he started and turns to the wrong person for help.
Q. Could you please take a photo of something in your office and tell us the story behind it?
I have a hard time making decisions, so I’m going to go with a bookcase!
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It is filled with items that inspire me and say a lot about me. Of particular literary note: a German copy of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray with the coolest cover ever; a typewriter from a very old friend of mine, long before I ever considered writing fiction; a Wonka Bar, which really doesn’t need explanation; signed copies and/or favourite books, including Gary D. Schmidt’s Okay For Now, which opened my eyes to middle-grade fiction; and coffee-table books that speak to my passions, from director Wes Anderson to artist Toulouse-Lautrec.
[image error]This plaque commemorates Jackie Robinson's year with the Montreal Royals and points to where Delorimier Stadium, the Royals' home field, once stood.
Q. What advice do you have for young writers?
Learn all you can: I started out knowing very little about the fiction world. Even if you have the greatest idea for a novel, I do think it’s important to learn about the craft and gain knowledge from the people who are successful at it.
Meet other authors: The kidlit community in Toronto, and Canada in general, is incredibly warm and welcoming. I had questions about so many things and every person I turned to was more than happy to give advice and share war stories. So get out there and interact, no matter how shy you are.
Read and write: Writing every day (which I’m terrible at) is important, but so is reading. I was fortunate enough to work at Mabel’s Fables, a children’s bookstore in Toronto, where we were each given piles of advanced reading copies to read and review. This introduced me to authors and genres that I would likely not have read otherwise.
Get feedback: Let others read your drafts. (Oh yes, that S is intentional. There will be far, far, far more than one draft). Listen to what they say – they aren’t as close to the project and can find issues where you no longer can -- incorporate those changes, and send it out again. Repeat.
Research, research, research: Big events are great, but those little-known facts are gems; they add so much to a story. Similarly, fact-check everything. Not only do mistakes undermine a story, but they misinform rather than educate the reader.
A quick break from signing copies of Clutch, Heather's debut novel. (If you look just left of her head, you'll see a familiar character!)
Q. What are you excited about right now?
I’m excited about the recent release of my debut novel. I don’t know if that excitement will ever fade.
Red Deer Press children's editor Peter Carver and author/illustrator Kevin Sylvester entertained and amused guests with stories about Heather and Clutch.
I’m excited to be one of the guest speakers at Canscaip’s Packaging Your Imagination on November 11. I have been attending PYI for years, mesmerized by all the advice and talent, and for the last few years I have been the speaker coordinator. But now I’m on the other side of things! I’ll be a panelist for the Breaking In session and moderator for the Legalities in Fiction panel. Finally, I'm excited to start writing again. I have a computer full of works-in-progress and I'm desperate to get back to them.
And I've just been nominated for the 2018 Forest of Reading Silver Birch Award, which is a huge honour and thrill.
After a long evening, Heather was invited to sign the wall - something as a Mabel's Fables employee she had long dreamed of doing
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For more interviews, see my Inkygirl Interview Archive.
Don’t wait for your Muse. Avoid precious rituals. Get into the daily habit of doing the work.
In case any of you are wondering, most of the advice I post for fellow writers and illustrators is a reminder to myself as well.
Last time I posted this advice, I had someone complain, saying that rituals can be a good thing, can help a writer ease into the Zone.
My advice? DO WHAT WORKS FOR YOU. And if precious rituals DO always work for you and don't prevent you from writing if you can't always find exactly the right pen or lighting etc., then go for it.
Good luck with your writing this week, all!
Already given up on doing NaNoWriMo but look for an achievable daily writing challenge?
Every year, I think about doing NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I've participated in the challenge a few years in the past and completed a first draft of a middle grade novel. Doing NaNoWriMo is always fun and I did end up submitting the novel after many revisions. I got some encouraging rejection letters but in the end, I had to shelve the mss.
One of my challenges in recent years has been that November has always been a very busy time for me in terms of travel and/or work. This year, I have three out-of-town trips during the month.
So....no NaNoWriMo.
But I'm going to be doing daily writing anyway. I've also added badges if you want to use pockets of time for revising instead of writing. You can find the details on this web page and feel free to browse my Inkygirl Daily Writing Challenge on Facebook for inspiration as well.
I hope you'll join me!
October 17, 2017
In celebration of SAM & EVA's launch, I invited illustrator friends to help me in a creative collaboration
I love how supportive members of the kidlit community are of each other, including those who create children's book illustrations! I recently put out a call to some of my illustrator and author/illustrator friends, asking if they'd be willing to help me celebrate the launch of SAM & EVA by contributing a bit of character (HA!) to a piece of collaborative art.
My friends sent arms, legs, eyes, fur and other bits and pieces; I had a great deal of fun piecing them together in Photoshop to create the creatures in the image above. I encourage you to try this fun exercise with your young artist(s)! It can work just as well on paper as on a digital device. I'd love to see the results!
SAM & EVA is my second solo picture book, and launches TODAY from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers! You can find out more about the book plus get a Teacher's Guide, free printables and other bonus goodies at DebbieOhi.com/SamEva.
Huge thank to the following friends for contributing to my SAM & EVA collaborative art launch party:
October 16, 2017
October 14, 2017
I'M SAD proofs! Plus author Michael Ian Black and I visit Mr. Schu's blog today!
My I'M SAD f&gs (printer's proofs) just arrived along with a sweet note from my editor at Simon & Schuster Children's! You can see the full cover/jacket designed by Laurent Linn as well as find out what inspired Michael Ian Black to write the story over in Mr. Schu's blog today!
