Debra J. Edwards's Blog, page 2

Arrhhh! Fabulous weekend at the SCBWI Conference 2015

Where to start???

This being my fourth (or is it fifth?) conference, I decided I would be part of the volunteer team and give something back to the amazing organisers who regularly make the conference such a spectacular event. They do it for free too. All that work on our behalf, for free.

Volunteering is great and you get a badge!!!! After checking in with the unflappable Suzie, I found myself on registration duties; ticking attendees off the list, giving out name tags and conference booklets.

Then it was down to business and the conference began in earnest. After the opening remarks by Regional Advisor, Natascha Biebow, the conference was kicked off big time by author/illustrator team extraordinaire, Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve. It was so good to get an insight into how these two talented people work together.


A quick coffee break then we were into the industry panel session. I had opted for one entitled: Hooking in New Readers. Some great tips and I was pleased to see so much emphasis placed on author talks in schools seeing as I spend so much time trying to get that right.

I had to dash off at 11:30 for a quick 1-2-1 (The Iron City) with an editor. The feedback from her was not too bad although the synopsis I provided was a complete disaster, (darling). Still, I got lots of great pointers on improving it and that's what it's all about.

Lovely lunch at 12:00 with time to visit the onsite bookshop to buy some books.


Another of Jonny's titles Then it was on to the next session with illustrator keynote, Jonny Duddle who took us through how he came to be an author/illustrator. He had some great tales of how he actually worked on a pirate ship and was a children's entertainer. He read The Pirate Cruncher which was so good I had to buy a copy. (And I admit to hounding Jonny at the evening party until my book was signed.)



After a quick break, we all piled into the auditorium for the announcement of the Crystal Kite Award
which was followed by The Hook where five delegates pitched to a panel of agents. Scary!
Congratulations to both winners.


Time for a rest then as we all had to get ready for the pirate themed evening paaaarrrrty. This was a time to mingle and meet new/old friends plus a chance to sidle up to an agent and pitch a book or two. Incorporated into this was a mass book launch for all scoobies who had a book published this year. A great opportunity for everyone to share in their success and offer our congratulations.





And that was just Saturday...

First thing Sunday we all had a quick network meeting giving us all the opportunity to catch up with our regional scoobie friends. This was followed by the Outstanding Contribution Awards for all the wonderful volunteers who make SCBWI British Isles run so brilliantly.




We then had a great treat as David Fickling took to the stage...and started dancing. Encouraged, the whole auditorium was up and boogied to a Pulp Fiction dance excerpt. It certainly woke everyone up. He gave a great talk about being an independent publisher, what it entails and more importantly, how it compares to the much larger publishing houses.







After that, we were straight into our break-out sessions. Mine was Publishing 101 with agents Penny Holroyde and Julia Churchill. This was incredibly useful as it covered what agents do, what authors should do, submission guidelines, the importance of pitching, what publishers do, what agents look for. A huge amount of information was given out and gratefully received.







The final session came after lunch and this was with Candy Gourlay looking at story structure, This was another hands-on session and we all came away with a really useful way of focussing on how stories should be structured. I realised then that mine needed a complete restructure - argh! (or should that be 'aaarrrhhh!')







Coffee and cake followed as I said goodbye to friends, old and new. I left excited, inspired and eager to work on my manuscript, hoping to bring my writing to the best I possibly can.

Great Writing Workshop at Downham Library

I'm pleased to say that the writing workshop at the local library went rather well. Children actally turned up - 10 of them in fact. I'd have visions of no one coming and me sitting there like an idiot all on my lonesome.
I'd worked out an activity based on using WANTED posters to create character profiles. I read a page or so from Hero Required (Book 3 of the Aggie Lichen triology) where a poster of a wanted criminal is found. Then we had a 'real or no real' look at wanted posters I had found on the internet. I threw some funny ones in just to break the ice.

 



I shared a wanted poster for my dog Buster, which made them laugh. We chatted about keeping bullet points short and concise so that just the important information was shown. Then it was time to get down to creating some of their own. The results were great and quite a few chose younger brothers or sisters for their posters.
   The final part of the session was to take a bullet point or two and expand it into a sentence to start forming the character profile. At this point there was complete silence as the children worked. They all shared what they had done with each other at the end and there was time for a quick Q & A with me. I sent them home happy with a goody bag and had lots of lovely feedback from both parents and children. The librarian even asked if I'd go back to do another workshop. All in all, a good day.

 

New Teaser

Great Uncle Arthur's role in my new book - Circus of the Damned

I am continuing with my MG novel, Circus of the Damned. despite the fact that I have a half edited YA novel sitting on the computer. I decided to take a break from the editing of the Iron City as it's NaNoWriMo month and I wanted to try to get as much done on the MG novel.
 
  

    I did some further research on one of the characters, Arthur Margery, who was actually my great uncle. I found that he was one of 13 children and a twin. He is listed on the 1901 census as a 'Professional Society Entertainer', which was great to see as I knew he was a magician. 

Arthur Margery



I also found out that in later life, he had a bookshop in Bromley, UK which stocked over 6000 books on magic. When Arthur died in 1945, they were sold by his brother Henry to Foyles, London for just £100.

Lots more to discover, I hope!



  

Halloween Teaser

Teaser - The Anoulk from Marvin's Curse

An updated teaser from Marvin's Curse. I decided to have this one in colour as usually I tone the images down to black and white. In this case, the colour definitely has more impact. Seriously thinking of using this image for an updated cover of Marvin's Curse. Negotiations with the owner need to take place first though. What do you think?

Teaser Time!

Boot has a night out

So tonight, I took the poorly leg to meet friends at Bill's in Norwich. The burgers there are amazing. I also had a rather unusual cocktail called a Raspberry and Rosehip Collins which was rather yummy - and a Bill's cider.



Boot was not happy as had to spend most of the evening under the table, Here is a picture of boot sulking.

Have boot will travel

Today I took the poorly leg to Oxburgh Hall, a lovely 15th century house in Norfolk owned by the National Trust. There were a few Tudor stalls there and there was an oppotunity to try on costumes (boot refused point blank).

The house is a lot like Hampton Court albeit on a much smaller scale and it has a huge moat with crocodiles, sharks and piranha fish so no swimming is allowed.


Here's us posing with the house in the background. You can probably just make out the moat.


 
We had a lovely lunch then stopped to play chess, but boot got in the way and kept 'accidentally' knocking the pawns over. This is how it looked before we started playing.







 And afterwards...






 

 

 Finally, on the way out we had a look at the plants and flowers which were 'bootiful' (*sighs*). They have a great variety of apple trees there plus a climbing pear tree which you weren't aloowed to climb !?!
Still, a lovely afternoon.

Meeting author Meg Rosoff again.

Yesterday, the poorly leg and I took the train to Cambridge to attend the annual Philippa Pearce Lecture at Homerton College with my SCBWI group. This great event is actually free and followed by a wine reception afterwards (also free!) The committee rely entirely on donations to provide such events and on the goodwill of Homerton College. Amazing and so well attended.

This year the speaker was the lovely Meg Rosoff, author of How I Live Now among others. It was a wonderful lecture, truly inspiring and in many ways reassuring to the way I write. I was also a big girly fan and asked her to sign a book for me. I was delighted that she remembered me from our previous meeting at a SCBWI conference in Winchester where I had my photo taken with her.  No photo this time, but here's the earlier one. We really are best friends you know. :)

We all got together for a lovely meal afterwards (not Meg!) which was lovely and gave us a chance to catch up on our authory exploits. A great evening. 

Special thanks to Alice Turner for chauffeuring me from the train station to the venues and back on account of my poorly leg. :)

#YA #YAlit #Kidlitchat