Sue Bradford Edwards's Blog, page 264
October 5, 2015
The Trope Trap
At the Missouri SCBWI conference on 9/26, editor Kate Sullivan warned us to avoid creating disabled characters who are trope. A trope is a word, character or phrase used for literary effect. Sullivan warned us about one trope in particular but her warning roused my curiousity so I did a bit of research. These are […]
October 4, 2015
Picture Books: Inanimate Objects
At the Mo. SCBWI conference on 9/26, someone asked Brianne Johnson (Writer’s House) about creating picture books with inanimate objects as characters. Her short answer? Don’t do it. Then she went on to explain the difficulties of this type of story using The Day the Crayons Quit as an example. In this story, the crayons are not […]
October 1, 2015
Agents: Adding to My List
So what did I accomplish last week on my great agent search? Did I send out my letters? no But I had a good reason. Last Saturday I was one of the staff at the Missouri SCBWI conference. It meant that I got to meet 2 agents (Brianne Johnson/Writer’s House and Kirsten Hall/Catbird Productions). Before […]
September 30, 2015
Novel Writing: The Contract with Your Reader
At the conference on Saturday, Delacorte editor Kate Sullivan gave a really good talk on genre novels for young readers. I know it was helpful for me to hear what sells in middle grade vs young adult. But one of the most informative bits came about in response to a question. One of the listeners […]
September 29, 2015
Picture Books: What does it mean to be character driven?
At Saturday’s conference, Brianne Johnson, senior agent at Writer’s House, gave an absolutely amazing session on character driven picture books. Yeah, yeah. We all know what it mean — the character’s personality drives the plot. On one level, I’m sure you get it. I know that I did before this session. The character’s personality somehow […]
September 28, 2015
Picture Books: The Quiet Manuscript
At Saturday’s conference, Roaring Brook’s Connie Hsu (pronounced Shoe) discussed quiet picture books — what they aren’t, what they are, and what it means. This wasn’t a session topic but we have just seen a preview of The Night Gardener by Terry and Eric Fan. It will be published this spring by Simon and Schuster. This book […]
September 27, 2015
Recharging Your Creative Battery: Attend a Conference or other event
Saturday, I had a great chance to recharge my battery. I went to the Missouri Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) fall conference. Yes, it is work related. No, I don’t get to honor my introvert self by avoiding people, but I get to do something even better than that — I get […]
September 24, 2015
My New Book, Part 2
Guess what just came? My other new book — The Bombing of Pearl Harbor from Abdo. That’s right. Two books in a week. Believe me. This is not my typical week. This is too much like Christmas. My typical week more closely resembles controlled chaos. Speaking of chaos, I’m currently working on 3 different deadlines. I […]
September 23, 2015
Agents: Approaching Agents
Now that I’ve found a pair of agents that interest me, I need to get my work ready to submit. The manuscript itself is ready to go but that doesn’t mean I’m ready although I’m working to get to that point. First, I checked out the submissions guidelines for both the Bent Agency and the Prospect Agency. Each […]
September 22, 2015
Markets: Agents and editors seeking manuscripts
Have you visited Manuscript Wishlist yet? One of my writing buddies pointed out this great market resource. This site lists literally hundreds of agents and editors and what they want to receive. Need an agent that represents only children’s books? Or picture books? Then this is the place to look. You can search by: Agent/editor […]
