Geeks, Girls, and Me

You’ve probably heard of GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES by the great Mike Jung. In case you haven't, the story is about Vincent Wu (he's one of the so called geeks) who has a crush on Polly Wincot Lee (she's the girl, obviously). Vincent, along with a couple of his friends, is a major fan of the local superhero, Captain Stupendous. And that is where the secret identities come in. This isn’t your average superhero story. Yes there’s action. And Mayhem. And life threatening robots. And warring fan clubs. But you will be surprised! So is Vincent. This action packed middle-grade superhero story has great twists, meaningful moments, and just plain fun.

You know what else there is? Me!

Illustrated by Mike Maihack!

Ha! No, I have never actually ever lived in a city where I get text messages so I can run out and watch the local superhero fight the evil villain. It would be pretty exciting though. I know I’d get sick if I was flown through the air at warp speed while being rescued, and probably even while being secretly transported in a garden shed.

So where am I? Page 33, that’s where. And a few other pages later on. You see, Mike used my name in his book! How cool is that? (Yes, I know! It’s extremely cool!) Who am I? Mrs. Burnell, the nice smelling teacher who whips out her freakishly emotionless robot voice to get the kids in class under control when they get riled up.

No, of course, that's not really me. That's the magic of Mike's magnificent writing. What I have done is tuck the essence Mrs. Burnell's voice away in my brain for those times when I need kids to settle down. I have also bought some perfume. You see, Mike Jung may be able to tell the future. I started doing some subbing at school not long after GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES came out. Yes, Mike is one multi-talented man. He writes books... he plays the ukulele... he tells the future!

Why did Mike choose my last name to use in his book? I don’t know. Back in the old days before Mike was too famous and before I was so busy that I run around with garlic, beekeeping equipment, an extra change of clothes, my notebooks, my computer, a full on kitchen, and soccer balls in my truck just so I can keep up with life at any given moment, we used to play around on Twitter. Mike was the ruler of #mikesempire. He granted me a super powered sleigh with a hot chocolate maker and made me the roller skating queen. It was a glorious time in the empire when I spent my days rolling through the streets as fast as I could, and my nights sipping divine hot drinks.

So yeah, Mike knows my name. I’m not sure that it’s really an unusual last name, but I’ve certainly never read it in a book before. Or really heard it much of anywhere besides in my family until Burnell Taylor sang on American Idol. (Didn’t ever hear it as a first name until then either. I like it!)

And now, whenever I’m in the library and have a middle grade reader’s ear, I tell them about Mike’s book. (Okay, yes, I have done this to teens and adults too.)  I’d do this whether Mike had used my name for a character or not. But it’s fun to show them page 33 too. Yes, they think it’s stupendous.

GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES is published by ArthurA. Levine books. Read it! Or give it to a young reader. It's fast pace and humor is sure to appeal. Want to know more? You can read tons of great reviews about the book on Goodreads.

You can find Mike Jung on his little bloggy wog: http://captainstupendous.wordpress.com/

The Phoenix, Great Northern Garlic, and Sub It Club aka My Life

So yeah, I've been a little bit busy lately. Let's see...what have I been up to?

The Phoenix Cafe & Gallery where we lived and served up some great breakfast.  Just thinking about it makes me want Eggs Benedict.

Well, first of all we moved out of the Inn we were care-taking and back to our house on the mountain. The Inn was fun. Who wouldn't want to live right outside of a ghost town? The kids loved riding their bikes down to Old Molson to play. The first winter we were there we ran a restaurant out of the house. We had music nights and lots of parties. Can't really beat that, or can you?

It is a beautiful house built from 80% reclaimed materials, and designed by the fabulous artist Dan Hulphers. It's for sale if you're looking to run an inn! 

We decided that having a restaurant in our house wasn't much fun for the kids so the next winter my husband and I worked at the local ski hill. On Thursdays schools brought kids up on field trips. My husband taught the snowboarders, I taught skiiers. On weekends we gave some lessons too but mostly we skied with our kids. There's nothing better for a kid than skiing all weekend, every weekend. If there is, we need to try that next. ;)

Yes, I tried snowboarding too. But I'm much better at skiing.

But, life can't be fun and games all the time I suppose. My husband and I have also been working on our farming business. Working for yourself and getting to be outside all day is pretty darn nice in my book, but it is also a lot of work, of course. We've been planting and planning daily. Over the winter we built our Great Northern Garlic website and are looking forward to our first year selling organic seed garlic! You can check out our gardening capers at Great Northern Garlic on Facebook and at @OkanoganOrganics on Twitter. Oh yeah, and I've been trying in earnest, finally, to figure out Pinterest.

We got some goslings. I refer to them as The Ryans.                                

Lambing season has come and gone already!

And of course, I keep up with Sub It Club every day. It's been really great keeping up with other writers who are working towards publication. SCBWI France RA and my partner in subbing, Dana Carey motivates us to set goals every month, and the Facebook chat is always open for questions and encouragement. Making goals and "saying them out loud" has certainly kept me on task as I work to get my work out there!

Some of the beautiful Sub It Club artwork created by Dana Carey.

So...have I been writing? The answer is... yes! I keep a notebook in my pocket. Every day I write down ideas for all sorts of things. As you can see I run a lot of social media pages now and I like to keep those going. I've been working on some farm & garden articles. (Imagine that!) I'm still working on my picture books and am so close to having my chapter reader done, if I could just have enough brain power to do it when I finally get to open the file.

Fun on the farm!

Yeah, it's been a lot lately. (Did I mention that I'm coaching soccer?) But things are going to slow down a bit soon. Summer is coming! I looked at my calendar today and there is actually nothing scheduled on it after this week! I know there will be a lot of farming but it's fun being out there with the family. Work and play really mixes when you're outside. There will lots of sun, lots of food, and there are lakes on the way to and from the farm in the valley to our house in the mountains. I'm sure we'll be taking lots of dips!

Bet you we'll be running in to some more of these guys soon.

Okay, that's enough about me. I know, it's my blog, but if you have any questions you'll have to ask. I've got to get back to doing monster list posts and interviews and that sort of good stuff. Here's to living a full life! You all have fun out there!

Words!

In the front of my writing notebook I have some notes I’ve gleaned from here and there. Words. Little notes reminding me of the things that need to find their way into what I write if I want to have a salable book. Of course, they aren’t all required, they just help. Here’s what I’ve got:

Spunky character

Narrative arc

Great hook

Commercial plot

Likable characters

Witty dialogue

Layers

Heart

I also have the word breakout. Can’t really plan that can you. But still, it's a good reminder of something to strive for. I feel like I need more words to add to my list!  What words do you use to remind yourself of all those elements you need to have in your manuscripts?

Monster List of Picture Book Agents -- Carly Watters, P.S. Literary

Carly Watters is an agent at P.S. Literary Agency. She is looking for "high concept picture books". You can read Carly's bio on the P.S. Literary About Us page. You can also read her about page on her blog agentcarlywatters.wordpress.com. Ms. Watters keeps a great list of her links on the bottom of her about page. Love that! Go there to find links to her interviews and articles and her list of clients.

I could only find one picture book sale, and it's on the P.S. Literary website news page. Carly posted about signing the author, Danny Appleby on her blog.

You can find Carly Watters on Twitter.

That's it. Short and sweet!

This post is part of the Monster List of Picture Book Agents. If you have any changes that you think should be made to this listing, please contact me or leave them in the comments. Thanks!

Making the Decision to Illustrate your Picture Book Manuscript...or Not

I received a question regarding my Monster List of Picture Book Agents pertaining to something I say in the introduction to the list. With the permission of the sender I'm going to answer it here on my blog. Here's the question:

I am confused. I was looking at your Monster reference list of agents that consider PB manuscripts. Then you say "how I wish I could illustrate." 

"As a picture book writer I know it can be difficult to track down which agents represent picture book authors. Not author/illustrators(how I wish I could illustrate!)but authors only. I've decided to create a monster list of picture book agents with info and links to help picture book authors find an agent."

I have a picture book, 32 pages, 382 words, for which I did a few illustrations on Illustrator. My very first book. I was told to forget the illustrations. Publishers pick their illustrators. Yet, you are an author of Picture Books and you wish you could illustrate them? Can you explain? Would you submit both writing + illustrations together if you draw and color? Should I finish illustrating the book? Or should I submit it as manuscript only?

There are great picture book writers. There are great picture book illustrators. And there are great picture book author/illustrators. I can write. I’ve been at this long enough to almost not blush when I type that. When I write picture books I see the illustrations in my head. Sure, I can draw, but when I try to draw what I see it fails to come close. I’m no illustrator. My drawings would never be good enough to carry anything let alone a 32-page picture book where, besides all the other illustrative nuances, the characters have to be consistent from page to page.

Why do I wish I could illustrate? It would be nice to be able to carry a manuscript through the way I see it. No, I'm not a control freak. Collaboration is one of the great parts of being a picture book author. But I do sometimes see certain sub-plots that could be played out through illustrations. Yes, sometimes I put illustration notes into a manuscript. But only when absolutely necessary like in my book, Bedtime Monster, where the illustration of dad also being a bit of a monster is essential to the story but isn't apparent in the text. It's always best to give the illustrator the freedom to create their own wonderful vision of the manuscript.

All that being said, the reason I say I wish I could illustrate in the introduction to the Monster List is pure business. Being an author/illustrator is more attractive to agents than being solely a picture book author. Why? More potential earnings of course. It is much more lucrative to get an advance for both the writing and illustrating of a book than solely for the text. Not that there’s usually a ton of money in picture books anyway, but it’s enough to make a difference.

That’s the reason I started the Monster List. It can be sort of frustrating looking for agents as a picture book author. First, you have to track down the agents that actually represent picture books only to find at least half the time they are only interested in author/illustrators. (No, I don’t have a factual number statistic on this but it sure would be interesting to know!)

Each person that is stepping into the children's book world with visions of both writing and illustrating has the decision to make for themselves. Take a step back. Try to be subjective. Is your art of the caliber that can carry a picture book? If it is take the time to create a submission package that shows the absolute best of your writing and illustration.

If your illustrating isn't professional caliber, it's okay. Congratulations on telling yourself a hard creative truth! And remember, we all have to start somewhere. Keep working. Craft can be developed. And there's nothing to stop a person who's a strong writer or illustrator to start with one craft and develop the other as time goes by. It's all part of the process of creation.

There are debut authors. There are debut illustrators. And there are debut author/illustrators. What you decide to pursue depends on you.

An Obsession. And It's Not Writing. *gasp*

Okay, so I've been neglecting my little blog here a bit more than usual. Yes, I've been busy with Sub It Club. What a fun group it's turning out to be! But, I've also been pretty obsessed with something else. And it doesn't have anything to do with writing. *gasp!*

I know I've blogged about this before, but my family has been care-taking an Inn for the past year and a half. We do it because the school bus comes right to the end of the driveway and makes it easy to get the kids to school, unlike our mountain house where we sled, ski cross country, or snowmobile to the car, then drive the snowy road to town. Last winter we ran a cafe & gallery out of the Inn. And we had lots of parties with all of our musically inclined friends.

But, running a restaurant out of your home, especially when you have three kids, can be pretty tiring. So is having a party every couple of weeks. But hey, it was A LOT of fun. Plus, last winter there wasn't much snow. This year though, things are different.

Yes, people still stop by randomly. The house seems to attract people, and we've made a lot of friends because of it. But we're not running a restaurant or gallery or even having parties. This winter my husband and I are busy at the local ski hill. He's the head snowboard instructor and I'm a ski instructor!

I've been skiing since I was old enough to be put onto skis. Before that my mom skied with me in a backpack. It's no wonder I love zipping down the hill. I never would have guessed that I'd get to be a ski instructor though. Skiing three days a week? Heaven!

Every Thursday one of the schools brings up a group of kids and we teach them how to ski. We've had from 20 to 70! It is really fun to get kids going on skis and boards. They are always so excited. There's a lot of comedy involved too from the, "I keep falling because there are too many people in my way" to the ones who have never skied before wanting to go straight up the mountain and ski down the face.Um, no. But skiing is a great thing to learn and we try to make sure all the kids have a good time and have some skills by the time they leave. They don't all always get to go up to the top, but we try to get them there if they can do it. The kids that come for weekend classes get a series of days so I really get to ski a lot with some of them. I've gotten to ski with so many great kids this winter, it has really been super fun.

And my kids LOVE it. The ski hill is a great place for the local kids to hang out on the weekends and we've amassed quite a ski gang. Many of the regulars get their season passes by doing volunteer work on the hill either in the summer or as cadet instructors on the weekends. Pretty cool deal. They ski so much that they do fun stuff like try to tackle each other. That never would have occurred to me but it's pretty standard with the gang. And they like to play games like cops and robbers. There are plenty of good places to hide. Ah yes, there's no boring weekends here and everyone sleeps well at night.

Skiing with a big group of kids is too fun!

Since I've been skiing so much I also decided I had time to learn something new –snowboarding. Wow. I hardly ever fall skiing but I fall at least 4 times a run on a snowboard. Okay, I think I'm being generous there. Seriously, I feel like I've been in a car wreck after a day of slamming to the ground 50 times or so. But I guess I'm a glutton for punishment because it's fun. The gang certainly finds it entertaining. Nothing like watching people fall! I really want to get snowboarding down though, so there should be more entertainment to come. Hopefully I'll get to do it at least one more time before the season ends...after I recover from all the slamming I did the other day.

This is where I spend most of my time while snowboarding.

But sometimes I do this!

Critiques, Chocolate, & Chat!

I've been busy working on all things Sub It Club lately but I definitely want all of my blog readers to know about a couple of fun things we have going on.

First of all, we've scheduled our first chat for Tuesday, January 29th at 9 a.m. PST.

And secondly, we've opened up for our first query letter critique and just to sweeten the deal we're adding a chance to win some chocolate.

You can read the details about both these events on the Sub It Club blog. Sorry to be so short, but the family is starting to complain that I'm on the computer too much!

Anyway, I'd love to have you join us as we work our way towards publication!