Annual Conference - Los Angeles

sunday
august 5, 2007
Nancy D. Lewis, Metro New York Regional Advisor

Sunday, August 5, 2007 started with Mark McVeigh, Laurent Linn, and an inside peak into how an editor and art director work together. In some houses, the editor drives the process; in others, it is the designer. The best is a partnership between the editor, the designer, and the author. The editor and author work together on the story. The editor and art designer work together to accurately represent the author's vision, and they both work with marketing to create a look that will sell. It is a balancing act to get the best book out to children.

Award-winning author John Green's writing is a balance between translation and creation. For his first book, Looking for Alaska, he started with a real experience from his teen years that deeply affected him. He learned that telling the true facts and trying to write about real people ruined the story. He had to free himself from the shackles of the facts, create new characters, and allow the book to become a separate, non-autobiographical story. Once he did, he was finally able to recreate the feelings he had experienced.

Attendees of the Golden Kite Luncheon experienced unexpected merriment as several people laughingly participated in a surprise singing contest. Congratulations to the contestants, winners all, and congratulations to the 2007 SCBWI Member of the Year, Batsukh Davgasuren Beasley, who worked hard to organize the Mongolian Chapter. The 2006 Golden Kite Awards were presented to Russell Freedman, the Nonfiction award for The Adventures Of Marco Polo; Larry Day, the Picture Book Illustration award for Not Afraid Of Dogs, written by Susanna Pitzer; Walter Dean Myers, the Picture Book Text award for Jazz, illustrated by Christopher Myers; and Tony Abbott, the Fiction award for Firegirl. The Sid Fleischman Humor Award was given to Sara Pennypacker for Clementine. The books and the acceptance speeches reminded the audience of the myriad and creative ways authors and illustrators connect to their readers.

Connecting with an editor, or "Beyond the Slushpile," was the topic of Sunday's closing talk with award-winning author Linda Sue Park and editor Dinah Stevenson. Rather than worrying about their latest submissions, writers should start a new project immediately, writing from their own experiences and passions. The more personal connections there are between the writer and the work, the more likely the writing will ring true and the more likely an editor will want to publish it. The editor will ask for revisions, ranging from commas, to major restructuring, to a complete rewrite; however, the editor will trust the writer's instincts in handling the revisions.