2023 Fall Recordings BY REQUEST

Feeling stuck? Need a pep talk? Join me as we take an interactive, hands-on, CLOSE-UP look at your creative foundation and learn how to unstick your limitless potential to move your children’s book journey forward.

You may know your protagonist backwards and forwards, but how well do you know those around them? Friends, enemies, parents, and siblings can’t exist only as foils to keep the action moving. The better you know those characters, the stronger their relationships with your protagonist will be, and the more authentic your story will feel. This breakout session will help you strengthen your story by giving secondary characters a little TLC.

Memories are often the seeds that grow into the stories we tell. This interactive craft workshop asks writers to rethink how they engage with memory, zoom in on sensory details, and get a little weird. By the end of the workshop, writers will have exercises and writing material to further their creative journeys.

Each year, more books are being called out for inauthentic or problematic representation of characters, cultures, identities, and issues. Publication dates have been delayed or entirely cancelled due to questions about representation. As authors wanting to create works for our youngest community members, it is critical to do research. In this workshop we will review common categories of inauthentic representation, resources, and finding and working with sensitivity readers.

Children’s book author and illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi will talk about Substack: how it can help children’s book authors and illustrators in their craft and business. Debbie will also be including tips and links to resources contributed by other kidlit creators on Substack, including creators who are making money on the platform. Substack is an American online platform that provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. Debbie is the award-winning author and illustrator of WHERE ARE MY BOOKS? Her illustrations appear in books by Judy Blume, Michael Ian Black, and Linda Sue Park. Debbie is a SCBWI success story, receiving her first children’s book contract from Justin Chanda at Simon & Schuster after Justin saw her portfolio at the 2010 SCBWI Summer Portfolio Showcase.  You can find out more about Debbie at DebbieOhi.com, as well as on Twitter, Substack, Facebook, and Instagram.

Dream big with Andrea Bell, an illustrator, comic artist and colorist living in Chicago through the best and worst seasons. Her work reflects adventure, honesty, and strong relate-able characters combined with a soft, color palette. After earning her BFA from Columbia College Chicago, Andrea began her comics career self-publishing and traveling throughout North America exhibiting her work. She has since gone on to illustrate such books as the DIARY OF A 5TH GRADE OUTLAW trilogy, THE LEAK and MAKER COMICS: CONDUCT A SCIENCE EXPERIMENT. Andrea has also assisted in coloring for the titles SWEET VALLEY HIGH TWINS: BEST FRIENDS, DOODLES FROM THE BOOGIE DOWN, TWINS and WRAPED UP.

Join us for a Fireside Chat with Mama Edie, from Chicago Association of Black Storytellers. She will share her world where imagination is limitless! As a solo performer, she shares the power of poetry and song “Mama Edie Style.” Sing songs with her in Spanish, Yoruba (Nigeria), Kiswahili (East Africa), English and Twi (Ghana)! Journey with her to extract the nuggets in stories that reveal universal truths and prove us to be one family – although we may not often act that way. Through a story such as “Ananse, the Spider and How the Moon Came to Be in the Sky,” be reminded – or discover for the very first time – that our differences can be our greatest source of strength. Let story reveal the light that you too have inside that no one else has the right to diminish.

Enjoy some spooky fun as author Lynne Marie discusses her book MOLDILOCKS AND THE THREE SCARES. Her presentation will apply to all genres. She teaches different approaches to make a story new and different!