Chinook Update

Karen Robbins' Shoe Print Art receives award

2013-05-15T23:40:00.001-07:00

Congratulations to Karen Robbins, whose book, Shoe Print Art, received the Benjamin Franklin Silver Medal from the Independent Book Publisher's Association's in the First Book category! The award ceremony is May 29 in New York City.

In honor of Children's Book Week, Karen will be leading a Shoe Print Art class at Bellingham's Village Books this Sunday, May 19 from 4-5pm.

Kevin Emerson and Jaime Temairik! Book release party!

2013-05-15T23:28:00.002-07:00

Here's a humdinger of a two-fer!

Author Kevin Emerson (Dark Shore: Book Two of the Atlanteans) and illustrator JaimeTemairik

(How to Negotiate Everything) celebrate the launches of their newest books.

WHEN: Tuesday, 21 at 7pm

WHERE: Secret Garden Bookshop

Frank M. Young and David Laskey graphic novel event

2013-05-15T23:11:00.003-07:00

Author Frank M. Young and illustrator David Laskey read from their graphic novel, The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song.

WHEN: Monday, May 20 at 6:30pm

WHERE: Seattle Public Library, Ballard branch (5614 22nd Ave NW)
EVENT DETAILS: click here

[Edited text courtesy the Secret Garden]

The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song is a story of the Carter Family's rise to success, their struggles along the way, and their impact on contemporary and country music. Written in the Southern dialect of the time, it is also a story of success and failure, poverty and wealth, racism and tolerance, creativity and business, and of the power of music and love.

There will be live music at this event, as well as a slide show. Books will be available for sale and signing.

Monsters Under Bridges book event

2013-05-15T22:48:00.003-07:00

Portland-based author Rachel Roellke Coddington and Jolby (a Portland-based collaborative design and illustration studio, featuring the talents of Josh Kenyon and Colby Nichols) read from their new book, Monsters Under Bridges: Pacific NW Edition.

WHEN: Sunday, May 19 at 2pm

WHERE: Secret Garden Books, Ballard

Children's Choice Book Award winners

2013-05-15T22:37:00.001-07:00

As announced yesterday, the kids have spoken. Click here for the list of winners.

And, again, CONGRATULATIONS to Kim Baker for Pickle being nominated for the coolest award there is! Huzzahs and handclaps all around!

Lee & Low 2013 New Voices Award

2013-05-15T22:18:00.003-07:00

Ready, set, go!

Lee & Low Books has just announced they're open to submissions for their 14th annual New Voices Award. Submissions will be accepted from May 1– September 30, 2013.

The Award is given annually for a children's picture book manuscript by a writer of color. The contest encourages writers of color to submit their work to a publisher that takes pride in nurturing new talent. Past winners include Bird by Zetta Elliott and It Jes' Happened by Don Tate.

For more information and the format for submissions, please click here.

Hop to it!

BEA attendees: SCBWI pre-party!

2013-05-15T22:08:00.001-07:00

Are you New York- and BEA-bound? Joni Sensel has something to tell you about:

For those heading to the Big Apple to attend the BEA, SCBWI is co-hosting a pre-BEA party with Books of Wonder in New York City on May 28, from 5-8pm. If you're attending BEA, you're
invited to attend.

Any PAL members you know of who are planning to come to BEA are also invited, so spread the word! They (and you) should RSVP, and let Books of Wonder know that you’re coming at the invitation from Joni or Steve and SCBWI.

Eric Ode book signing tomorrow

2013-05-14T09:15:00.001-07:00

Author Eric Ode has one last book signing coming up for Sea Star Wishes - Poems from the Coast (Sasquatch)!

Come and join him at in Greenlake at Mockingbird Books, tomorrow, Wednesday, May 15 at 11am.

Happy Children's Book Week!

2013-05-14T08:58:00.004-07:00

Oops, a day late, but no less enthusiastic....

This week is Children's Book Week. In honor of this nod to what we all doggedly pursue, here's a survey:

1) What was your VERY FAVORITE book from childhood?

2) Who is your VERY FAVORITE children's book character?

3) What children's book do you fervently wish you'd written or illustrated?

Please write any or all responses to the Comments area, and I will re-post group answers next week.

In the meantime, bask in the glow of these momentous seven days! Cheers!

SCBWI WWA 2013 annual conference portfolio winners

2013-05-12T17:33:00.001-07:00

Argh! We have been completely remiss and neglected to publicly honor last year's conference portfolio winner, Liz Wong. Liz's website showcases her work for children and teens, and features access to her fantastic blog. It's well worth a look-see.

illustration by Liz Wong

If you didn't make it to this year's conference, held last month in Redmond, you missed some amazing portfolios! And for those of you who did make it, here's a recap and links to see more work from the winners.

Our Grand Prize Winner was Lisa Mundorff of Portland. Lisa travels up to Seattle to make most of our meetings and has been submitting (and steadily placing) in the conference portfolio reviews. See more of what she's got at lisamundorf.com.

Our first runner-up was Eileen Sorg, who lives in Kingston and works primarily in colored pencil and watercolor. See her work and her recent book on how you, too, can use colored pencil as well as she can (as if) at twodogstudio.com.

The second runner-up was Seattle's own Ariel Tobin Smith, who somehow draws and posts a character each and every week. See those and more at http://acharacteraweek.blogspot.com and at

http://www.behance.net/arielsmith.

Reflections from a first-time conference attendee

2013-05-12T16:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a great perspective on last month's conference from Kimberly Kennedy, who graciously responded to my request to send some more personal feedback from our SCBWI WWA annual conference. Thanks, Kim, and hope to you see (and the rest of you!) next year!

This was my first SCBWI conference. Talented faculty, high quality content in sessions, and networking opportunities made the conference a beneficial experience.
The conference organizers pulled together faculty who represent various roles and areas of expertise. I learned both fundamentals and quirky tips from this impressive group.
Sessions were worthwhile and fun.
A spirit of goodwill was evident and the atmosphere was inspiring. I’ll share one experience that occurred following Kelly Milner Halls’ keynote address. As we applauded, a woman turned to me and said, “Beautiful.” This one word uttered with such sincere appreciation and the expression on this woman’s face linger in my thoughts. I have no doubt that, like me, the inspired woman will return to her work feeling more encouraged and less isolated.
Thank you to the organizers, faculty, and volunteers for making it an enjoyable conference. I’m grateful for your talent, time, and dedication.

Local illustrators in SCBWI Bulletin

2013-05-12T16:10:00.001-07:00

From our illustrious, newly appointed ARA Dana Sullivan:

Those of you who have looked through the SCBWI Bulletin that arrived in the mail last week may have noticed that our Western Washington chapter had THREE illustrators featured in the issue. Our cover boy is Mike Curato, winner of the 2012 Winter Conference Portfolio Showcase. On page 14 he gives an interview, talking about how he works and what inspired the cover. See Mike's work by clicking here.

Next up is Dalton Webb, who got the Art Spot on page 6. Check out his work here, and maybe ask him how YOU can get that spot next month.

And then, not least of all, there is the amazingly prolific (even with a busted shoulder) Mike Cressy, with (count 'em!) THREE black and white illustrations in the People section of the Bulletin. Mike's making some money this month! Mike's weird and wonderful portfolio is at mikecressy.com. And for an extra bonus, check out Mike's YouTube demonstration of how he illustrated his book Super Alphabet.

Next weekend's plan: Attend the SCBWI Oregon Conference!

2013-05-12T13:31:00.001-07:00

So, here's what you're doing next weekend. It's close, it's cheaper than you'd think, and it's going to be inspiring and edifying and packed with fellow writers and illustrators!

You're welcome!

It's SCBWI Oregon's chance to convene. Check out the details, below, on their annual conference, happening NEXT WEEKEND, May 17-18, in Portland.

Bonus: It's only a train ride away! Or getting into the meaty section of that audiobook you've been meaning to listen to but haven't had time alone in the car.

For complete details, click here.

And now for some good news....

2013-05-12T13:25:00.000-07:00

Let's hear some applause for Royce Buckingham, whose novel The Dead Boys was among those nominated by the Washington Library Media Association for the 2014 Sasquatch Award!

Fantastic news, Royce!

Another of our members has taken the leap into crowd-sourced fundraising for a compelling nonfiction project: Craig Orback, along with Portland-based writer Trudy Ludwig, is writing a picture book about a teen survivor of the Holocaust. You can find out about this work in progress by clicking here.

Kathryn Dennis' and Melissa Mahle's self-published middle-grade mystery, Lost in Petra, from their Anatolia Steppe series from SpyGirls Press got a starred review from Publishers Weekly Select for Independent Publishers. The cover art is by Jeff James, who's also a local SCBWI member.

Ack! I've been remiss: The children's magazine Underneath the Juniper Tree put together an anthology from work published 2011-2012. They selected Jenn Chushcoff's story, "Kindling Kindness," to be in it. The anthology was part of an Indiegogo fundraiser and was just shy of making its goal, that is, until an author stepped in to finish funding the project. You might have heard of our benefactor––R.L. Stine, the Goosebumps guy!

Mel Barnes shared information about the resource-full new blog she recently co-founded, called

"Novels, News and Notes from your Northwest Neighbors." It features an Authors Page that lists YA

authors who live in Oregon, Washington and the BC area. The blog also shares reviews, takes part in

blog tours, posts author interviews, as well as lists all YA events happening in OR and WA. You can

also follow this blog on Twitter: @NovelsNewsPNW.

Tim Haywood, a recent SCBWI WWA member, shares the following: "I'm wondering if you'd mind

posting a link to my blog on the Chinook Update site. I've been posting to it for about four years and

I've got a fairly nice following. I've also done a few on-air commentaries for KPLU, a Seattle
NPR station." There you go, Tim, and keep on blogging!

SCBWI-WWA Illustrators Exhibit: Call for artists!

2013-05-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

What this says:

Susan Orlean this Tuesday!

2013-05-12T12:53:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, she doesn't write for kids...but she's inspiring and this talk is relevant to the process that we all pursue, finding and deploying the creative fire we all possess, in whatever genre we toil at.

Susan Orlean, acclaimed journalist and writer, speaks about the creative process at this week's Seattle Arts & Lectures appearance. Click here for tickets and more details!

WHEN: Tuesday, May 14 at 7pm
WHERE: Benaroya Hall

PSM Recap: Doin' the AdCom shuffle!

2013-05-12T12:20:00.000-07:00

Here are some well-deserved rounds of applause for Advisory Committee members past, present and future, as mentioned during last Thursday's Professional Series meeting.

Goodbyes:
Thanks to Erik Pulkka and Chadwick Gillenwater for their AdCom service (and goodbye to Chadwick before he moves back to Indiana!). We'll miss you both! And loads upon loads of gratitude to Jaime Temairik as she steps down from the co-RA role.

Hellos:

· Welcome to Tony Dorrough and Alison Weatherby, our new AdCom members!

And, without further ado, a gigantic HURRAH! for our new leadership team: Brenda Winter-Hanson (co-RA), Dana Arnim (co-RA), and Dana Sullivan (ARA)!

Brenda

Dana A.

Dana S.

Pacific Coast Children's Writers Workshop

2013-05-09T09:52:00.001-07:00

The 11^th annual Pacific Coast Children’s Writers Workshop presents a WHOLE-NOVEL SEMINAR October 4-6 near Santa Cruz, CA, for 16 advanced/published writers. You'll be offered partial or full novel critique(s), in written and open-clinic format, by Regina Griffin (Executive Editor, Egmont USA) and Fiona Kenshole (agent, Transatlantic Agency; former executive editor); both seeking new talent. Plus, one more agent TBA. Annemarie O’Brien, MFA (author of forthcoming Lara’s Gift), will provide behind-the-scenes tips on how to collaborate with your editor and agent. Other faculty topics include revision techniques, inline editing, and adapting cinematic techniques to your fiction.

In our concurrent TeenSpeak Novel Workshop, smart teens provide target-reader feedback on adults’ manuscripts. (A generous parent has donated scholarship money for a qualified teen writer; please help us find a recipient!) Adults’ Early Bird fee is $769 through May 20. (Teens: $499 through late June.) Includes three nights’ beachfront townhouse lodging and most meals; critiques additional. Application deadline June 20, but inquire ahead to complete the materials. Final manuscript submissions are due June 28, with possible extensions throughout summer. Open until filled. Apply early to hold your space! Details and contact info here.

Profession Series Meeting: Map for Thursday!

2013-05-07T15:49:00.001-07:00

Please come one, come all, to our VERY LAST Professional Series Meeting this Thursday, May 9, at the usual 7pm time. But...

...not in the usual place: Instead, we'll meet at Otto Miller Hall, not Demaray Hall. (Otto's the science-y building close to the canal.)

Here's a map that can help you see where you'll be heading. The sessions are going to be great, too:
Dana Sullivan, our Illustrative Illustrator, will lead the mini-session, while the amazing Philip Lee, founder of Readers to Eaters, will show how food and writing become natural partners in promoting literacy in the community and beyond.

Oh, right. The map. The building is labeled #18, below. See you on Thursday night!

Call for local authors/illustrators

2013-05-06T13:43:00.000-07:00

McCleary School in McCleary, WA is looking for local authors and illustrators to participate in a Family Event/Writers Workshop. The workshop is in conjunction with our Scholastic Bookfair. Authors and illustrators and literature enthusiasts alike will host a table, talk with families and students about how you got your start, where you went to school and encourage students to follow their passions, as well as judge our Short Story Contest entries!

The Writers Workshop is Wednesday, June 5, at 6pm in the McCleary School gymnasium. Tables will be provided. PLEASE bring your published works for sales and signing!!

Please contact Dena Dunn at tylercale@hotmail.com for further information.

E-book and e-marketing panel

2013-05-06T13:40:00.001-07:00

No, it's not strictly a Kid-Lit topic, but for those of you interested in the new frontier, this could be just the thing your brain's been percolating over....

WHAT: Panel Discussion on e-Books and e-Marketing with Hedgebrook Alumnae

WHEN: Tuesday, May 14, 6–8pm

WHERE: Richard Hugo House, Capitol Hill, Seattle

Hosted by Allison Green and featuring Jennifer D. Munro and Katie Woodzick
The brave new world of e-books and e-marketing beckons writers who want to find new readers in new ways. Hedgebrook alumnae share their experiences navigating online publishing.

To find out more about this event and the panelists, please click here.

Friday: Cat Patrick book release featuring You Are Next

2013-05-06T13:26:00.000-07:00

Here's something to take your weekend into orbit!

Author Cat Patrick launches her newest book, The Originals, at Secret Garden Books in Ballard!

The fun starts on Friday, May 10 at 7pm.

Those who attend will be treated to thematic, clone-worthy food and beverages such as DNA cupcakes and test-tube punch.

Following that, you will experience a (humorous) dramatic reading featuring Cat and her You Are Next tour mates, Sean Beaudoin (The Infects), Martha Brockenbrough (Devine Intervention), and Kevin Emerson (The Lost Code), during which time it is possible that boys will read—and dress—as girls. In addition, there will be a photo-cloning station for participants and their lookalikes.

But wait, there's more! Finally, Cat–or her dopplegangers–will be happy to sign copies of The Originals and answer questions about her career, her books, and the crazy science experiments she likes to make up for fun.

PSM Meeting Thursday: Location reminder

2013-05-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

Just to keep you on all your toes, here's a friendly reminder about this week's Professional Series Meeting change of location:

Note: The May 9 meeting location has been changed from Demaray Hall to Otto Miller Hall. Otto Miller is located near the NW corner of the intersection of 3rd Ave. W & W Nickerson. See the Seattle Pacific University link here.

Mini-Session: We loved last year’s session of video and discussion, and thanks to Advisory Committee member/videographer Dana Sullivan, we’ll have two more local illustrators sharing their favorite ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES in time-lapse video as well as in-person Q&A.

Main Program: FOOD LITERACY: CONNECTING GOOD EATS & GOOD READS with Philip Lee. As co-founder and former publisher of Lee & Low Books, Philip will speak on his new company, READERS to EATERS, with a mission to promote food literacy. He will discuss the need to build a new food culture, starting with a better understanding of what and how we eat, and how stories behind ethnic diversity plays an important role in our food dialogue. As an independent publisher for more than 20 years, Philip will address the challenges and opportunities that small and mid-sized publishers are facing as the industry evolves and how it impacts writers and illustrators.

This will be our last meeting of the year, so please plan to attend! We're generally pretty cheery around this time of year, so join the fracas!

Trudi Trueit and the Soundview School Book Fair

2013-05-06T13:04:00.006-07:00

A fabulous event shared by Trudi Trueit:

Author Trudi Trueit (Secrets of a Lab Rat series) will be sharing the stage with graphic novels created by elementary students from Soundview School in Lynnwood (no, that's not a typo - they wrote them! How cool is that?). On Saturday, May 18th, 2013 from 1–3pm, the students will be sharing graphic novels together with Trudi, who will read from and sign her latest tween title, Stealing Popular, at the Alderwood Barnes & Noble.

Kids who attend can also win prizes, like tote bags, audio CDs, and a T-shirt signed by Trudi's Lab Rat illustrator, Jim Paillot! (Again: How cool is that?)

Bonus: A portion of all purchases made in the store that day will go to benefit Soundview, an independent school that serves children from preschool through 8th grade.

Trudi writes, "We’re hoping for a strong turnout from our educator and writer friends! These students have worked so hard on their novels, and we’d love for them to read in front of a full audience and feel for a moment what it’s like to be big-time authors!"

And, once more: HOW COOL IS THAT?????

WHAT: Soundview School Bookfair Event

WHEN: Saturday, May 18, 1–3pm

WHERE: Alderwood Barnes and Noble, 19401 Alderwood Mall Parkway, Lynnwood

Hope to see everyone there!

Jaime's Children's Picture-Book Illustrating Class

2013-05-06T10:50:00.000-07:00

So who's the teacher, you may well ask?

Our very own Jaime Temairik. If you're sticking around this summer and wishing you could have an amazing instructor for your myriad picture-book ideas, then look no further:

Here's the skinny from the Picture Book Goddess herself:

You may already be too busy today, at the University of Washington's Gerontology Webinar, but what are you doing from June 18 to July 16?

I think you're coming to the UW to take my Illustrating Children's Picture Books class! You can even take a nap in the beautiful Quad prior to classes, I'll come wake you up, no extra charge!

With a registration link harder to find than something very, very, very hard to find, please consider joining me this summer. For illustrators and writers who want to work on pacing and visualization: http://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/illustrating-childrens-picture-books.html