Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing

Posts by Mina Witteman

Just One More Day To Go!

Posted on November 30, 2011

One more day to go before the second Amsterdam Literary Death Match. I’ve told you how it works: 4 writers, 3 judges, 2 rounds and 1 epic finale. I know who I will vote for: Fantasy-fictionista Mina Witteman, author of The Soul Snatcher, The Weed Man and Dark Fiber. Hey? That’s me! Right, it is me! Unveiling just a shred of my strategy to win (and those who know me know that I’m merciless if it comes to winning)… I will be reading from my new and burning YA thriller THE WEED MAN. Prepare for a scare, people! The smell of weed and the stink of burning flesh will linger for a long, long while in the great Old West. The Booktunes Blog will play my anthem while…

Categories: A Bit of Everything

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Literary Death Match

Posted on November 15, 2011

Two more weeks to go before the second Amsterdam Literary Death Match. You know the drill: 4 writers, 3 judges, 2 rounds and 1 epic finale. I know who I will vote for: Fantasy-fictionista Mina Witteman, author of The Soul Snatcher, The Weed Man and Dark Fiber. Hey? That’s me! Right, it is me! Unveiling just a shred of my strategy to win (and those who know me know that I’m merciless if it comes to winning)… I will be reading from my new and burning YA thriller THE WEED MAN. Prepare for a scare, people! The smell of weed and the stink of burning flesh will linger for a long, long while in the great Old West. Buy your tickets now and let…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Thrillers, YA books

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Fabulous Amsterdam Conference

Posted on November 6, 2011

We are looking back at an excellent first SCBWI NL conference. I think every single participant loved the speakers, their keynotes, lectures and the hands-on break-out sessions. I particularly liked Doug Cushman’s opening keynote and his advice to always remember how you started, why you started, and, most important, what drove you to wanting to be a writer or an illustrator. His Space Cat is a terrific illustration of that: written when Doug was 8 years old and published a couple of years ago. As he said: we don’t change that much. Erzsi Deàk of the Hen&ink Agency enlightened us on what agents and editors are looking for these days. Her breakdown of the buzz at the Frankfurt International Book Fair was insightful and helpful…

Categories: Books, Children's books, YA books

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Literary Death Match and other good things

Posted on October 31, 2011

Three things came together this past week. We had a couple of late bloomers signing up for the first SCBWI conference in the Netherlands. Yay! D-Day is this coming Saturday and I am very, very excited about the illustrious illustrator and writer Doug Cushman who will open the conference. The title of his keynote? In the Beginning Was Space Cat. Who doesn’t remember the cosmic adventures of the space hero who effortlessly rivals Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and many other great space age heroes? Space Cat was the onset of Doug’s stellar career, as it still is the onset of the reading careers of so many kids. The other thing that came to me was the Literary Death Match. These killing matches, as co-creator…

Categories: Books, Children's books, Thrillers, YA books

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Setting Free the Genius

Posted on October 17, 2011

How is it that a book written in 1934 is still valid? This fall I enrolled in the three semester course Teaching Creative Writing at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. One of my first assignments was reading Becoming A Writer, written in 1934 by Dorothea Brande. It turned out to be a book that, to this very date, is thought-provoking and useful to all who aspire to be a writer. Brande had no knowledge of the right brain and the left brain, not the way we do now, but she shares her views as if she did, explaining about the two parts of a writer: the conscious part and the unconscious part. Her main objective in this book is to teach you how…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, YA books

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Just A Few More Seats Available

Posted on October 3, 2011

We are happy to announce that the preparations for the first conference of the SCBWI The Netherlands chapter are in full blast. The registrations are in, the speakers are lined up, the venue is ready! But… We have a couple more seats available, so we have decided to extend the registration period until October 8. First come, first serve! We also have two more spots available for manuscript reviews and some more for the portfolio reviews. So polish up your WIPs and dust off your illustrations, and send them in. Agent Erzsi Deàk and Writing Coach Sarah Blake Johnson are ready to provide you with the most valuable advice on your projects. Submission deadline: 8 October latest! If you sign up for a portfolio review…

Categories: A Bit of Everything, Books, Children's books, YA books

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Meet the Speakers at the SCBWI NL Conference

Posted on September 18, 2011

These are the awesome people that will speak at the SCBWI NL Conference in Amsterdam on November 5. Remember the deadline for registration is OCTOBER 1. Seats are filling and so are the spots for portfolio and manuscript reviews! Doug Cushman is author and illustrator of award winning children’s picture books for over 30 years and the creator of many memorable heroes as the intrepid Aunt Eater, the grasshopper gumshoe Inspector Hopper, and the ace reporter Dirk Bones. A sample of some of the honors: Reading Rainbow Review Book for Aunt Eater Loves A Mystery; National Cartoonists Society 1996 Rubuen Award for Book Illustration for The Mystery of King Karfu; New York City Public Library Best 100 Books of 2000 for Inspector Hopper; New York Times Extended Children’s best Sellers…

Categories: A Bit of Everything