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…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts from the “Children’s books” Category
Venue? Check! Speakers? Check! Program? Check! Flyers? Check Website? Check In short: The first SCBWI NL conference is now OPEN FOR REGISTRATION Are you interested in writing and illustrating for children and do you need guidance? Are you already writing and illustrating for children, but do you wish to hone your craft with the best teachers out there? Are you interested in how publishing in the Netherlands and in the global market works? Would you like to know about literary agents, about app building, about book making, and above all about writing and illustrating for kids and teens? Now is your chance! On Saturday November 5, 2011 the conference The Netherlands and the Big World Out There: Publishing in the Global Market will be…
Of course there was also fun stuff in LA, not just scary stuff. Jon Scieszka was there to whip up spirits and he did that with his usual fervor. Scieszka writes because he loves to make kids laugh, he says. His inspiration comes from all the weird stuff that happened when he was growing up with his five brothers. You can read all about his adventures growing up a Scieszka in his autobiography Knucklehead: Tall Tales and Almost True Stories of Growing Up Scieszka. He’s also very serious about his job as a children’s book writer. He advocates reading and literacy as fervently as he loves making the world laugh. In 2008 he was appointed the National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature and he has…
The 40th Summer Conference of the SCBWI is over. I’m at the airport lounge looking out over the airport, seeing friends leave the hazy city that shimmers in the background. It makes me sad that I have to leave, knowing that it will take quite a while before I will see most of my friends and my mentors again. While writers work in solitude and –usually– love the quietness, just like I do, there is nothing more energizing than being around kindred spirits. We’ve shared a lot these past week: break-throughs, new publications, leaps-forward, staggering discoveries, stirring workshops, riveting keynotes and above all continuing friendships and the making of new ones. Being at the conference as the Regional Advisor of the Netherlands chapter was…
Tagged: Books, Bruce Coville, Lin Oliver, Mina Witteman, SCBWI, Steve Mooser
Recently Google announced and launched its social network platform: Google+. It’s a cross-over between Facebook and Twitter and lots of people put in a word or two about it. Some like it, some don’t, some love it, some hate it. But whatever you feel, it’s there and you can’t evade it. For me the important question was: do I genuinely need another social network to add to my visibility? That seems an easy question. Right? You could argue that, in order to get as much buzz around The Writer Known As Mina Witteman as possible, I should jump at Google+. Eventually, Google+ will lure in public from Facebook, just like the Zuckerberg trap lured in public from MySpace and Hyves. It will, no doubt,…
Tagged: Facebook, Google+, Mina Witteman, platform presence, Twitter, Zuckerberg
It was a gorgeous summer day in Paris, even though spring only just knocked on our doors, chasing away the winter gloom. I was preparing for a party at my agent’s, Erzsi Deàk of Hen & Ink. Her quarters are in the always buzzing midst of Paris, a stone’s throw away from the Jardin des Tuileries and the famous Louvre and a stroll away from Place des Victoires. The summery temperature held me away from the Louvre and its hordes (actually, almost everything keeps me away from the Louvre hordes, not just the sun). I strolled the streets and ended up at the much more exciting Jeu de Paume, in the northwest corner of the Jardin des Tuileries. Nothing can keep me away from…
It’s a good day for waiting. Sun floods the city and brightens up every gable on my block. Trees are still bare, but the one in front of my writer’s residence, the elm that almost touches my window with its spiky branches, has formed carmine buds. It won’t be long before they pop and reveal tender green. Blue skies where ever the eye reaches. I know it just appears blue because the air scatters more short-wavelength light than longer wavelengths, but still, it’s a happy sight. A promising sight, for it seems limitless. Days like this make the writer’s waiting game a very bearable one. Don’t worry, I don’t just sit and wait. My mind never sits and waits. It keeps me busy with…
Mina Witteman 