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…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts from the “YA books” Category
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…
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…
Tagged: becoming a writer, Brande, Dorothea
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…
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
Mina Witteman 