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…
Mina Witteman – author | editor | teacher of creative writing
Posts tagged “SCBWI”
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
Last August was my first time at the annual SCBWI Summer Conference. SCBWI stands for the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators. It’s a mouthful and the acronym is not much of a help, but notwithstanding the name, the society itself is a gem. I had never seen so many people together (over 1,100) working towards that same goal: writing and/or illustrating the best possible book. Overwhelming as it was, I let myself go with the flow and learned more in those four days than in the past couple of years sweating at my desk, working on new manuscripts. Needless to say, I left the conference with dozens of ideas for new books, and with dozens of new friends, writers and illustrators from…
Tagged: 40th Anniversary, Amsterdam, hen & ink, John Green, Jon Sciezska, SCBWI, Summer Conference
For some people it is comforting to be surrounded by what they know, to do the things they’ve always done and live a life without surprises. Leave everything as it is and don’t ask questions. For them change is a scary process, a frightening journey into the dark unknown. If changes occur they – often subconsciously – try to block it. They cling to the familiar and won’t let go. It’s easy to laugh at them, but I realize that – deep down in my heart – I’m one of them. Even though I like a road less traveled, I have difficulties going off the beaten track. In hiking and biking I usually keep to the trails and in daily life I shop at…
My first SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles was an overwhelming experience. Never have I seen so many kindred spirits together – 1,136 writers and illustrators, agents, editors and publishers. Never have I been in such good and fun company. E.B. Lewis‘ words and work left me in awe. Wow, that man knows how to paint a picture! Krista Marino’s master class Finding and Revising Your Protagonist’s Voice in a Young Adult Novel was an eye-opening inspiration. Jon Scieszka: boy, that man is so funny, telling us about the do’s and don’ts of a writer. Here’s a helpful don’t: Once you start writing, stop reading all the blogs and industry magazines and get down to working. Write, write write. But if you’re Jon’s dentist – thinking of writing a…
It was a swift and beautiful ride from the Dead to the Doors, or from San Francisco’s hippie streets to the deafening din of West Hollywood. I won’t bother you with too many pictures, you just have to experience Haight-Ashbury and Amoeba Music, Monterey Pop, the Beach Boys’ burgers and Truetone Music yourself. Go there! It’s worth it. Once in Los Angeles I got immediately tangled up in buzz of the SCBWI Conference, the annual summer conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. While I was trying to master the do’s and don’ts in writing, editing and publishing, the nearby mall had some good advice as well. Safety first, is what they must have thought and sometimes that can be quite…
Tagged: Los Angeles, Mina Witteman, San Francisco, SCBWI, The Dead, The Doors, Westfield
Mina Witteman 