Comedy of Errors # 3 - parts 1 & 2

It's been a while since I've written about something stupid I've done - here's my latest.

Part 1: I was making my way down the aisle of the airplane, on my way home from the LA conference.  I was behind this really tall guy and, when we got to my row, he stopped and I said to him, "Oh good, I hoped you were sitting near me."  It was all over his face - "this lady is trying to pick me up!"  I quickly told him I just wanted him to put my bag in the overhead bin - that's it!  It was awkward, but at least I didn't have to talk to him anymore.

Part 2:  Wrong!  As luck would have it, his seat was next to mine and, after a few uneasy minutes, we began talking.   As a matter of fact, my friend Meg and I talked to him during the whole flight.  It turned out he was a semi-pro hockey player who was born in Spain, grew up in Canada, played hockey in France and currently lives in LA.  He was very knowledgeable, sweet and funny - plus he was really cute!  During our conversation, he mentioned how Meg's green eyes reminded him of his mother's and how rare green eyes are.  Then I butted in with, "My eyes were green until my late twenties, when they miraculously turned blue."  As soon as the words left my mouth, I wished I could have taken them back!  I sounded just like Kristen Wiig's character, Penelope, on Saturday Night Live!  Then I tried to add more details so it didn't sound like I was lying just to get attention.  The guy, Sergio, said, "Yea, I can see how they could have been green - they're pretty."  He was clearly afraid I'd have some sort of psychotic episode!  I stopped trying to convince them - I was only making things worse.  I was SO embarrassed, mostly because Meg and Sergio were trying so hard to make it seem as if it was a normal thing to say!

In case you don't know who Penelope is, or if you just want to see a hilarious skit, here's an example:



And, just to prove I am not a Penelope - here's a picture of me in 7th grade and you can clearly see my eyes are green!  You know I must be desperate to prove I'm not a psychotic one-upper, if I'm willing to share this picture :-)

Anyone else want to confess a Penelope moment?  Please!!

2011 SCBWI LA Conference

Last week, Aug. 5 - 8, I attended the 40th annual SCBWI Summer Conference in LA.  The event was hosted by SCBWI founders Linn Oliver and Steve Mooser and they did an outstanding job!  The lineup of speakers was unbelievable and more than 1,350 people attended!  Here's a list of the keynote speakers (in the order of their appearances): Bruce Coville, Jerry Pinkney, Libba Bray, Emma Dryden, Donna Jo Napoli, David Small, Judy Bloom (surprise special guest), John Scieszka, Norton Juster, Mary Pope Osborne, Gary Paulsen and Laurie Halse Anderson.  Can you believe it?

The annual Saturday night pool party was a slumber party in honor of the 40th anniversary (40 winks).  Here are some pics from the party.

Here I am with my fabulous and hysterical roommates
Meg Flemming, Jenni Bielicki, and Heather Zenzen!

Just a handful of my fellow Illinois authors
(I don't know how Heather got in there)!

I finally met Shellie Braeuner, the first winner of the Cheerios New Author contest, in person.  She's so sweet!  We kept trying to get a picture with our books and a box of Cheerios but we could never coordinate it.  Here's a picture of us at the Friday night PAL book sale.

I had the opportunity to hang out with my agent, Jamie Weiss Chilton, on Saturday night at the gathering she hosted in the hotel bar and again on Monday at the end of the conference.  It's always nice to talk with her in person (I forgot to take a picture with her)!   Jamie and I discussed the great feedback I received from Andrea Welch, editor at Beach Lane Books and Steven Malk, agent at Writer's House - I'm so excited to be working on revisions!

There was a great write-up about the conference on Publishers Weekly - much better than I could have done - so I've linked it for you to read there.

37th Annual Illinois Young Authors Conference

Last weekend, May 20th & 21st, I had the honor of being a guest author at the 37th Annual Illinois Young Authors Conference, sponsored by the Illinois Language and Literacy Council and the Illinois Reading Council!  The conference is a celebration to honor exceptional writing by students in grades K - 8 and to give these young authors the opportunity to meet with published authors and hear about the writing/publishing process.  Jan Dundon, Children's Coordinator at Anderson's Bookshop, was kind enough to ask me to participate!  The conference was held in Normal, IL, on the Illinois State University campus where my son attends.

I drove down there on Friday afternoon with three writer-friends, Suzanne Slade, Barb Rosenstock and Hilary Wagner.

Hilary, Suzanne, Me, Barb

That night, we attended a reception in the Bone Center Bookstore and had a question and answer session with students, parents and volunteers.  I was particularly impressed with the questions posed by the young authors!  I was happy to be seated next to Ruth Spiro so I could get to know her better.  She gave some really thoughtful answers to many of the questions!

The next morning, we met again at the Bone Center where the students and their parents attended an opening ceremony and the authors met with their volunteer escorts.  Then, each author was escorted to a classroom where they held their small group sessions.  I spoke to three groups of students for 30 minutes each.  The first group had 21 kindergartners, the second and third groups had 21 first graders each.

I read my book, 1 Zany Zoo, to each group; explained about Book Tour Alex (the kids kept referring to her as "your Barbie" :-) ; and the students showed me their books, which were so creative!  My favorite titles were "The Banana Who Wanted to be a Hot Dog",  "The Princess with the Broken Heals" and "The Middle Stinks - the Life of a Middle Child".  I asked him if it was a funny book and he gave an adamant "NO!"  The kids were adorable - I had so much fun!

After the small group sessions, we returned to the Bone Center for a delicious lunch.  We then went to different auditoriums for the Recognition of Young Authors & Closing Ceremony.  Here, I stood on stage and each group of students with whom I spoke, were called up to the stage.  Their group leaders read their names, the names of their books and then I gave them each child a copy of my book.  It was awesome!
       
After the Closing Ceremony, we returned to the Bone Center (again) and signed books for those who chose to buy them.  Then, Suzanne, Barb, Hilary and I said goodbye and thanks to Jan and made the drive home.

What an event!!  I don't think they ask the same authors two years in a row but I hope to be asked back in the future!

PS - The biggest lesson I learned that weekend - don't wear brand new shoes without socks to an event on a large college campus - ouch!!  Can you say blisters?   Also, don't wear a long, baggy shirt that makes you look grossly overweight or 9 months pregnant!

Setting The Scene With Arthur Levine

Last Saturday,  April 16th, I was co-coordinator of the first annual, SCBWI - Illinois Spring Thaw.  My partner in crime, Meg Flemming Lentz, and I are planning to make this an annual event.  The SCBWI Regional coordinators had already lined up Arthur Levine and they guided us through the process of hosting a conference.

Meg Fleming Lentz, Arthur Levine, me, Lisa Bierman

For those of you who don't know, Arthur Levine is the vice-president of Scholastic inc. and publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic Books.   Arthur A. Levine Books published a series of books you may have heard of - Harry Potter!   Arthur is also an author of books for children.  His latest book, Monday Is One Day, was released this month.

  
Back to the event . . . We decided to title the event, Setting the Scene with Arthur Levine so people would pronounce his name correctly (rhyme Levine with scene).  People sometimes rhyme it with 'mine' or 'pin', so we thought we'd help them out a bit.  I'm sure it gets annoying having people mispronounce your name all the time. Growing up, people often pronounced my last name, Grusin, as 'gruesome'.  I think they did it accidentally :-)


The day went beautifully!  We had 129 attendees, with a good mix of published and non-published authors and illustrators and all genres in children's literature were represented.  Arthur spoke to the group about the current state of publishing and, by the end of his talk, he was pretty optimistic!  


Next, he spoke about the process of submitting, publishing and marketing picture books, using his latest book as an example.  He said his book had three different editors and it took seven years to hit the shelves!   


He followed up this talk with a fantastic Q & A session!  Luckily, they were running late with the lunches, so we were able to pick Arthur's brain for an extra ten minutes.


After lunch, we had a First Pages session.  Children's author, and voice over pro, Laura Ripes, read first pages submitted by attendees and Arthur gave instantaneous feedback - not an easy task.  There was a good mix of picture book, middle grade and young adult stories.  

Arthur found a common thread in each story - "info dump" as he coined it.  Info dump is when there's too much set-up at the beginning of the story.  Arthur said you need to trust that your reader will get that information through the characters words and actions.  One example was a story about a bird who is afraid of heights.  The author stated that in the first few sentences.  Arthur pointed out that she didn't need to put in that fact because the reader would learn it by observing Bird trying to get out of going to high places. 


After the First Pages, we gave out some door prizes, mixed and mingled a bit and Arthur signed books (The Magic Tree Bookstore sold them there).  Then it was over and there was nothing left to do but clean up.  We had a little bit of "after the wedding blues" but we were also relieved it was over and had gone so smoothly!

Arthur and me with Book Tour Alex

Procrastination Cinquain

One thing I've learned about myself, time and time again, is that I have a hard time posting every day.  That's why I should never start something like a poem-a-day to celebrate Poetry Month.  One of these days I'll remember not to promise to blog daily!  


So, it's been a couple of days and I have a new kind of poem to write - a cinquain.  I've never written one before but it looks like fun.  Here are the rules for cinquain writing:


A cinquain is a five line poem.
Line 1: One word (subject or noun)
Line 2: Two words (adjectives that describe line 1)
Line 3: Three words (action verbs that relate to line 1)
Line 4: Four words (feelings or a complete sentence that relates to line 1)
Line 5: One word (synonym of line 1 or a word that sums it up)

Here's my first attempt at a cinquain.

Procrastination

Troublesome, habitual

Waiting, delaying, rushing

Putting off, chasing deadlines

Stalling