Congratulations Elizabeth C. Bunce and Katie Speck

A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce and Maybelle Goes to Tea by Katie Speck continue to garner accolades! Both made the Cybils shortlist. Winners will be announced in early February. The Cybils is an online literary contest that lets the public nominate books on the Cybils blog. A group of respected children’s literature bloggers  pick the finalists and winners. Find out more at the Cybils site.

Way to go, ladies! We can’t wait to see what the future brings for you both!

Redesign and updates

Welcome to the redesign of the Heartland Writers for Kids & Teens website! With it comes some new features:

– A new domain name: heartlandwriters.com. The current/old names still work as well.
– Quotes have been added to the bottom of the site.
– Members’ Facebook and Twitter accounts have been added to their profiles (if available).
– HWKT is now running on Wordpress 2.7.

Many, many thanks to Shontail Lewis for loaning me her children for the base site image. And also to Sadie Clement, whose kids will also show up in future designs. You are both amazing.

Elizabeth C. Bunce: Finalist for William C. Morris Award!

Elizabeth C. Bunce honored for her debut novel, A CURSE DARK AS GOLD.

The William C. Morris Award honors a book written for young adults by a first-time, previously unpublished author. The winner will be named Jan. 26, 2009 during the Youth Media Awards at the ALA Midwinter Meeting.

A Curse Dark As Gold

Elizabeth C. Bunce
published by Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic
(9780439895767)

This supernatural novel retells the story of Rumpelstiltskin, setting it at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and centering it around the life of Charlotte Miller. When the bank wants to repossess her mortgaged mill, Charlotte strikes a bargain with the mysterious Jack Spinner, (a creature who knows the art of turning straw into gold), but then discovers she must free her loved ones from a generations-old curse.

Visit Elizabeth at http://elizabethcbunce.com

Congratulations to Katie Speck and MAYBELLE!

On December 1, 2008  Maybelle Goes to Tea made its appearance on the New York Public Library 2008 list of 100 Best Children’s Books to Read and Share. Congratulations, Katie! Wishing you and Maybelle many more years of wonderful storytelling!

Visit Katie at http://KatieSpeck.com

Diane Frook Scores a Triple!

Rosen  books has snagged Diane Frook to author three more books:  THE WILLIAMS SISTERS  (Venus and Serena, for a series of sports families);  MILEY CYRUS  (contemporary musicians);  TENNESSEE  (series of “Past and Present” state books). Congratulations Diane! Diane is the author of CYBER ETHICS, EXTREME CAREERS: BRAIN SURGEON, and MARY J. BLIGE. She operates a freelance editing service specializing in children’s books at www.diane-bailey.com.

Barb Stuber Snags an Agent!

Congratulations, Barb Stuber! Barb is now represented by Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown, Ltd. for her young adult novel, CROSSING THE TRACKS…

Laura Manivong interview featured at Children’s Book Insider

Jon Bard, managing editor with Children’s Book Insider, featured a KidLit Central interview with Laura Manivong on his vlog. He chose it specifically because of Laura’s excellent elevator pitch. Check it out here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIWTgwF2b7E

Congratulations Laura and KidLit Central!

SCBWI Event: New Year, New Tactics

New Year, New Tactics
Sat, Jan 24th, 9:30a-11:45a & 1:00p-3:30p
Mardel Book Store, 119th & Blue Valley Parkway

The Scenario – intro to PB, MG, YA, ss – Audience awareness – same scenario, different genres – 1 hour
Show Me! – showing versus telling – 1 hour
Eavesdrop – dialogue assignment, write down exactly what you overhear – 5 minutes
Report In – participants share what they observed and wrote down – can we tell who was talking by the dialogue – what dialogue was clearest, etc. – rewriting an overheard scene – 1 hour 15 minutes
Marketing 101 – ms format, query letters, synopsis, etc. – 1 hour

For more information, visit www.kansas-scbwi.org

How to Get Your Book on the Library Shelf

A Panel Discussion & Manuscript Critique Session

January 17, 2009

Panel Discussion: 10:00 a.m. – noon
Critique Session: Noon – 2:00 p.m.

North Kansas City Public Library
2251 Howell St, Kansas City, MO 64116

Are you a writer? Have you ever wondered:

– How librarians decide what books to buy?
– What you can to do promote your current book to libraries and their patrons?
– How you might tailor future books to better appeal to the library market?

Find out all this and more from our five panelists:

Sonia “Sunny” Church is a Youth Services Supervisor with the KCK Public Library. She has 30 years of professional library experience, primarily as a Children’s Librarian, Children’s Coordinator, or Children’s Services Manager, and has worked in California, Ohio, and other states.

Marsha Lytle, a librarian at Spring Hill Intermediate School, has also worked in high school, medical, law, college, and public libraries. She is currently serving her third year on the Kansas Reading Circle, and is a past president of Kansas City Young Adult Librarians.

Kaite Mediatore Stover is the Head of Readers’ Services for the Kansas City Public Library. She is a columnist and book reviewer for Booklist and also reviews for Present magazine and INK.

Debbie McLeod is Youth Collections Specialist for the Johnson County Library System and selects all print and non-print materials for patrons aged birth to 15. She has been on the Newbery and Caldecott committees and is a member of the Advisory Board for Booklist.

Susan K. Schank, currently working at a public elementary school in KCMO, has 15 years of experience as a school librarian and is also the author of a new picture book, Tera’s Dawn.

If you’ll be staying for the manuscript critique session, please bring five copies of your work and a brown bag lunch. (Light refreshments will be provided.)

Please register for this free event via email (annvingalls@yahoo.com) or call (816) 407-9094.

PB Mistakes Plague the Slush Pile

Tracy Marchini (http://www.tracymarchini.com/) has worked as a literary agent’s assistant at Curtis Brown, Ltd.  (http://curtisbrown.com) for over two years, and has spent a significant amount of time answering Laura Manivong’s newbie questions (thanks, Tracy!).  Before joining Curtis Brown, she worked as a freelance children’s book reviewer for BookPage and as a correspondent for the Taconic Press.  She’s also well-known for being the only second grader in her class to write a book report on a book she penned herself. So Tracy understands both the authoring side of books, as well as the literary agency side. Without further ado, here’s Tracy Marchini…  

ON BOTH SIDES OF THE BOX: THE FIRST PICTURE BOOK

I’ll be honest — when my desk is covered with paper, and I feel the need to throw out massive amounts of something in one fell swoop — the answer is unpleasant, but obvious.

It’s time to go through the slush pile.

(Read more…)