I'M BORED journal updated: early sketches, pacing and advice for aspiring picture book writers

I've updated the I'M BORED blog with early sketches, pacing and advice for aspiring picture book writers.

Magic Town: Virtual World Based On Picture Books (and open to submissions)

Publishers Weekly recently reported the launch of Magic Town, a  virtual children's picture book world featuring over 70 stories (with many more to come) from major publishers like Hachette and Simon & Schuster. Developed by tech start-up Mindshapes, Magic Town is also open to submissions from children's book authors and illustrators; keep reading for info.  Andrea Meyer (formerly of Nosy Crow) was kind enough to answer a few questions for me:

Could you please tell me about the children's book publishers you're working with?

Magic Town has licensed picture books from 15 top publishers, including Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Penguin. We are adding new publishers all the time (See press release info for more details.). At launch we have 70 books, and add 10 to 15 more each month. In total, we have more than 200 books under license. We take the original art work and text from the book, and then create what we call a "Livebook." Livebooks are lightly animated and interactive. There are four modes for reading a Livebook. 

Are you working directly with any authors? If so, how?

We are working directly with some children's authors like Janey Louise Jones, who has created an original series called "Superfairies" for Magic Town, and with Ian Whybrow to create digital first versions of his "Shrinky Kids" books. 

Are you open to submissions from children's book writer/illustrators?

Yes, we are always looking for great content. We are thrilled to read manuscripts and review artists' portfolios:

Send one paragraph as well as your website URL to  media@mindshapes.com.

When is the iPad app coming out? How will it differ from the original version?

The iPad app will be out this summer. The experience for kids will be the same as the website. You meet Izzy and Max when you come to the site and they show you around. You can visit Louis at the big tree to get the story of the day. Or you can click directly on one of the houses to go inside and read a book.

The Magic Town iPad app is free to download. Once you've done that, there are some books that are free. You can also buy books on a one by one basis. Or you can subscribe to get full access to the app.

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For more info about Magic Town, see http://www.magictown.com as well as the Magic Town Facebook Page.

Google+ Chat with my MiG writer friend, Christina Farley

As much as I enjoy e-mail and online message boards, there's nothing like being able to hear a person's voice and seeing their face while you're chatting. So it was exciting for me to finally be able to "meet" my MiG writer friend, Christina Farley, via Google+ Chat this afternoon. SO much fun!!

Christy posts about kidlit/YA in her Chocolate For Inspiration blog -- what a great blog title. :-) Christy's one of the most productive writers I know, so i was quizzing her about how she does it, and also got some classroom presentation advice.

And she has some VERY EXCITING book news which she hopes to able to share publicly very, very soon...

Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award: The World According To Maggie (Stiefvater)

This week, I'm awarding the Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award to Maggie Stiefvater for her The World According To Maggie blog.

I'm a huge fan of Maggie's books, including her Wolves Of Mercy Falls series and most recently, The Scorpio Races. Wonderful stories and characters, but I especially love this writer's voice.

Just some of the things I love about Maggie's blog:

- She talks about her writing process.

- Lots of great visuals. Not just photos but also Maggie's own drawings.

- Her wry, frank personality shines through everything she posts.

I've tweeted about Maggie's great posts frequently from @inkyelbows; her blog is one of my go-to blogs when it comes to looking for tweetable quotes. 

She also comes up with the BEST post titles, like her recent:

Why I'm A Writer & Not a Fighter Pilot

in which she answers reader questions about knowing one's goals as well as keeping true to yourself and your dreams despite other people. Do go visit her blog now! You'll be delighted, inspired and moved.

http://maggiestiefvater.blogspot.com

Established in July/2010, the  Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award is given to blogs  or sites I find particularly inspirational to writers, especially those that may not already be well-known. Criteria is unapologetically subjective.

If you win the award, you do NOT have to display or acknowledge the award (but feel free, if so inclined). Just bask in the ephemeral, golden glory of online blog stardom and then move on, continuing to be an inspiration to the writing community. And THANK YOU for doing what you do.

Here is a list of other winners of the Inkygirl Golden Cupcake Award.

Advice for illustrators entering their first SCBWI Portfolio Showcase

 I tend to get the same sorts of questions in person and email over and over, so I've started compiling some of my answers in a FAQ, for those interested.

The latest is advice for those entering the SCBWI Illustration Portfolio Showcase. As some of you already know, doing this (with the help of my friend Beckett Gladney) resulted in my getting a book contract with Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, second-place in the overall Showcase and an SCBWI Mentorship Award.

See my newest FAQ entry for portfolio showcase tips and a quote from S&S BFYR editor/publisher Justin Chanda about what he liked about my portfolio.

I'M BORED Scrapbook updated: My First Visit To Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers In NYC

I've updated my I'M BORED Scrapbook with a post about my first meeting at Simon & Schuster in NYC last year: initial impressions, what I learned, and photos.

See my Scrapbook Archives for earlier sketches, photos, and quotes from Justin Chanda (editor/publisher), Laurent Linn (art director) and Michael Ian Black (author of I'M BORED).

A new comic in Writer Unboxed about The P-Word

 

Just posted a comic in Writer Unboxed about author platforms and sheep, plus a winning Non-Denominational Spring Festival Lagomorph cartoon caption winner, PLUS my exciting two-book contract news for those who hadn't heard. :-)

MiGwriters Blog Update: Interview with Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown Ltd

As I mentioned earlier, my MiGwriters group is posting a series of interviews with our agents all this week.

Up today: Ginger Knowlton of Curtis Brown (MY agent, woohoo!)

BookMentors.org To Launch This Fall

Scheduled to launch in Fall 2012, BookMentors.org is a non-profit that intends to use "micro patronage" to supply teachers, students, and librarian in high-needs schools with books.

BookMentors.org is a place where you can give and receive books, as well as ideas. Teachers and librarians request, receive, and recommend books. Donors recommend and buy books for teachers. Students benefit from all the shared books and thoughts. Everyone gets to write tributes to their favorite children's and YA books.

Not only does this sound like a good cause but it also seems like another opportunity for children's and YA authors and publishers to promote books.

I've signed up for their mailing list to be kept informed about the upcoming launch.

URL:  http://bookmentors.org/

Twitter: @bookmentors

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BookMentors

Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/113752556044546203488/posts

Writer/illustrator conferences, good news and a new Pixel Shavings post

If I could give one piece of advice to my young writer/illustrator self, I would have said this: START ATTENDING CONFERENCES. And join organizations like the SCBWI and CANSCAIP.

I have learned so much, been incredibly inspired and met many creative kindred spirits because of these events. Not to mention three children's book contracts! (I'M BORED plus two more recently, yay!!). Speaking of good things happening at conferences...

Here's my post about Pixel Shavings friends Russ Cox and Hazel Mitchell, with their good news from the New England SCBWI Conference.

Just signed up for the Story A Day May Challenge!

I know, I know -- writing an entire story every day sounds crazy. But according to the rules of the challenge, it doesn't have to be a super-long story. I'm going to use this challenge as motivation to come up with SOME story plot every day: each with a beginning, middle and end. Some of these might be turned into picture books, middle grade novels or YA novels.

May is the first month in a while where I won't be doing any traveling, so I actually have a chance of completing this challenge. You can do the challenge on your own, of course, but there's also the opportunity of commiserating with others via the StoryADay.org online community. I've joined the Kid Lit group, for example.

Story A Day is the brainchild of freelance writer Julie Duffy. "Sick of starting and never finishing writing projects, in April 2010 I announced that I was challenging myself to write a story a day in May." She opened the challenge to others and was surprised at the response. "The enthusiasm for the project amazed me. It spoke of a hunger to write, no, a hunger for permission to write that I never dreamed was so widespread."

After May, I'll take the best plots and put them in my Rainy Day Story Folder to inspire me when I'm looking for new book ideas.

For more info about the challenge, visit StoryADay.org and follow the #storyaday hashtag on Twitter.

So who's with me?

Coming up on MiGwriters: Interviews With Our Agents From Transatlantic, Curtis Brown, JenniferDeChiara and Jennifer Lyons

One of my MiGwriter critique partners, Christina Farley, came up with a great idea: to interview our literary agents for our blog. So starting next Monday, we'll be posting info and interviews with our agents from Transatlantic, Curtis Brown, JenniferDeChiara and Jennifer Lyons literary agencies.

See the MiGwriters blog and please do "Like" the MiGwriters Facebook Page for updates.

National Library Week: April 8-14, 2012

It's National Library Week! You can find out more info about National Library Week at AtYourLibrary.org.

Librarians should visit the National Library Week event page on the ALA (American Library Association) site.

Writing community highlight: Writer's Bloq

Just found out about Writer's Bloq, which describes itself as follows:

We are a community for MFA and Undergraduate writing students, professors, and alumni to share work, connect with peers, discover new writing, and uncover literary events. At the moment, there are students, alumni, and professors registered from programs including Austin, Brooklyn, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, New School, NYU, Stanford, and Syracuse.

URL: http://writersbloq.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/writersbloqinc

(events are all near Columbia University)

MiG Writers Blog: meeting one of my critique partners face-to-face for the first time!

I just posted on the MiG Writers blog about finally getting to meet one of my MiG Writer friends face-to-face for the first time.

TU Books seeking middle grade and YA speculative fiction novels

Thanks to Kathy Temean for sharing this Call For Submissions from TU Books and Stacy Whitman. Basically, they're looking for middle grade and young adult novels from SCBWI members. See Kathy's blog post for details.

Everything you ever wanted to know about middle grade: by Molly O'Neill & Michael Bourret

HarperCollins children's book editor Molly O'Neill and Dystel & Goderich literary agent Michael Bourret are talking online about middle grade books, and the conversation is fascinating as well as informative...

Part 1: Everything you ever wanted to know about middle grade…and were willing to ask

Part 2: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Middle Grade, Part 2: Technology and Gender and Marketing, Oh My!

Blog Highlight: Schiel & Denver's Ramblings From A Busy Publishing Office

Just discovered this blog while doing a Google search for publishing news: a great mix of publishing industry news and info of interest to writers. Schiel and Denver is an on-demand publisher with offices in the U.S. and UK.

Blog URL: http://www.bookpublisherblog.com/

On Twitter: @schieldenver

Video series with Literary Agent Kristin every Friday

Just discovered that Agent Kristin, who writes the excellent Pubrants blog, has a video series. The most recent explains why asking about the number of pages in YA or MG novel is the wrong question.

Reading Lord Of The Rings…The Final Attempt

Back in 2001, my friend Allison Durno convinced me to try reading the Lord Of The Rings trilogy again. I had tried back in high school, but found it way too dull. With the (then) upcoming LOTR movies, though, I figured I may as well give it another shot.

Not surprisingly, I decided to blog about it (because that's what I do, after all). TheOneRing.net told their readers about it, and suddenly I had a huge number of Tolkien fans looking over my shoulder.

I was still a bit doubtful in the beginning, but then a bunch of them told me to SKIP THE PROLOGUE, which was the bit I couldn't get through on my first attempt back in high school. So I did…and found it much easier to get into the story.

And I ended up loving the books. :-)

Anyway, you can see all my original posts AND the comments, courtesy WaybackMachine:

http://web.archive.org/web/20020209101145/http://www.electricpenguin.com/blatherings/lotr/

I had SO much fun doing this. At one point, though, Allison had to step in and do some moderating because some commenters were getting so enthusiastic that they were letting some spoilers slip. I remember getting a phone call one morning from Allison, who warned me NOT to read the comments that day because of a major spoiler. I gave her admin privileges so she was able to delete the comment, and she kept an eye on spoiler comments for the rest of the time.

Anyway, I thought I had lost this blog when our server got hacked years ago, but then Magpie on TheOneRing.net found the posts again, yaaay!

It was the response to this blog that prompted me to do my Waiting For Frodo webcomic, by the way.

And now I'm doing Waiting For Bilbo webcomic with the help of Shane McEwan (formerly of Weta Digital -- you can see his name in the credits for the Lord Of The Rings movies). It's about avid fans waiting in line for The Hobbit movies.

If you're on Facebook, please do "Like" our Waiting For Bilbo page! Thanks kindly. :-)