Hope & Persistence

Some interesting debate around the Carnegie Medal again this year. The Bunker Diary has been described as bleak and without hope, Room meets Lord of the Flies. It seems to be the lack of a happy ending that persuades some adults of its inappropriateness for children. Author,  Kevin Brooks says that children don't need to be 'cosseted with the artificial hope that there will always be a happy ending' because in real life often there isn't. Discuss.


I've yet to read The Bunker Diary and I should because my WIP is a Room meets…  but I have read Shine by our own SCBWI British Isles', Candy Gourlay which has not only won SCBWI's Crystal Kite Award for the The UK & Ireland, it's also been long listed for this year's Guardian's Children's Fiction Prize on quite a short longlist of eight!

Huge Guardian congratulations go to two other SCBWI members as well,  Piers Torday, also part of our British Isles' Chapter, for The Dark Wild and  the US' Kate Di Camillo for Flora and Ulysses who 'collected hundreds of rejection letters' before she was published.

Prompted by Kevin Brooks, I've been considering 'hope' and how 'a vain hope' did not become a cliché for no reason. Hope can often be as vain as real life endings are unhappy. Often, but not always and that's where the hope lies - in the tantalising possibility that all could be well, that someday someone could offer representation, buy your book, slap a medal wherever it is medals are slapped.  It's people like Kate Di Camillo who stabilise wavering hopes and widen the slimmest windows of possibility with attitudes like this…




…when so much is out of our control, I love that persistence is something we can control.  And this is why we have stories like yesterday's, of octogenarian José Patterson's success with The People's Prize and Janet Foxley whose experience as an older debut you can read about on Wednesday. Janet, in fact heralds a hopeful month - July is Debut month.

Last week we had a diversity (hurray) of Unicorns from Ken Lymer - they're often white but not always, the wonderful image of Nick Cross manning the school fête bookstall - just can't get Shirley Hughes' Dogger out of my head and some possibly plot enhancing Americanisms to watch out for 
from Catriona Tippin. To conclude our month of Dahl,  we also had an illustrator's discovery of the ecstatic art that is Quentin Blake's from Heather Chapman.

Next week, with Janet Foxley, we have our latest Podcast and that's TOMORROW with Sarah Odedina of Hot Key Books . What's the one thing Sarah wishes every author would do? Hmm… 'tune in' to find out. And Heather Chapman will be with us again, reporting on the recent Illustration Fair.

Hoping your hopes are ever widening and never wavering;  published, unpublished writers and illustrators I wish you another week of persistence...


...and pay offs. Congratulations again Candy, Piers and Kate,

Jan Carr

P.S. We had a lovely time with Sarah Lean in Southampton on Saturday - write up to follow!

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta. You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.

"the fuel for our future"

In Words & Pictures' first week as a blogzine, one of our posts was Nicky Schmidt's interview with Ferelith Hordon on the judging criteria for the Carnegie Medal and the Kate Greenaway Award. In this our thirteenth week as a blogzine we saw the 2013 Carnegie Medal won by Sally Gardner for Maggot Moon and the 2013 Kate Greenaway Award won by Levi Pinfold for Black Dog. Many congratulations to Sally and Hot Key Books, our Ask a Publisher, and to Levi and Templar Publishing. Many congratulations too to all the shortlisted, especially our own Elizabeth Wein for Codename Verity - Carnegie Shortlisted Author still sounds pretty damn fine to me.

The CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Award Winners 2013

As well as congratulating these worthy winners we must also bid what I hope may be a temporary farewell to Nicky Schmidt our Correspondent at Large and the winning features she has produced for us. On Wednesday she concluded her excellent marketing feature with part 2 on Branding. She, I'm sure, will still be very much in evidence on our SCBWI forums, FB and Yahoo, but for the time being, thank you so much, Nicky for sharing your expertise and insight with us here on Words & Pictures.

If this week has had a theme for me it's been children's imagination. I was particularly struck by this...

“The greatest thing a country has is its children and what children have is imagination and that really is the fuel for our future.” Sally Gardner, BBC Breakfast News, 21st June 2013

I was also inspired by the ShoutSouth Festival where a group of volunteer authors and Illustrators  delivered a three day explosion of imagination-busting story creation with South London children and Julia Groves, our new featured illustrator, encouraging us to...

"run any idea past a child if you possibly can, you’ll be amazed at their brainstorming abilities!" Julia Groves

I believe that every life saving and life enhancing discovery as much as every story has started with a 'what if'. Wouldn't it be great if the ShoutSouth model could be recreated outside London? ShoutSouth should certainly be shouted about. Bridget's breathlessly enthusiastic post about the festival was featured by Nick in the blog break.

This all made me wonder what's so special about a child's as opposed to an adult's imagination and why should it be nurtured?

So I came up with the beginnings of a list:

• A child is not blinkered by what experience has taught them. Nothing and everything is 'silly' to a child but still worth trying.

• A child is not cynical.

• A child has a fresh look from a new angle - if you can, get down on your knees and look at the world from their height.

• A child is unhampered by convention or politeness and so less afraid of what people might think.

• A child sees with sparkling clarity what's there not what should be there, think The Emperor's New Clothes. 

As writers and illustrators for children we are part of that nurturing and as much as delivering better books to children, we should also be listening to them more. It's what I hope for the Chalkface Challenge - all of the entries now having been delivered and according to their teacher, to some very happy young people.

Interestingly, the favourites from the young people shadowing the Carnegie/Greenaway judging process were The Weight of Water by Sarah Crossan and Pirates and Pistols by Chris Mould. You can read the young peoples' reviews for all the shortlisted books here.


Also in week thirteen, with Bridget, Nick featured some of the graphic novel comic buzz around illustration for older readers, unleashing creativity and some silliness in the blog break on Tuesday. I was delighted how the network news this week came in the comments to Gill's brilliant classification of critique groups on Thursday. Ask a Publisher was as lively as ever, I so appreciate Sara taking time to reply to comments on Monday. If you haven't already, check out Hot Key's own blog for some more of that transparent and adventurous Hot Key spirit. And if you're unpublished and unagented, and need any more convincing about Undiscovered Voices 2014 read Lara Williamson's success story on Saturday's celebrations with Jackie Buckle also celebrating a debut deal.

Next week we have Workshops: How to make them work, another video from our Social Sheila, and Duck & Bear part 4!

I'm off in the van for a couple of days to make headway on the WIP.
Hope yours is a productive week too,

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is older middle grade, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta.

Who's it all for anyway?

If you're reading this on Sunday morning and you're a SCBWI British Isles member you'll still have time to send us the opening 750 words of your middle-grade novel for our first Chalkface Challenge. Do you have one tucked in a forgotten file in some dark and cobwebby corner of your hard disk?

On Wednesday there'll be much excitement when The Kate Greenaway Award and the Carnegie Medal winners are announced. Bridget's overview of The Kate Greenaway reminded me how children and young people are involved in the judging process. For the Chalkface Challenge, which is of course no comparison to these prestigious awards, we've handed it all over to the kids with one judging criterium - which story do you want to hear more of?

There are so many people we create stories for and for so many reasons - agents for representation, publishing professionals for publication, other writers and illustrators for approval, ourselves for our own fulfilment... so many people and so many reasons that sometimes it's easy to forget who we are really writing and illustrating for.

We are the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators after all.

Wanton use of disguised children to illustrate a point.

A year or so back, I drew up a list  of what I thought we give children when we give them a book. The list would be the same if it were what we have the potential to give them when we write or illustrate a book.

Hopefully, as well as the wonderful gift of entertainment, we also give:

• The reassurance that other children feel the same way – they’ll have access to children’s secret thoughts, the ones that aren’t shared in the playground  the thoughts that make children feel they’re the only one. A book can show them they’re not.
• A way to live their lives – not by being told but shown how other people live and the freedom to come to their own conclusions about how to live their way. 
• A hiding place – who hasn’t slouched over their desk behind a text book wall?
• The opportunity to be read to – a bedtime or anytime story is one of those priceless relationship-building times.
• An escape hatch – when everything gets too much.
• A wardrobe door – a gateway to possibilities of the imagination for the real and the made-up worlds.
• Inspiration – kick starts to their own imagination
• The chance to meet extraordinary people up close and personal – often, unexpectedly extraordinary people, who might appear ordinary on the outside but because they’re in a book, the reader will know what’s really going on.

and...

• Hope – bad things will always happen in real life and in a good story you have to have trouble. Books can help children find a way through their own.

The original list is here.

I really like the idea of keeping children at the centre of what we do.

Last Monday would have been Maurice Sendak's 85th birthday, this year is the 50th anniversary of the publication of Where the Wild Things Are. I  hope you caught the marvellous Google Doodle on Monday.

I spotted this on my timeline yesterday...

With the Greenaway overview, we had other goodies this week too  –  an interview with the prolific and award winning Sophie Mckenzie,  Candy Gourlay and Teri Terry's 'perks and pitfalls' of appearing at festivals, brilliant blogs for coffee breaks, Network News, a report of Apps Night at the London Professional Series and we celebrated Paula Rawsthorne's new book.

Next week with breaking for blogs, news and celebrations, we have Ask a Publisher with Sara O'Connor and Hot Key, Nicky Schmidt with Marketing Part 2: 'Brands' and on Friday a new Featured Illustrator.

Excitement all round!

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is older middle grade, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta.

The Kate Greenaway Award 2013

First established in 1955 and named in honour of the 19th Century illustrator, the annual Kate Greenaway Medal is the UK's most prestigious prize for children's book illustration. Presented by CILIP (the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), which also administers the Carnegie Medal, a list of past winners of the Greenaway is a pantheon of some of the most iconic names in British children's illustration. 
Bridget Strevens-Marzo considers this years shortlist.


The Kate Greenaway Award 2013 will be announced on June 19, 2013.

Jim Kay, winner of the 2012 CILIP Kate Greenaway Award, for his illustrations to A Monster Calls writes in his blog

"For me, illustration is all about making mistakes work for you. An illustration will never be ‘right’, but you do the best you can in the time you are given – a work of art is often a a continuous string of little accidents and problems that you fix as best you can. I beat myself up a lot about things going wrong while I’m working, it’s not necessarily an enjoyable process, but one that is still exciting because it is so unpredictable... Anyway, the important thing is to have a go, and not worry too much when things go wrong.” 

I think this is a great quote to set against the struggle we all have to ‘succeed’ at least in our own terms, if not in terms of a career, other people or a market. And talking of success, there’s the common quibble that the same names come up again and again in awards, and many haven’t had the recognition they deserved. I think it’s important to distinguish illustration contests (particularly where illustrators are asked to do unpaid on spec work), with awards for book illustration like the Kate Greenaway which selects one “book of outstanding artistic quality” rather than an illustrator or a style.

“The whole work should provide pleasure from a stimulating and satisfying visual experience.” 

See all the criteria here.

The judging process of both Carnegie and Kate Greenaway is a long serious business, explained in more detail in Nicki Schmidt’s informative W&P interview with Ferelith Hordon, Chair of the Carnegie Kate Greenaway (CKG) Judging Panel in 2011.  

What I hadn’t realize that the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards have some other important functions. They are getting kids all over the UK looking into the whole process of children’s books. This is thanks to its accompanying shadowing scheme, described by 2012's CILIP Carnegie Medal winner, Patrick Ness as:

"one of the very best things in the entire book world." 

Stanchester Community School Shadowing Group Fiesta en la Biblioteca Reading Club

Each year thousands of children and young people “shadow” the judging process, forming groups to read the shortlisted books, write reviews and debate which they think should win. In 2012 over 90,000 children took part. You can read reviews by kids of all ages across the UK here. A couple of kids' responses to illustrations caught my eye: 

“I thought the illustrations in this book were well worked on and all of the little details using paintbrushes were carefully drawn. Some frames were added by paint. The author made his pictures, the introduction and the conclusion stand out.” 

“the (younger) children thought that the book had been scribbled in, as the illustrations did not represent the animals...I didn't think that the drawing of the wolf was good as it represented a porcupine more than a wolf!" 

And there are illustrations too by children inspired by the books in the Greenaway Gallery. Giving troubled kids and reluctant readers the power to voice an opinion, away from the classroom and playground, is helping to get them into libraries, as these videos testify. 

Now to the Kate Greenaway 2013 shortlist itself:  If you’ve not had a chance to delve as deeply into the books as kids across the UK, you can cheat! Each shortlisted illustrator explains what their book is about here along with fascinating glimpses into their processes. Only Jon Klassen is missing, perhaps because he’s US based, but there's plenty about him on the internet. The “little string of accidents” is a common theme among them, as is the importance of drawing. 

Chris Haughton for example advises to keep drawing what you’re really interested in, and in his case it was “accidents”. That and the question ‘what if...’ is what led to Oh No George. 

In Emily Gravett’s case, she blew paint down a straw to create dragon flames, and burnt holes in paper as painting flames and holes didn’t work. 

Chris Mould prefers ball point pen to pencil, uses Tipp Ex pens and any cheap material at hand, even spray-paint for cars for get an even tone for example. 

Helen Oxenbury reverted to a style she’d used in the 1970s, watercolour and cross-hatching, says she uses different mediums – different styles – from one book to the next, as “it stops you getting bored”.  

Levi Pinfold starts off by making 10-30 thumbnails in a morning, say, which he’ll turn into a mini dummy. Only after he’s had proper feedback from his publisher , will he work on his final carefully-layered tempera paintings, and reminds himself when flagging that yes, all that work does matter because the final picture book might actually change somebody’s life in some way.  

Salvatore Rubbiano drew ducks from life in his sketchbook throughout the making of his book. Drawing he says helps to slow time – it’s visual food that feeds the imagination. Draw and ideas will happen. For the more complex compositions, he painted his watercolours over a lightbox with the layout in pencil underneath. Like Haughton and Gravett, he tweaked his final paintings on computer when necessary. 

All are worth looking at especially if you need reminding that you are not alone in your corner, struggling to convert your imagination into the materials and marks on paper. 


I’ll end with a comment from one of the judges in the CKG blog - yes, you can “peek inside the minds and musings of the Judges” themselves! 

“Apples and oranges there may be, but in the end we can still only pick one most outstanding apple or orange!” 

Let’s wish them luck! And if you want to make your own choice or have any author-illustorly comments about the shortlist, please fire away! 
______________________________________
Bridget Strevens-Marzo  
www.bridgetstrevens.com

INTERVIEW Elizabeth Wein: twenty years to overnight success

Candy Gourlay interviews Elizabeth Wein on the heady success of her novel Code Name Verity which was on the New York Times bestseller list and recently shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal ... among others.

Elizabeth was born in New York but lived in England, Jamaica and Pennsylvania when she was growing up. She has lived in Scotland for more than a decade. Her first five books for young adults are set in Arthurian Britain and sixth century Ethiopia. Her interest in flying is what sparked the idea for Code Name Verity. Website: www.elizabethwein.com Visit her blog.

It has been an amazing year for Elizabeth Wein, author of the much lauded Code Name Verity. In addition to the list in the sidebar below, Code Name Verity is also on over thirty 'Best of the Year' lists for 2012 including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore and the New York Times; it's also shortlisted for five regional awards here and in the United States. Huge congratulations, Elizabeth!

CODE NAME VERITY
Awards
Printz Honour
Golden Kite Honour
Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor Book
Booklist Best Audio Book 2012
Shortlists
Carnegie Medal
Crystal Kite Prize for Europe
UKLA Book Award
The Edgar
The L.A. Times Book Prize
The Scottish Children's Book Award
The Northeast Children's Book Award
The Goodreads Choice Awards
The Cybils

The total Code Name Verity tally is so ridiculously embarrassing that I try not to talk about it in public.

One of the really neat things that happened was making it onto the New York Times bestseller lists seven months after the book's release. Because all my other books had basically stopped selling by that long after their launch dates. It was the "Mock Printz" winner in eight library teen reading groups that I'm aware of. Those last ones aren't real awards, but it means a LOT to me to know that teens love it!

Did you know when you finished writing it that it was special?



Well, I posted on my blog that I was brain dead and that I'd just finished the Best Damn Book I'd Ever Written. I knew it was good but I really had no idea, no idea at all, how astonishing the reception would be.

So what's the count? How many years did it take to become an overnight success?


Twenty!

THE LION HUNTERS PENTALOGY

Hah! Jacqueline Wilson once said "It took me many years to become an overnight success."  How does it feel to be another Jacqueline Wilson?


I don't think I'm at Jacqueline Wilson status QUITE yet! In many ways I got lucky. The publisher can send a book to the NYTimes but they can't guarantee it'll get a reviewer to look at it.

A thing that's kind of bittersweet about the success is that it will never again be so surprising and new. Even if I write another book as good as CNV (and I have a lot of doubts about my ability to repeat that performance), it will never be a voyage of discovery like this year has been.

And also, the chances of ever topping this year or living up to it are pretty slim! Actually, if this had happened earlier in my career, I might expect it always to be this good, and I'd be heading for a fall.

As it is, I've had too many books quietly remaindered to allow me to fully let go of my somewhat jaundiced view of the publishing industry. But CNV has gone a long way toward making me put grudges behind me.

I've had too many books quietly remaindered to allow me to fully let go of my somewhat jaundiced view of the publishing industry.

Code Name Verity seems such a long way from your other Arthurian fantasy books ... what was the journey that led you to writing this book?

If you think of my other books as spy thrillers, which they are, it's not such a leap to make. I guess the main thing that propelled the change was that I desperately wanted my characters to be able to FLY! In the last published book of the Arthurian/Aksumite sequence, the main character, Telemakos, becomes a ship's pilot. I was totally aware of the pun.

I should probably explain that in 2003 I got my own private pilot's license, and it just made me want to write about flight!

OMG that's so cool ... What do you fly?



I learned to fly in Cessna 152s - two-seater fixed-wing training aircraft (piston engine). Lately I've been flying a Piper Warrior, which is slightly bigger (4 seats) and more comfortable - mainly I find I can see better in a Warrior. I also had trouble reaching the rudder pedals in the Cessna 172, which is the bigger version of the 152! ... and I flew a seaplane once! OK, I will stop before I lose everybody in the so-called "technical details."

When did you first join SCBWI and why? Were you already published or like so many of us unpublished and optimistic?


You know, I can't remember not knowing about the SCBWI. I have been a member since 1991 and I am sure I joined when I sold my first book, being unaware that I could join as an associate (that was The Winter Prince, published in 1993). I was living in Philadelphia and was part of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter.

Basically, I just really wanted to meet other writers! It never occurred to me this would also be a good way to meet editors & agents.

Having said that, volunteering for the SCBWI led directly to my current agent and my long-time editor at my previous publisher. It's defnitely the most important professional move I ever made, though sometimes indirectly.

You've still got the same agent?  I imagine that the olden SCBWI British Isles used to be something of a support group for American expat children's writers?


For me it was a support group, but not all our original group were expats. Valerie Wilding, Ragnhild Scamell and Gus Smith were also members among the first group. I've been with my current agent, Ginger Clark, since 2001 or 2002. I did have another briefly before that, but never an agented book sale till Ginger came along!

Have you written the next book? I'll bet it's going to be hard!

It's done! It comes out in the UK on 3 June this year! Here's the Goodreads link, with the beautiful Canadian cover:

It was hard to write - it was like writing my "second book" all over again. But it's done. I had a deadline and a lot of pushing. And actually it's so unlike Code Name Verity that I don't think it'll suffer from "oh well this isn't as good as her last one." It is very, very different.

I have to write another one for 15 September. Blargh. That's actually one of the scary things about success - people want MORE and they want it FAST. And I find it's hard to keep the quality up to standard when I'm producing fast - also, I feel that there is a certain amount of magic missing from the process, for me as an artist.

I so agree! You called this year a voyage of discovery ... so, can you share with us what you have discovered?


I meant I was being discovered. The CILIP website has me listed as a "debut" author.



That's hilarious! ... When you compare CNV with your previous books can you pinpoint the thing you did differently, that special spark that made it a winner?


I don't think I did do things differently from my previous books. I still think The Sunbird is a perfect and beautiful book, the best I've written apart from Code Name Verity. But I do think that one of the big differences is the effect of the internet. One thing that did really amaze me is the power of bloggers, and the internet, and how easy it is to share enthusiasm for books and how easy it is for people to connect with authors.

In 2008, when The Empty Kingdom came out, I put together an online launch for it and it was such a new idea that I wrote an article about it for the SCBWI Bulletin (Open Invitation, Jan/Feb 2009).

By 2012, when Code Name Verity came out, it was pretty normal for people to celebrate book birthdays with lots of online reaching out.

Also, online reviews and book bloggers were just not as prevalent in 2008, and I think that Code Name  Verity's success owes a LOT to its enthusiastic reception by readers.

One thing that did really amaze me is the power of bloggers, and the internet

So in the grind of being a bestselling author (ha ha) how do you recapture the "magic"?



How do you recapture the magic... I don't know, I'm trying to figure it out. Take long walks! I get good ideas when I'm walking.

Celia Rees (author of Witch Child) famously tells unpublished authors they are not just writing a debut novel they should be trying to write a BREAKTHROUGH novel. That's what CNV is.


Code Name Verity is definitely and definitively a BREAKTHROUGH novel. But honestly, I didn't sit down and think, "I must write a breakthrough novel." (Actually, I thought The Sunbird would be my breakthrough novel.) I just thought, OMGOMG this is going to be a FREAKING AWESOME BOOK and I have to write it. And actually, I was kind of between publishers and considered myself lucky the new one didn't make me change my name for the fresh start.

Finally can you leave W&P readers some words of wisdom about making it and surviving your own success?


I haven't survived my success yet. Ask me again in September when the next book deadline comes up. I am riding a wave which may drown me.

But here are some words of wisdom:

HAVE FAITH. I have really prayed and prayed for grace - just the ability to accept whatever comes and to deal with it. And to not be envious, because that is just a killer thing. I struggle and struggle with it.

And to point out that CNV follows no rules. There aren't any rules. Don't try to second guess the market. Just write the best book you can. Write for YOURSELF.

Don't play Minesweeper. Stay off Twitter. Don't Google yourself.

Take long walks.

Don't forget to talk to people face to face.

USE EVERYTHING.

Thanks so much - and congratulations again. It's been fascinating, uplifting, and jealous-making all at the same time. May Code Name Verity continue to take you to great heights and may all the novels that follow continue to conjure the magic that keeps all of us at our keyboards.

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Candy Gourlay is the author of Tall Story. Her second novel Shine is out in September 2013. She blogs on Notes from the Slushpile.  www.candygourlay.com