Network News: Featuring George Kirk, North-West Network

George Kirk tells us a little about her network and what belonging to a SCBWI network means to her:

 

Tell me a little about your network.

 I'm a member of the North West Network. It's a very large region and most of our events tend to focus around Manchester because transport links there are good. We have a monthly critique meeting which takes place in the events room at Waterstones on Deansgate. It's a great place to meet, there's a great coffee shop there and of course lots and lots of books! For the past two years there has also been a Professional Series. This has meant that throughout the year we have been able to attend a number of events that put is in contact with industry professionals. We've been visited by authors, illustrators, agents, editors and publishers. It's given us a chance to get 'up close and personal’ to professionals ask direct questions and get direct answers. I can't talk about our network without mentioning our coordinator, Stephanie Williams. She beavers away in the background coordinating and organising all our events. She's always ready for a supportive, encouraging chat whenever anyone needs one. Thanks Steph!

Has being a member of a SCBWI network helped you with your writing? 

Absolutely! When I went to my first crit meeting I was as green as a boy scout on a roller coaster. I would 'tell' more tales than the brothers Grimm, I scattered adverbs as carelessly as confetti. I used more points of view than Anne Robinson in debate club. My language was as clunky and clanky as an old rusty tractor and I used as many similes as a.... well okay, maybe that one still needs some work. There is always something that you need to work on, but I have really seen my work grow and develop and every step feels like it is getting me closer to my publication dream. It's really important to be open to advice though. When I joined it was after I'd had a gap from writing of nearly ten years. I knew I had a lot of ground to make up and the only way I could do that was to put myself on the steepest learning curve I could find. The hard truth is, you won't develop as a writer if you are not ready to listen to criticism and take a lesson away from it.

Which network activities do you value the most? 

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I've been a member for almost three years now and it has and what I value most in that time has changed as I have changed as a writer. In the earlier days it was definitely the crit meetings. I got such a buzz just from being there and having the chance to meet other people who felt like I did about children's writing. I also knew I need to learn a lot and this was the place to do it. I still really enjoy and learn from them, but as time changes my writing and new members join I find more and more it's me that is explaining what 'show not tell' means and why we don't need to uses every speech tag in the thesaurus. And that's great, I feel like I am putting back in what I have already taken out and of course I still get thrown a odd curve ball to make me think. Now, I get excited when a Professional Series event arrives. I know that I am going to get industry level advice. Learn something completely new and hopefully give my pitch an airing.

Would you recommend belonging to a SCBWI network to other writers? 

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In a heartbeat. Quite simply, if it wasn't for SCBWI I wouldn't be writing. I always wanted to be a writer, and from the age of 14 knew I wanted to write for children. But when I started submitting work and getting rejections there was no support out there. It was so easy just to slip away from my dream and get caught up in the day job. Before I knew it I wasn't writing at all. But that wasn't a state of affairs that was going to last, and in one of life's turning points I started pouring out my ideas again. I started looking about for support once more and this time it was there. The SCBWI offers a whole support network of encouragement, expertise, advice, and friendship, with a network just a short bus ride away for me. I haven't fully realised my dreams yet, but I know I am well on my way down the road to publication and being a SCBWI member is like having fully comprehensive AA insurance just in case I break down and need an oil change or a new fan belt. (Enough with the similes!)

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George Kirk is a teller of tales, purveyor of poems and wearer of hats. She told stories before she could write (her mum called them fibs) and wrote them before she could spell. Actually, she still can't spell, but she's not going to let a small thing like that get in her way. She has been a teacher in a primary school for 15 years and has worked with children from 5 right through to 11 it's the prefect place to incubate and hatch the crazy notions that lurk in her head. She started writing towards the hope of publication three years ago. In that time her picture book text 'Once Upon a Princess' was the overall winner of the Brit Writers Unpublished Award and her 9+ cultural fantasy 'Sarah's Sari' was shortlisted for the Commonword Children's Diversity Writing Prize'. She is also a regular contributor to nonsense poetry website 'The funeverse'. George has problems taking herself seriously and is never happier when coming up with a stupendously stupid idea.

If you would like to to be a featured network member or if you are a network coordinator and would leik to nominate someone, please get in touch with me on:

networknews@britishscbwi.org

 

Network News: North West’s Relationship with Waterstones

by Gill James 

It’s incredibly useful that we meet for our critique group in Waterstones. We’re lucky to get the events room for free in the atmospheric Manchester Deansgate branch. It’s part of an older building and Deansgate is a rather smart street filled with some upmarket shops, bars  and  restaurants and some other beautiful literary buildings such as the John Rylands Library  and Eliot House, the temporary home of Manchester City Library. The events room is on the second floor and opposite the very elegant House of Fraser.

The events manager at this branch is quite proactive and some fantastic events are arranged there anyway. Many are free of charge or cost very little and this particular manager is quite supportive of new local writers. So we are able to meet in this room for our Sunday afternoon critique sessions.
    

However, there is a puzzle. If you attend an event the room is elegantly arranged, with audience seating laid out landscape-style, usually facing the window. There is no sign of any clutter. Yet when we arrive on a Sunday afternoon the room tends to resemble an attic full of forgotten furniture and we have to find a floor space, the comfortable chairs and enough tables for the number of people we’re expecting. The climate control is erratic and defeats the Sunday afternoon staff.  So be prepared to boil or shiver. And every so often an “event” takes place on Deansgate- maybe a fun run or a protest of some sort so we experience some interesting background noise. None of this matters, though, because it reminds us we are in the world. That is so important to writers.   

I’ll leave telling you exactly how the critique groups run for another time but I will just say three things now:

•  We run mixed genre sessions (though we are looking at doing some more genre specific sessions) 
• We email work in advance
• We favour the sandwich method – good points, less good points, suggestions for improvement.    

And it does work well in this extraordinary room.

Waterstones Deansgate benefits from a bar, and often members meet beforehand there or grab a hot drink to bring into the meeting. It has a quite big children’s section. One of my own students is in charge of teen titles there and runs a club for teen readers. Most of us check out the books either before or after the session or both and it’s like having a great big reference library to hand.         

I’m always delighted to see books there by SCBWI members and have been known to do a little gentle promotion. Have my own ever been there? Yes, actually. The very first week I was here in 2007. Believe it or not three of my educational books were actually in the window and were part of three for two offer. What a welcome! Alas, never again since.

We writers and other people in the book-producing industry have a strange relationship with Waterstones. They’re a huge chain that may have squeezed the indie bookshop out. They are cautious about small press. They seem to have some control and influence over the market. Yet in the end, with big companies like this, it always comes down to the people working locally. I’d say the ones working at the Deansgate branch, Manchester, are top notch.

We must remember anyway, that books are business. And fanatic that I am I’d still rather visit a bookshop than a fashion store even if Waterstones is the only one available. If you’re in Manchester, do visit this branch. Let me know you’re coming and I’ll meet you there for coffee if I can.      

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Gill James writes mainly for young adults. She is your Network News editor and is interested in news stories about your network. Contact her at networknews at britishscbwi dot org.

Steph Williams is the Network North West coodinator. Contact her for details of meetings at northwest at britishscbwi dot org.