Team Cooper's Agent Retreat - Part Two

by Gemma Cooper from the Bent Agency, Team Cooper and Benjamin Scott

 

One of the many cakes!

Following on from Part One of Team Cooper's Agent Retreat, this week members of Team Cooper - Robin Stevens and Mike Revell, and honorary member - Benjamin Scott, talk about their experiences of the retreat.

@redbreastedbird

Robin Stevens 

Gemma’s client retreat was my first, and I couldn’t have wished for a better introduction to the concept. It was two days of great workshops, great conversation and great food, and I came away from it with a lot more confidence in myself as a children’s writer. 

The workshops were extremely helpful. Mo O’Hara’s, on visiting schools, showed me how to promote myself and my books in a way that’ll be fun for me as well as my audience; Gemma’s on picture books and non-fiction gave me belief in my ability to write in genres and for audiences that I’d never considered before; and Annalie from Walker’s Books’ talk on the publishing process gave me incredibly valuable insight into what editors are looking for in their submissions (and I’m saying that as a budding editor myself). 

Mo's Workshop

For me, though, the most positive part of the weekend was unstructured. I found just being around a group of authors with similar interests, and at a similar stage in their careers, incredibly exciting. Talking to the other members of Team Cooper sparked so many ideas in my head and made me feel part of something really wonderful. I’m prouder than I’ve ever been to be a children’s writer, and at the end of the weekend I came away feeling that I have the skills and the support I need for the next part of my writing career. 


Robin is the author of Murder Most Unladylike: A Wells and Wong Mystery, to be published by Random House Children’s in March 2014. Click here for more about the book and here for Robin’s blog.

@RevellWriting

Mike Revell 

I learnt so much from the retreat - from what makes a great picture book to how many hearts an octopus has (3 - take that, Doctor) to what happens when a publisher takes on your book and finally to how much a hairless cat costs! (Gemma – follow us on twitter for more on the hairless cat discussions!) 

I’ve never been on a writing retreat before, but I know people who have, and I always saw the pictures and read the reports with a twinge of jealousy. But I don’t think I will anymore, because there’s no way their retreats can match my one. I walked into a roomful of people who I’d never seen before in my life, but within seconds I felt like I’d always known them. It was a perfect mix of writers at different stages of the same journey, and so inspiring. 

Writing was a breeze at Gemma’s retreat. No one had to wait for inspiration to strike. It was everywhere. It was in the house and the workshops and the people and the books. By the time one of the writing periods arrived, my mind felt so abuzz with ideas that I couldn’t wait to get them down on paper. But it wasn’t about the writing. Not really. It was about the people. And probably the most inspiring thing of all was just meeting them and talking to them and listening to them.   

The things I took away from the experience were: 

• The dream is so close, and I can achieve it. 

• The importance of pace, good dialogue and BIG ideas. 

• How to put on the perfect performance on school visits. 

• That Team Cooper is incredible, and that it really is a team! 

  

@Benjamin_Scott

Benjamin Scott

I was thrilled when Gemma invited me on the retreat. Although I’m not one of Gemma’s clients, we’re good friends and she thought I’d not only enjoy the retreat but provide some valuable insight from my roles in SCBWI, teaching and visiting schools as an author. I don’t really need an excuse to hang out with fellow writers to be honest. I learnt masses from Mo O’Hara to help me give my school visits plan a boost, including the best times to approach schools, and had some ideas sparked off from Gemma’s workshops on tackling high concept titles and creating picture books. I even managed to get some writing done before the lure of chatting to other writers got the better of me. 

Katy and Robin celebrating!

Gemma - So the retreat was filled with interesting information, lots of cake and celebrations about the announcements of Katy and Robin’s recent book deals! 

And what did I take from the weekend? Well, some fantastic ideas came out of the brainstorming over tea/wine and I’m so excited for the manuscripts that are being written as we speak. I’m also confident that my clients will be incredible at school visits having listened to the master that is Mo O’Hara. 

My clients are all quite similar – funny, intelligent, talented people who are also really good at making cakes and really competitive at quizzes. The weekend left me exhausted, but with a big smile on my face because most of all, it reminded me how lucky I am to get to work with these people every day and call it my job! 

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@gemma_cooper

If you want to become a member of Team Cooper and be at next year’s retreat, submit your cover letter and paste your first ten pages to cooperqueries@thebentagency.com – I represent all ages of children’s and YA. For more info about Gemma and the Bent Agency, click here

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 23rd July

I'm sure I can't be the only one wilting from all this heat, but our SCBWI bloggers march on regardless.
Grab a tall glass of iced tea and let's see what blog-sized treats are on the plate this week.


Despite living in the same town as ace indie bookshop Mostly Books, I’m a little ashamed to admit that I completely missed their recent special event, in which three Nosy Crow authors took over the running of the shop for the day! SCBWI writers Paula Harrison and Helen Peters joined Fleur Hitchcock to staff the shop, as well as answering all manner of questions from budding young writers and journalists. Sally Poyton tells us all about the event at Space on the Bookshelf.

Mark Jones returns to his Amazing Writing Advice column, after an unexpected break. But was the lay-off really because he was sued for publishing someone else’s book without their permission and did he actually take matters into his own hands in such a drastic fashion? You’ll have to read the post and make up your own mind...

Taking the idea of the Silly Season a step further are the bloggers at Notes from the Slushpile, who are having an, erm, Slushpile Silly Season. So far, Addy Farmer has blogged about silly character names via PG Wodehouse and Books With a Letter Missing. Have you read The Lion, the Itch and the Wardrobe?

Illustrators will get a kick out of Katriona Chapman’s post at Big Little Tales, detailing her technique for colourising pencil drawings using Photoshop. Sam Zuppardi’s brother won’t be getting a kick out of anything for a while though, especially when he sees the get well card that Sam sent him showing his broken leg. Yuck!

I'll be taking next week off to go on holiday (I know, what a shocking dereliction of duty), so the Blog Break will have a very special guest editor! Until then, happy reading and happy blogging.

Nick.

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Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.
For his latest blog post, Nick is Desperately Seeking Symmetry with the help of Sara Grant's Half Lives.

Social Sheila Video: how to claim Google Authorship as a writer

Have you heard about Google Authorship? It's part of Google Plus, and it's something you need to know about if you are a children's book writer or illustrator.






You might already be a Google Plus user, although truthfully it hasn't taken off as quickly as Twitter or Facebook. One of the functions of Google Plus is to act as a social network, allowing people to share content among themselves, but it's much more than just a social platform – Google sees it as the "interconnecting fabric" among all the services it offers, from search through to e-mail, and it is increasingly becoming one of the ways Google uses to organise all of the world's information and deliver pertinent, accurate results when people search.

One way to help Google deliver accurate results is for it to determine who is an authority on certain subjects. Forbes magazine has done an excellent job of discussing the role of Google plus and Authorship in helping Google determine authority; I won't repeat their points, but you can read that article here. In short, Google Authorship allows you to tell Google you are the creator of content that should have your name on it, specifically blogs.

Google Authorship allows you to tell Google you are the creator of content that should have your name on it, specifically blogs.

If you own your own blog or are a regular contributor on someone else's blog, it's important that you claim Google Authorship via Google Plus - this will entail setting up a free Google plus ID, if you don't have one yet.

In this video I will show you how to set up Authorship, but a key step of the process is putting a Google "author" link on the blogs where you contribute. I'll show you how to put the author link on a WordPress blog, but if you are not running your own blog and instead are contributing to another blog, you'll need their cooperation to get the author link set up. You can read more about that in the Forbes article above. For those of you using Blogger, Google's own blogging platform, my research indicates that it's a one-click process to claim Google Authorship: I haven't tried this myself, but you can follow the instructions here:


Have you set up Google Authorship? Let me know your comments below.

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@spacekidsbooks

Sheila Averbuch lives in East Lothian in Scotland and is currently working on SPACE KIDS AND THE SPY FROM PLANET 12, a sci-fi adventure for 9-11's. She holds an MA in journalism from Stanford University and a BA from Harvard University in American History & Literature. Sheila is managing director of the content services and social media training agency ENNclick and blogs at www.spacekidsbooks.com

Fresh From the Chalkface

It's so exciting to publish the results for our first Chalkface Challenge.

It's a win-win-win kind of competition. The children comments are all very warm and encouraging so I hope those not shortlisted have still won a wonderful confidence boost. Teacher friends have done a similar thing for me and hearing a child describe an incident in your story that they particularly enjoyed, is great. Not only did the children enjoy the reading it sounds like they enjoyed the whole process.

Celia Anderson,
Year 5 Teacher

"Well, you have made a gang of ten year olds very happy today! 
There was almost a fight over who is on my panel... decided in the end to pick names out of a hat..."

 "They're so enthusiastic; it's a real pleasure to be taking part "

"The children loved the whole experience"

These young people and young people like them are who it's all for anyway.

Thank You Very Much, Year 5,  St Edwards' Catholic Primary School, Swadlincote. You've been brilliant!

Due to wifi limitations at the weekend  (I'm festivalling!) I'm posting on Tuesday so please do use the links in the side bar to catch up with our 17th W&P week but I can tell you that next week week we have part 2 of the Team Cooper Retreat Report  and, for the time being at least, Duck & Bear reaches it's series finale.

With less than a month to the UV deadline, have fun creating!

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 Chalkface Challenge: The Results

There were 27 entires for the first Chalkface Challenge - the only writing competition judged entirely by children*. The judges were year 5 children from St. Edwards' Catholic Primary School, Swadinlcote, Derbyshire

The children, supported by their teacher, Celia Anderson, excelled themselves in their conscientious reading, their warm and helpful comments to the authors and their enthusiasm for new stories. Thank you!  You can see the children judging in this week's editorial.

I am  delighted to announce that the winner of the first Chalkface Challenge is Mike Pringle for the first 750 words of Autopet Farm.

Mike Pringle

The children said:

• "Funny, very good nothing to change and keep on going." 

• "I absolutely loved it nothing I would change. So funny too."

• "No words can describe but hilarious."

• "Amazing book nothing wrong with it at all"

• "I liked you don't actually expect them to shove a gun in your face"

• "You made my daylistening to that fabulous story. the humour makes it a better book. I'd love to read more. It's amazing. I wouldn't change anything. I loved it all."

There were four runners up, in no particular order:

Julie Fulton, Narrow Escape "I loved the warfare idea. It's great because of the scared people running away how you would do in real life. I wouldn't change anything it's great."
Jennifer Killick, Alex Sparrow and the Really Big Stink "Wow! This book is amazing; it's hilarious. I wanted to read on."
Elizabeth Dale, Help! I Think I'm An Alien! "I liked this book because it was really funny. And my favourite bit was when he was comparing what he liked to what his family liked. And I would not change anything about this book."
Jo Thomas, Betsy Beeble Has No Beard "I found this really funny and cool. It was amazing, funny funny funny."

Jo,  Elizabeth,  Jennifer,  Julie

Here's Mike's winning opening excerpt:

Chapter 1
Mutt Butt

Gundogs are usually things like Labradors, with floppy ears and a waggly tail. Or fluffy Golden Retrievers. Or Poodles. You don’t expect them to actually shove a gun in your face. Especially not a semi-automatic 7.62 calibre, Flexilite assault weapon.

     Of course as I was standing there dribbling, I didn’t know any of these technical details. All I knew was a dog the size of a small truck was coming at me with teeth like a tyrannosaurus. And he had a gun instead of a tail, and it was wagging at me. I did what any sensible person would do. I screamed like a big girl’s blouse, and ran as fast as my skinny legs would let me.

     As my life flashed through my mind I cursed my own little dog, Cedric, for wandering off and leading me to the farm the monster dog was guarding. I cursed Eddie too, my so-called uncle. In fact , the thought of him totally filled my head with swear words. Really bad ones. If he hadn’t had the brainwave to buy Cedric in the first place, I would’ve been peacefully tucked up in bed with my PlayStation instead of chasing the stupid mutt halfway across the country.

     But that’s Uncle Eddie for you. A complete moron who decides for no reason whatsoever that what every eleven year old boy needs more than anything else in the whole wide world is a dog. Not a state-of-the-art, fully pedigreed, oiled-up type of dog, of course. Not one that friends and neighbours drool over because of how handsome it is, or because of the way it does everything perfectly. Oh no. Just mangy little Cedric, covered in slobber and fleas and fitted with a dodgy Poo-matic 1.4. And in case you’ve been living under a rock and never come across a Poo-matic before, you should know that it’s the oldest, cheapest and definitely most useless internal poo-collecting device on the market. It’s made by AutoPet Inc., supposedly the world leaders in gadgets for improving animals, and uses a disposable cartridge system powered by two AAA batteries. I don’t need to tell you where the cartridge has to be inserted, and I don’t need to tell you what sort of mess a faulty 1.4 can make.

     And as for the smell...

     But I suppose it wasn’t really Cedric’s fault. Apart from the Poo-matic he was a perfectly normal little terrier, with wiry grey hair sticking out at all angles, even though I don’t think he’d had a wash since the day he’d been born. Just don’t ask me how he came to be called Cedric.

     ‘Sort the dog out, Berthold,’ Uncle Eddie shouted earlier that evening, when we heard a bleeping coming from the kitchen. Don’t ask me how I got my name either.
   
     Dear Uncle Eddie has to shout everything. He doesn’t do normal talking like the rest of the human race. I must have been all of a metre away from him as he sat there picking his nose and yelling. He rolled his fat body to one side, lifted a white flabby thigh and let rip a monster fart. I swear his boxer shorts fluttered like a flag in the breeze.

     I was more than happy to get out of there.

     Cedric was sitting in the kitchen wagging his tail. He might have been looking guilty. It was hard to tell through all that scraggy grey fur. More than likely it was just a haven’t got a clue what’s going on look.

     His Poo-matic alarm was still beeping. I clicked the switch on his collar and got a mild electric shock from the shonky wiring. I sighed, and watched the cartridge fly out of Cedric’s rear end, followed by everything that should have been inside it.

     ‘Grief, Cedric,’ I said. ‘Did you have to eat that curry last night?’

     Of course this wasn’t really fair on Cedric. The dried up chicken balti and half an onion bhaji were left over after one of Eddie’s drunken nights out. Maybe he thought Indian takeaway made a nice treat for a dog. Even if it didn’t have any lubricating oil additives.

     I gathered up a ton of kitchen roll and knelt down. Cedric slobbered in my ear. The poo cartridge was on the floor. As usual. The poo was on the floor too, but not in the poo cartridge. As usual.

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Mike Pringle,
Chalkface Challenge Winner

Mike has spent most of his adult life creating, writing, designing and illustrating for children. He has produced material for He-Man, Transformers, Puddle Lane and Thomas the Tank Engine; worked on a wide selection of non-fiction books for publishers such as Collins, the BBC and Usborne (including Starting Point Science, winner of the Young Science Book of the Year Award); and, more recently, designed computer systems to help young people explore information over the Internet.

At fourteen, Mike learned to drive a tank and over the years has practised a number of activity sports, including parascending, abseiling, shooting, running and motor-biking. Mike also has a black belt in Karate. He illustrated and co-authored Foulsham’s Junior Guide to Karate, and wrote tongue-in-cheek articles about the world’s highest graded martial artist, Kevin Kickbutt.

Mike currently lives in Swindon with his wife Claire and their dog, Peb, who is half Labrador, half Poodle and half lunatic. Mike recently added to Swindon’s skyline by turning the walls of an office block into a road, complete with roundabouts, zebra crossing, and two full sized Mini cars!

Congratulations Mike!

There will be a new Chalkface Challenge, for a different age group,  in the Autumn.

Sam Hawksmoor and Teri Terry battle it out at the Amazing Book Awards

And the results? The Gold went to Teri Terry's Slated and the Bronze to Sam Hawksmoor's The Repossession. Has Teri got enough room on her mantelpiece for all the awards Slated has been winning across the country? And did Sam mind Teri beating him again? Read on...

 Sam tells us: “It was great seeing Teri Terry again. We had been rivals earlier at the Leeds Book Awards that she won (grr) and now again at the Amazing Book Awards. I have to say the ABA is really well organised, 21 schools involved and any one of the shortlist could have won with seriously good books from N M Brown, Ed Horgan for example. When we arrived at Shoreham Academy there were all these kids in tuxes and ballgowns and we felt severely underdressed but luckily they were seniors heading off to the prom. Anyway even though Teri yet again walked off with the Gold, I am happy with Bronze and knowing that there is a host of new readers hopefully discovering the sequel The Hunting. As I left, the queue for signing was once again out the door... Slated really does have many fans. And we are so lucky as writers that school librarians take their job so seriously and get the kids reading."

THE REPOSSESSION blurb: Thirty-four kids are missing from the mountain town of Spurlake B.C. Meanwhile, Genie Magee (15) is imprisoned behind bars at home by her mother, who claims her soul is possessed by the Devil. The Reverend Schneider leads all night vigils to pray for the missing kids’ souls, to stop a sickness in the town that seems to drive the kids away. Genie has almost given up. She knows she's slowly going crazy, seeing visions, beginning to think she is as mad as her mother thinks she is. As stormclouds gather over the mountain town, Rian, Genie’s boyfriend, has not forgotten her. He plots a daring attempt to break her out and steal her away from Spurlake forever.

Earlier this year, The Repossession also won the Wirral Paperback of the Year Award jointly with Jon Mayhew's The Demon Collector.

Sam says: “It was great fun going up to The Wirral (Port Sunlight just around the corner I discovered) and the kids were great. Jon Mayhew makes them all laugh and he's got a secret weapon 'fridge magnets'! He's a tough act to follow. The competition was strong and all the authors present made a strong case for their books and the kids asked good questions. I thought for sure that Jon had won as the queue for signing went out the door, but luckily the girls like Genie Magee and are quite loyal to her. First time they'd had a tie I think but it's great to win. All thanks to The Wirral Libraries and the schools that got involved."

@samhawksmoor

Sam Hawksmoor is a former course leader of an MA in Creative Writing and currently lives by the sea in Lincolnshire. The Repossession was the first in a trilogy about Genie Magee - the sequel 'The Hunting' also came out last year. The third ''The Heaviness' is in the edit process now. All three are set in BC Canada and deal with genetic experiments on runaway kids questioning the ownership of DNA and the soul.
Sam is joint editor of the long running web magazine http://www.hackwriters.com You can find Sam at www.samhawksmoor.com


Please join me with a sparkling toast as we celebrate Sam and Teri and their amazing books!

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Tania Tay is an ex-advertising copywriter and has been published in Sable LitMag. She is writing MG and YA fiction, and is on the editorial team at Words & Pictures.

FEATURED ILLUSTRATOR - Jane Heinrichs

Illustrator Jane Heinrichs has crossed the globe from her native Canada to South Africa, but is now firmly based in London. She's also is this month’s Featured Artist! See her web portfolio in our Featured Illustrator Gallery. 




Thank you so much for inviting me to be a featured illustrator! 

About the Banner Art

July is Picture Book Month here at Words and Pictures, and the banner art reflects the dreamy, imaginative quality of being immersed in a story.  I painted it with ink and watercolour in several layers, and then Photoshopped them together. Lately I’ve been inspired by Victorian watercolours and Japanese prints.  I try to combine these influences with a modern twist.

Personal Journey

Let’s share a cup of tea and I’ll tell you my story…

Once upon a time in a far away land named Canada, I did my bachelor’s degree in Classics, Archaeology and Art History. I knew I loved drawing, but I wasn’t sure how to incorporate it into my life at the time.

One day my archaeology professor asked me if I knew anyone who could draw some illustrations of Roman statuary, villas and pottery for an upcoming university publication. I rushed home to grab my sketchbooks. She was impressed, and I’ve worked as an archaeological illustrator ever since.  I loved seeing my drawings in print, and the fact that they told stories illuminating the lives of ancient Romans.  It showed me the magic of illustration, and also led me on fantastic adventures on digs in Tunisia. 

 

I continued my academic studies at the Courtauld Institute of Art (at Somerset House), where I completed my masters in art history focusing on medieval illuminated manuscripts.  Even though I loved the research, and pouring over ancient books in the British Library, I realized that I would rather spend my time drawing.

I have to say that being a SCBWI member has been the most amazing, inspiring experience. 

Inspired by Somerset House and the fantastic Courtauld Gallery, I wrote and illustrated a picture book called “Magic at the Museum.”  It was short-listed for best-illustrated book at the Manitoba Book Awards (in Canada), and is still selling amazingly well at the Courtauld gallery shop. 

from Magic at the Museum

After that experience of putting a picture book together, I knew I had found my calling.  I enrolled in a masters of illustration course at Camberwell College of Art and joined SCBWI.  On reflection, I have to say that being a SCBWI member has been the most amazing, inspiring experience. I honestly don’t know where I’d be without you all!

And, as every story needs a happy ending… After a fantastic set of portfolio reviews at the 2013 London Book Fair, I signed with Advocate Art Agency. I’m so excited to be part of such an energetic and supportive team.  I can’t wait to see what the next part of this adventure will hold.

Blog and Online Shop

This year, in January, I resolved to re-open my Etsy shop and revamp my blog.  I felt like I needed a challenging project for the New Year.  In a sense, the shop and blog have become catalysts to push me forward with my illustrations.  I feel a sense of responsibility, perhaps even urgency, to create new illustrations to stock my shop and showcase on my blog.

Shortly after I re-opened my Etsy shop, Disney Baby Blog featured one of my prints in a collection of the best prints about reading for National Libraries Week.  It was such amazing affirmation. I love Disney!

I love meeting new people; please stop by my blog to say hello.  And feel free to do a bit of window-shopping in my Etsy shop. (Words and Pictures readers can get 10% off any purchase with discount code SCBWI10)
 

Process

I usually start with a thumbnail sketch, which is barely more than an abstract scribble of shapes and gestures. I just want to get the composition and energy right.

Then I start a bigger pencil drawing where I work to get detail into the characters and background. I’m always comparing it to that first tiny thumbnail, to make sure I’m not losing any of the energy I visualized.

I transfer the sketch to watercolour paper and draw the ink lines.  I love Japanese “Deleter” manga pen nibs and “Koh-i-noor” brand sepia or sienna ink.  This ink is almost like a lacquer, and leaves a raised profile on the page.

Once I’m totally happy, I’ll start painting in watercolour.  I often add touches of coloured pencil or gouache at the end, to add variation to the textures and transparency.  Sometimes I paint aspects separately, and then combine them all in Photoshop.  It all depends on the demands of the image (or the client)!

Tips

The main advice I have for anyone wanting to become an illustrator is to draw, draw, draw.  Just keep improving; keep challenging yourself.  Try to work fast and accurately.  The reality of working as an illustrator means meeting deadlines that seem impossible. But if you believe you can, you always will!
And that’s my second bit of advice: believe in yourself.  Nothing is impossible.  Everything can be figured out.

So there you go, here’s my fairy-tale ending to this story: believe in yourself, and then work harder than you’ve ever worked before.  Climb that mountain. Forge through that dark forest.  And when the day comes that you’ve reached those goals, you’ll set new ones. Then you’ll have a whole new landscape of challenges to conquer.  But you can do it! 

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See more of Jane's work on our Featured Artist Gallery Page. 

Follow Jane on her portfolio website, her online artist's Etsy Shop, and on her 
Blog. 
Jane Heinrichs Studios is also on Facebook