by Francine Puckly

​One of my favorite takeaways from the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York City each year is a refreshed reading list. Tying into Annie’s blog last week (March into National Reading Month) and the celebration of National Reading Month regardless of age, here are some young adult fiction and craft books being discussed by agents, editors and fellow writers at the conference. Select a couple titles to add to your reading list!
 
Young Adult Fiction Highlights:
All the Truth That’s in Me by Julie Berry
The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry
The Dark Days Pact by Alison Goodman
The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock
Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge
Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman
Chime by Franny Billingsley
Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
Caraval by Stephanie Garber
American Girls by Alison Umminger
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
I Capture the Castle by J.D. Salinger
Wonderful Feels Like This by Sara Lövestam
Aftercare Instructions by Bonnie Pipkin
Dear Reader by Mary O’Connell
The Skin I’m In by Sharon G. Flake
Tonight the Streets Are Ours by Leila Sales
Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
 
Books with a Craft Focus:
The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein
Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom
Edit Yourself: A Manual for Everyone Who Works with Words by Bruce Ross-Larson
The Hero Is You by Kendra Levin 

Books in the Category of “Why not?”:
The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford
The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
 
None of these books casts a spark for you? Fear not! Generate your own list. Chat up your local librarian and bookstore salesperson or ask critique group members and friends for suggestions. I’ve asked complete strangers about the books they’re reading. My experience has been that people who love books love to share their thoughts about books! So whether the coming days are rainy and dreary and you’re curled up on a couch or the first warmth of spring beckons you to a park bench, take along a new story.
 
~ Francine

by Francine Puckly
 
A number of years ago, I began my illustrious side career as taxi driver. I shuttled my kids to school, various music lessons, drama, hundreds of soccer and baseball practices, student council meetings and friends’ houses. The numerous hours allocated to driving substantially cut into my personal reading time, and one-half of every roundtrip was spent alone in the car. After having exhausted every last FM radio station and my expansive iTunes library multiple times, I somewhat reluctantly turned to audio books for sanity and entertainment.
 
There were fits and starts with this new form of story consumption. I was skeptical that I could pay attention to a story while driving, and I struggled when certain readers had voices and cadences that didn’t keep my attention, or worse, downright irritated me. But over time I tweaked my selections, and I have come to embrace this form of reading. I actually look forward to driving now!
 
It was a huge surprise to me to find that I remember plot and subplot structures, character flaws and descriptions, themes, clues, and imagery far better with an audio performance than when I read a paper version of the same story. I believe there are a few reasons for this.

First, I can’t jump ahead. Ever read a suspense novel and can’t stand the thought that the character might be killed off?  And then you find yourself peeking at who’s still alive on the last pages? Well, guess what? You can’t do that with an audio book! It’s maddening, but because I have to stay firmly in the current section of the story, it makes me acutely aware of how the author is teasing the story line and emotionally engaging me as a reader.
 
Second, you read (or hear) every last word. There is no speed-reading or skimming or “let me see what’s going on at the beginning of the next chapter” sorts of cheating. By noting adjective and verb choices as well as passages of descriptions you love and those you might find tedious, you’re able to see what works for the story and how those techniques may or may not apply to your own writing.
 
Third, pauses are emphasized. I can (and need to) shut off the recording for a few minutes between sections to analyze how the author has wrapped up phrases, chapters or complete sections. This reflection helps me discover how the author has left me hanging until she presents the next morsel for me to consume.
 
If you’ve never tried audio books, here are a few hints to help you get started:

• Pull out that list of recommended reading you’ve compiled from conferences, friends, and book reviews and select three or four books that are available in audio form. Request all of them through your library loan service.
• Give each audio book only 5-10 minutes to see if you can enjoy the reader’s performance of the story. If you don’t like the reader, you’ll hate listening to the story. (You can go back and read a paper or electronic copy of that book instead!)
• Once you’ve listened to a few novels, start a list of readers you love. I’ll listen to any story told by Simon Vance, Jenna Lamia, and John McDonough, to name a few. But it’s important to generate your own list based on your preferences. Also, be sure to ask around. I’ve collected reader names from friends, as well as my local librarian who also enjoys audio books.
• Designate certain books for the car. I have an active imagination (I’m a writer, remember?) so I can’t read scary things before I go to bed. Since this is when most of my reading occurs, I save all thrillers and suspense novels for daytime driving!

 
So whether you’re painting a room, taking a solo cross-country trek, or driving in circles dropping your kids at various activities, expand your reading time in the new year! 

Good luck and happy reading! 
~ Francine
 

 by Kelly Carey

I've been a part of book club with a group of friends for years. I’m sure many of you have too. You gather  and chat about a book you have all read. It’s fun and social, and you end up reading some books you might not have picked up otherwise. But, we always read adult books. Recently, I joined a new type of book club, and I want to encourage my children’s writing friends to do the same.

The wonderful Julie Reich at The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA started a KidLit Book Group. This group of writers gets together monthly and discusses a YA or MG novel. We look at the book not as readers, but rather as writers, looking for techniques of craft that we can apply to our own work.

There are many things that can be learned by examining a YA or MG novel with other YA and MG authors. First, you may be startled to find that we can be tough on the writing of successfully published, acclaimed writers. Hearing someone offer a negative critique of character development, or point out plot holes, or question different literary devices used in telling a story – of a published author – makes me think a bit more cautiously about how I interpret criticism of my own work.  For every book clubber who liked a book, there seems to be an equal number who dislike the book. This will be true of your own manuscript. So take heart. Don’t rush to your manuscript and make immediate changes after every bit of advice. Instead, listen to the feedback, look for trends and consistency across critiques and then apply your own writing sensibility to the information before you make changes. Hearing folks offer feedback on a published novel in your KidLit book group will give you the courage to defend your own work.

While being in a KidLit book group can help you become less sensitive to critiques of your own manuscript, it can also allow you to really understand the feedback your manuscript is getting. When your KidLit book group is talking about character or dialogue, you will hear how the comments are framed. What do people say when they like a character or feel engaged in a story? You will have lightbulb flashing moments when you recognize that similar comments were made about your own manuscript. You will hear a book group member say why they liked or disliked a scene, and you will recall the same phrasing used to offer feedback on your own work. Being able to examine the feedback directed at someone else’s writing will give you a comfortable distance before you then consider the ramification for your own work. It’s a nice, easy stroll to the heart of a problem that your own writing may suffer from when you hear it discussed in someone else’s writing.

This is not to say that a KidLit book group is all about the negative. It's not! The most inspiring, I-can’t-wait-to-get-my-fingers-typing moments are when you feel emboldened to write because you have been uplifted by the talents of other writers. When the group gets excited about a book, and gleefully discusses the expert use of sentence structure to control pacing, or the introduction of a subplot to add tension, you start to feel your hands itch. I imagine this is how a painter feels when presented with jars of wet paint and fresh brushes. You will be inspired by the creativity in front of you. When you look at the tools another author has used, you will want to reach out and grab them and try those techniques for yourself.

Finally, so much of writing can be a solitary business, including reading in our genre (something universally recommended in the KidLit industry). A KidLit Book Group is a way to take a lonely component of your writing world and make it a social group activity. You will be gathering with other writers to look at books--folks with a similar passion, discussing from a unique perspective the books we love. It's a wonderful way to get to know each other, understand our reading and writing likes and dislikes, and even find new critique partners.

For the nuts and bolt of how it works, I can only share how my KidLit Book Club functions:
* We pick a host for every month. The host is responsible for selecting three options of MG or YA books for the group to read.
* The group then votes (you will like this type of voting – every option will be a good one!) and picks the book for the following month.
* We meet for two hours and the host provides the refreshments.
* As a way of starting our discussion, we go around the table and allow everyone to give their overall impression of the book and what they liked or disliked about the writing. This is really all you need to get going. The points folks will bring up in their share time will spur on other discussions and questions and before you know it a two hour book group will have passed and you will have spent it in a productive and completely enjoyable way.

Find a coffee shop, a café at your independent book seller, or a room at your local library and invite MG and YA published and pre-published authors in your area to join your KidLit Book Group. It could be the start of a wonderful new endeavor.

​By Annie Cronin Romano

    “Where’s Papa going with that ax?” said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast.  
    “Out to the hoghouse,” replied Mrs. Arable. “Some pigs were born last night.” 
    “I don’t see why he needs an ax,” continued Fern, who was only eight.

As you probably know, the above excerpt is the opening of E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, a classic in children’s literature. When I was a child, it was one of my favorite books. When I read the first page and realized those cute little piglets could be in danger, I kept reading. Fern’s concern about a threat to the piglets is established right away, and I had to find out if and how Fern could stop this horror from occurring. I was hooked. The same goes for picture books I love. I’m compelled to read past the first page in picture books whose openings create a strong curiosity about a situation:

    On a cold afternoon, in a cold little town,
    where everywhere you looked was either the white of snow 
    or the black of soot from chimneys,
    Annabelle found a box filled with yard of every color.

    In these first lines of Mac Barnett’s Extra Yarn (illustrated by Jon Klassen), I was pulled in by my wonder of how this colorful yarn was going to affect the plain little town. 

Although both these examples of opening lines grabbed me quickly, others may need to read further to know a book is a keeper. In novels, authors have some time to lure the reader in. A writer of longer works can take a few paragraphs to set the tone, or even a few pages to a chapter or so to bait the reader into the character’s voice or world. But in picture books, you have the first page. You’ve got to hook ‘em fast and come out swinging. It’s vital to the life of your story. Be it picture books or novels, if the author doesn’t capture the reader early on, the chance of losing the reader increases. A lot.

But what elements make a strong hook? What is it that pulls the reader in? To help you with examining your openings, I am going to give you an assignment. Don’t worry. There’s no exam at the end. I’ll use the honor system! 

• Focusing on the category in which you write, list some of your favorite books. 
• Next, list some books you never finished…ones that lost you in the first chapter or two. Or for picture books, choose ones that fell flat for you on the first page. 
• Head to the library or bookstore (you probably own your favorites) and read the opening page or paragraphs. 
• Note what grabbed you in your favorites. Study what seized your attention. Was it the voice? The immediate world building? Strong senses the opening elicited in you? A unique premise? A creation of curiosity?
• What was lacking in those books you never finished? Analyze where and why the openings of those unfinished books lost your interest. 
• Finally, examine the opening of your work in progress. Does it contain elements that will compel the reader to turn the page? Or does it fall short of the mark?

This exercise can help clarify what makes a strong hook and what doesn’t.  Study the first pages of other works to help make your book’s opening the strongest and sharpest hook it can be. Then reel ‘em in!

~Annie

by Annie Cronin Romano

Josh Funk resides in New England and is a writer of children’s picture books. His debut picture book, LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST (Sterling) came out in September 2015. Josh has kindly agreed to talk with 24 Carrot Writing about his books and writing process.
​
Congratulations on the publication of your debut picture book, LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST (Sterling 2015)! Can you tell us a bit about your journey to the printed page? How long was your process from idea to print?
Thank you! And thanks for inviting me to 24 Carrot Writing!

I wrote my first picture book manuscript in the summer of 2011 (not Lady Pancake, a different story that will never see the light of day). My wife found a class in the adult education catalog taught at our local high school by author Jane Sutton and signed me up. I quickly realized that I had a lot to learn, but I was excited and the members of the class became my first critique group. Through the class I was introduced to SCBWI and I attended the 2012 New England SCBWI Conference. As soon as I walked into the conference center in Springfield, MA, I knew that this was the place for me.

By 2013, I felt that my writing was in a pretty solid place. I even had the courage to read an early version of Lady Pancake at the NESCBWI Spring Conference Open Mic. But I was getting virtually no response from queries to agents. So that summer, I decided to send my manuscripts directly to publishers.

And I got a few hits. Scholastic was interested in PIRASAURS!, DEAR DRAGON garnered interest from a couple of small publishers, and in early November of 2013 I got an email from Sterling Children’s stating that they’d like to publish LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST. By mid-January, 2014, I had signed with an agent, PIRASAURS! was acquired by Scholastic, and my agent sold DEAR DRAGON to Viking/Penguin. It was quite an exciting two months!

Did you always want to be a writer? What led you to focus on picture books?
No. I used to write poetry when I was very little (like 6 or 8). Apparently my play-by-play poems about Larry Bird and Roger Clemens were a hit in my family. In college I played guitar and wrote songs – however, the lyrics were more fun and quirky than ‘poetic.’

When I began reading picture books to my children, I found some really awesome ones that I loved. I often credit the following four books as my inspiration to be a writer:

• Iggy Peck, Architect by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts is written in rhyme, using clever and advanced language, about a relatively obscure topic (architecture) and I always thought that was cool.
• The Curious Garden by Peter Brown is simply beautiful art with a poignant (but not preachy) story.
• The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and David Small, written in epistolary format, evokes incredibly strong emotions (especially the wordless spread when Uncle Jim finally sees the rooftop garden).
• Vunce Upon a Time by Siobhan Vivian and J. Otto Seibold is about a vegetarian vampire. If you can write an awesome picture book about that, you can write a picture book about anything.

And like many people, I thought that if I read a lot of picture books, surely I’d be able to write one. And like all of those people, I quickly realized how wrong I was.

Aspiring writers often are unsure whether to submit to agents or editors. What advice do you have for writers wrestling with this submission decision?
My advice is this:

1. Work on your craft. Don’t think about submitting until your readers are telling you that your writing is ready. Don’t submit too early. Again, work on your craft. And once you’re sure your writing is ready…
2. Query agents. Having a good agent on your side is huge. The three biggest things an agent can do for you are:

​          a. The legal stuff. A good agent will handle your contracts, negotiations with editors, etc.                And depending on the agency, they may have a foreign rights or film/TV rights person to               handle that stuff, too. 
            b. They have access to all publishing houses. A good agent will know what editors are                      looking for which types of stories and try to match your manuscript with the right home.              No more unsolicited submissions. No more slush piles. 
           c. An experienced editorial eye. A good agent will be able to help round your manuscripts                 into the right shape before sending off to editors.
I recommend querying agents for at least six months to a year before you...
   3.  Send directly to publishers. If you don’t have success finding an agent (like me), use                     SCBWI’s The Book, The Children’s Writers’ & Illustrator’s Market, and Google to see who is              accepting unsolicited submissions and go from there. 

Many children’s writers are discouraged from writing in rhyme. You have had success with rhyme in Lady Pancake & Sir French Toast. Were you ever encouraged to write a non-rhyming version? Why do you prefer to write in rhyme?
I was never encouraged to write a non-rhyming version. For a while, I thought that my stories were only any good because of the rhyme. But I have branched out a bit and I have started writing in prose lately.
​
I do think that rhyme, when written well, adds a certain element of charm to a picture book. But it’s very hard to rhyme well – which is why many people are discouraged from writing in rhyme. Frankly, I could talk about this all day, but if you want more of my thoughts on rhyme, check out this page in the ‘References for Writers’ section of my website.

You are a participant in PiBoIdMo and a contributor to the PiBoIdMo daily posts. Have you turned any of your PiBoIdMo ideas into full manuscripts?
I just looked back through all my lists and the answer is actually, no. For some reason, November is not my best month for coming up with ideas.
 
At 24 Carrot Writing, we discuss setting writing goals. Do you set writing goals for yourself?
Hmm, I don’t think I do. (Note: these last two questions are certainly making me question myself. Ha!)
I think for me, and this goes back to the PiBoIdMo question, too, that I write when I’m inspired. When I have an idea that I love, I’ll spend a ton of time working on it. November hasn’t traditionally been that month for me, I guess. But when I do think of something good, I’m all in until it’s finished.

There are times when I feel like I haven’t written a new picture book manuscript in a few months. Then a few weeks later I’ll have first drafts of a couple new ideas, and maybe even something worth sharing with critique partners or my agent.
 
The children’s writing community is wonderfully supportive and offers many resources to aspiring and published writers. You are actively involved with The Writers’ Loft in Sherborn, MA as well as NESCBWI. How important has your involvement in the writing community been to your writing success?
The kidlit community is awesome. Not only have I been able to learn a lot from the Loft and SCBWI in regards to both the craft and the business of writing, I’ve made incredible connections with people that have helped me on personal and professional levels.

At SCBWI conferences, I’ve met critique partners as well as authors who’ve given me valuable and timely advice about querying and submitting. I met my agent through a referral of one of her existing clients, a friend I met at NESCBWI. I also met Heather Kelly, founder and empress of The Writers’ Loft.

I joined the Loft about two months after it opened in the spring of 2013 and helped start its first critique group. Now I’m on the executive board, helping to plan events, run the website and newsletter and more. I’m also co-coordinating the 2016 and 2017 New England SCBWI spring conferences (alongside Heather Kelly in 2016). So, yeah, I’d say NESCBWI, The Writers’ Loft, and the kidlit community have been pretty critical to any success I may be having.
 
Kids can be our toughest critics. Can you give one or two examples of your favorite kid feedback on your debut book?
In the small amount of fan mail I’ve received, I have to say that there are a lot of kids who would like to know if Lady Pancake and Sir French Toast ever get married. I’m going to be honest in saying that I haven’t really thought that far ahead in their lives yet. But one student made the wise suggestion that if they were to get married and have children, it would probably be a crepe (as it is a French pancake).

Crepe! That is one clever student. I love it!
Any final words of wisdom for aspiring children’s book authors?
My best piece of advice is to keep writing. My first book is never going to see the light of day. So don’t get hung up on the first one. Write a second. Then a third. Assuming you’re taking workshops and getting feedback from critique partners, each story you write will be better than the last. So keep on writing.
 
Thanks, Josh! Please share with us any events where readers (and writers!) can meet you in the upcoming weeks!
Thank YOU again for inviting me!
On December 5th at 10am, I’ll be at Wellesley Books for a Pancakes & PJ’s event.
And all the rest of my upcoming events for December can be found on my schedule of appearances page here.
 
Bio:
Josh Funk is the author of LADY PANCAKE & SIR FRENCH TOAST (Sterling), as well as the forthcoming picture books DEAR DRAGON (Viking/Penguin 2016), PIRASAURS! (Scholastic 2017), THIS ISN’T JACK AND THE BEANSTALK (Two Lions, 2017), and more.
Josh grew up in New England and studied Computer Science in school. Today, he still lives in New England and when not writing Java code or Python scripts, he drinks Java coffee and writes picture book manuscripts. Josh is a board member of The Writers' Loft in Sherborn, MA and the co-coordinator of the 2016 and 2017 New England Regional SCBWI Conferences. Find Josh Funk at joshfunkbooks.com and on Twitter at @joshfunkbooks.

by Kelly J. Carey

Fired up after Carrie Charley Brown’s ReFoReMo this past March, the 24 Carrot Writing gang has started going on bookstore field trips.


The bookstore is probably your happy place and I’m sure you go there as often as you hit the library. But have you gone there with a group of writing friends and scoured the shelves together? Have you read and shared your thoughts and opinions on the books that are displayed like a flash mob book club?

Try it! You will love it!



We usually hit the café for a brief chat and to fuel up and then we hit the stacks.  You’ll feel a little less out of place sitting crisscross applesauce with a pile of picture books next to you when three other adults are joining you. Then we read.  We share books like you‘d share bites of a fantastic dessert at your favorite restaurant.

When we find a book that we love, we can instantly share it and dissect its writing genius. We’ve found comp titles for a critique partner’s work in progress. We have collectively given books a thumb down and recognized that not every book out there will touch every heart.  More importantly, we have pooled our book industry knowledge and read with purpose and insight.  Annie might know this author’s agent. Amanda will point out that this publisher accepts unsolicited manuscripts and Francine will probably have met the agent, author or publisher because the girl is SCBWI plugged in!

Writing is a solitary endeavor, but reading for research can be a fantastic time to enjoy your writing community.  So while you are planning your summer trips, make sure to plan a bookstore trip and enjoy a Flash Mob Book Club with your writing friends. 

Dancing is optional, but you will not be able to resist buying a book or four!

~by Amanda Smith

My kids’ Summer break started last week. As most moms I am relieved. Relieved to be done with the crazy schedules and the school projects and “Do your homework.” Like most moms I look forward to slow mornings, relaxed afternoons, time for creativity, puttering in the garden, long-legged boys snuggling in my lap, fun day trips, lawn games, evening barbecues and all the other things that come with lazy summer days.

But as a writer, I am experiencing heart palpitations. Because come summertime, my writing skids to a screeching halt; or happens in rushed, frustrated intervals, filled with equal parts resentment and guilt.

At the start of these glorious three months filled with sticky kids and popsicles, I am more than three quarters through the rewrite of my novel. Having worked on it every week day since March, I have the momentum of a rhino on roller skates. I am motivated. I am in the GROOVE, baby. And I am stressed.

However, thanks to my 24 Carrot Writing colleagues and our commitment to goal setting, I have a plan. I boiled and seasoned my goal brew until I had it neatly reduced down to a robust, concentrated, doable list of summer goals.

Here are a few tips to help you come up with your own sturdy summer writing plan:

·         Have a designated writing time. I plan to get up early and write before the kids crawl out of bed.

·         Shorten your writing time. You will most likely not be able to write for multiple hours each day. Aim for 20 minute miracles.

·         Fly by the seat of your pants. Grab those quiet moments. If your kids are contently playing or reading, seize 20 minutes. These are bonus moments, though, on top of your designated time and no resentment is allowed if you are interrupted.

·         Do shorter projects, like picture books, or work on the behind the scenes stuff, like character maps or world building.

·         Work on organizational tasks, like

o    Filing those conference notes

o    Marking submission dates for editors and agents on a calendar

o   Researching agents

o   Organizing your work space

o   Planning a submission schedule

o   Rethinking your yearly goals

·         Work on query letters and pitches. HINT: Do not send any queries out with children underfoot. Tragic mistakes are made this way. Save all send-button clicking for your designated (quiet!) writing time

·         Read for research. Summer is quintessential reading time. Dive into possible mentor texts; submerge yourself in your genre; treasure-hunt for comp. titles.

 And give yourself permission to relax. To hug little ones close. To play. Because we are, after all, kid people.


How will you modify your goals to leave room for Summer fun?