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WIFYR Success Stories, Part 2

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Earlier on the blog we featured several writers who got their start at WIFYR. This week we’ll start off with some stories from some of our resident illustrators, as well as many more from past attendees. We hope you enjoy their inspiring stories!books

A few years ago Jed Henry had never been published. He’d been an artist all his life, studying art in college and graduating from a prestigious animation program. But though he enjoyed his schooling, his true aspiration was to become a children’s illustrator. The problem was, he didn’t know where to start. That’s when oneof his friends told him about WIFYR conference.  He says, “Attending [WIFYR] was my first step into the world of publishing.  Before the conference, I had no idea what I was getting into.  But during that week of workshops and classes, I learned a lot.  Most importantly, I made connections that lead to other opportunities.”

After the conference, Henry had his hands full. He writes, “I made dozens of illustrations, and wrote manuscript after manuscript.  With each piece, I felt myself getting a little better. Finally, I got a lucky break when an illustrator friend introduced me to his agent.” With the help of his agent, Henry illustrated his first book, Pick a Pup. He went on to illustrate Can’t Wait Till Christmas, and Just Say Boo!. He has also written and illustrated two of his own picture books, I Speak Dinosaur! and Cheer Up, Mouse! He has three books due for release in 2013, including Good Night, Mouse!, a sequel to Cheer Up, Mouse! To aspiring writers and illustrators he says, “Honing one’s craft takes time and hard work.  You may not get discovered your first year at the conference.  But youwill learn a ton, and if you’re serious about writing or illustrating, you’ll do what it takes to make the most of this conference.  It’s an amazing opportunity.”

Another illustrator and past WIFYR attendee, Matthew Armstrong, met his agent at the WIFYR conference as well. He has since written and illustrated several books for young readers, including a popular pop-up retelling of the classic Narnia tales. He also won the 2005 Benjamin Franklin Award for his illustrations in The Blacksmith’s Gift.

Illustrators Scott Franson and Sherry Meideell also attended the illustrator workshop at WIFYR conference. It was here that Franson sold his first picture book, the wordless tale Un-brella, published in April 2007. Meidell, meanwhile, made connections with her now-agent Steve Fraser, who will return to the conference this year as one of our special guests. Since then, Meidell has gone on to illustrate nine picture books.

Of course, illustrators aren’t the only ones who make connections at WIFYR conference. Rick Walton, a highly-published author of picture books, chapter books, joke books (and more!) says attending conferences like WIFYR is an essential part of becoming a published author. At conferences, writers and illustrators are able to network, not just with each other, but with agents and editors, too:  “Actually,most of my sales have come about through networking, from meeting people at conferences or other events,” he says. “It’s not the only way to get published obviously, but for me it’s the most effective.” The WIFYR conference led directly to at least three picture book sales for Walton.

Ann Dee Ellis, author of This is What I Did and Everything is Fine, feels that the instruction she got as an attendee was as valuable as the contacts she made. She writes, “I attended the conference while I was in graduate school. I had no idea what to expect. I was both surprised and excited after the first day. It was much more hands-on than I had expected. Not only did I get to have a group of peers plus a published and accomplished author read and critique my work, I got to meet editors and an agent from New York. I got to hear what they were looking for, learn what the business of writing entailed and received valuable tips on craft. I left the conference feeling rejuvenated and encouraged.
“The second year I attended, the author that was directing my workshop, Virginia Euwer Wolff, had a specific request from a new agent back in New York to look for writers that he might want to represent. After workshopping my piece, Virginia suggested I send him some of my manuscript. What?! Yay! I sent him the first few pages and, within a few weeks, had an awesome agent, and soon thereafter a contract. I can honestly say that the Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers conference launched my career.” Ellis has since returned to WIFYR several times as an instructor.The conference has also put established authors in touch with editors and agents. Claudia Mills, author of dozens of YA and middle grade novels, first came to the conference as an instructor several years ago. While there, she met the person who would become her agent. She also met the editor to whom her agent would sell a new series. But she didn’tgain just professional contacts; “I met wonderful writers who helped me grow in my craft and whose friendship I will always cherish,” she says.

WIFYR conference has also been useful for beginning writers, and we hope to see several of our past attendees in print soon. Here is a list of past attendees who are now on the road to publication:Taryn Albright, winner of last year’s Annual Writing Contest, received a great deal of feedback from agent Mary Kole, creator of the popular kidlit.com website. After extensive revisions, Albright later signed with agent Molly Ker Hawn of the Bent Agency. She hopes to have a contract soon.

Courtney Alameda, a longtime WIFYR participant, signed last year with agent John Cusick. Her book, Shutter, will be published by Feiwell & Friends in 2014.

Kate Coursey, 19-year-old YA writer from Salt Lake City, was in a workshop with writer Alane Ferguson. Ferguson introduced Coursey to her agent, Edward Necarsulmer of McIntosh & Otis. Coursey signed with Necarsulmer soon after. Her book is undergoing revisions at Scholastic Press.

We’d love to see your name added to this list, and we know you would too. WIFYR may be just what you need to jump-start your writing/illustrating career. At the conference you will practice your craft, make new connections, and learn important skills to help you get published. Keep checking for more updates from our authors, and go see this year’s lineup at wifyr.com.

Author Interview: Kris Chandler

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Kris Chandler’s first stories were told for cookies. When she was five years old, she was paid in cookies to tell stories to a toddler in her neighborhood. Fortunately, she didn’t stop there. We are delighted that she is teaching at WIFYR this June. Here’s more about Kristen.

Q: When did you know books for kids was the place for you?

A: I started out writing adult novels but teenagers kept taking over my books. Eventually I figured out my characters were trying to tell me something. Also, my first year of teaching I listened to To Kill A Mocking Bird on tape while I was commuting. I had resisted reading it in high school for some reason and just never gotten around to reading it until then. But hearing Scout’s voice in the solitude of my crummy car hypnotized me. I was late for class because I was sitting in the parking lot with my radio on. I realized then that voice was the whole shebang to me.

Q: What is your favorite line that you have ever written or read that someone else wrote and why?

A: YIKES! That’s so much pressure.

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

I’m not alone in this of course. But yeah… I think it was Fitzgerald’s favorite line too and it ruined him.

When you are immersed in a book, what makes you know that this is the book you need to write?

I forget I’m writing.

Q: How did you get started in this industry?

A: My neighbor gave me cookies to tell stories to her daughter.

Q: If you weren’t a writer, what would you do?

A: Truthfully? I love teaching! But I was really close to going into law. For ten years I said, “The LSAT’s in November.” Luckily I worked in a law firm to get through grad school so I knew that lawyers made more money than writers and teachers but they didn’t seem too happy about it.

Q: What is your favorite city and why?

A: I try to love wherever I am. But I’m a hardcore travel junkie. I wish I had a place in McLeod, Montana. Maybe because I’ve never been there.

Q: How often do you write a piece before it’s where you think it should be so you can show it to someone else?

A: It totally depends on how good it is and how needy I am.

Q: What is the best advice you have ever received for this business we are in?

A: “Do something else if you can.” “Don’t quit your day job.” Totally blew off both suggestions.

Q: What is your best writing exercise to help someone get stronger as a writer?

A: Live and then tell the truth about it.

Q: What does your typical day look like?

A: It looks a lot like my computer. But I get up early and write before my kids get up and then write when they go to school and then do my other writing job at night when they settle down.

Q: What happens when the writing just isn’t coming out as you think it should?

A: I go running or take my dog for walk. Sometimes I whine. I read other writers. Then I work more.

Learn more about Kris, view her WIFYR bio and class information.

http://www.wifyr.com/biokrischandler.php

Author Interview: Cheri Pray Earl

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It’s a pleasure to welcome Cheri Pray Earl to WIFYR again. She has been involved with the conference for many years. Those attending her morning workshop will rescue stalled-out novel manuscripts and paddle through the murky middles. It’s sure to be a great experience. Now on to the interview.

Q: What is your favorite paragraph that you have ever written or read that someone else wrote and why?

A: “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between.  Boo was our neighbor.  He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.  But neighbors give in return.  We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.”—Scout, To Kill a Mockingbird

I can’t say I have a favorite line/paragraph really, but this comes close. It’s full of voice, rhythm, emotion, nostalgia, meaning. It brings up the emotion of the whole book for me.

Q: If you weren’t a writer, what would you do?

A: Teach writing, which is what I do that keeps me from writing. I love irony . . .

Q: How often do you write a piece before it’s where you think it should be so you can show it to someone else?

A: Do you mean how many times do I revise a piece before it’s good enough to show someone? I hope that’s what you mean because that’s the question I’m answering. I revise my first few (two to three) chapters maybe a dozen times before I show them to anyone. I might show bits and pieces earlier than that, but not the whole. The narrative voice of a novel is hard for me to nail down, so I keep rewriting the beginning until I get that part right. Then I can move on with the story.

Q: What is your best writing exercise to help someone get stronger as a writer?

A:  My favorite exercise is Routine, Disruption, and Drama from The Portable MFA. It goes like this:

Frank O’Connor says (in his book, The Lonely Voice) that a story requires three elements: exposition, development, and drama. You know that your beginning plot portion is strong if you can summarize your story in three lines, with each line relating to one of these elements. For example:

  • Exposition: John Fortescue was a solicitor in the little town of X. (Routine)
  • Development: One day, Mrs. Fortescue told him she was leaving him for another man. (Disruption of routine)
  • Drama: “You’ll do nothing of the kind,” he said. (What the protagonist will struggle for, in this case, his marriage.)

Another favorite is a writing exercise that sort of mimics what Hemingway (and Steinbeck, too) does with setting up a scene. This one works for me and for my students because we all need to work on creating richer settings. Here it is:

Write six descriptive sentences without a character (second three sentences elaborate on the first three). Then have the character(s) enter the setting you have created; write at least 4 lines of dialogue. No more than 500 words total.

Learn more about Cheri, view her WIFYR bio and class information.

http://www.wifyr.com/biocheriprayearl.php

Permission to Write: How J. Scott Savage Finally Wrote Farworld

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In February I went to a launch party for J. Scott Savage’s book Air Keep, the third in his Farworld series. The Provo Library put it on, and it was a great event (think: face painting, sugar cookies, cardboard cutouts). But before all the festivities took place, J. Scott Savage took a few minutes to talk about writing the Farworld series. Farworld 3 Cover

He started off by telling us that he’d had the idea for a long time. It was an idea that wouldn’t let him go, though he knew it would be different than anything he’d written before. Savage considered himself a writer of adult books, and this new idea was about a boy in a wheelchair. It was also about magic—one of Savage’s favorite genres to read, but not one he’d ever tried to write.

He put it out of his head and went on with his other work, but the idea kept popping up again and again.

Finally, he’d had enough. He decided to prove to himself that he couldn’t write a YA Fantasy.

He was traveling for work, staying in a hotel room, and thinking about Farworld again. And even though he wasn’t convinced it was something he could pull off, he pulled out his laptop, opened a blank document, and began to type.

He wrote for an hour at first, then two, then three. Then, in what seemed like a second, he sat back and saw the first bits of daylight peeking through the windows. He’d not only written into the night, he’d written through it.

Taking Savage’s story to heart, this week I wanted to prove something to myself: I’m not a picture book writer. Over the years I’ve had lots of ideas for picture books. Some of them good, some of them embarrassing and awful. And, like Savage, I never gave myself permission to take any of these ideas seriously. I write novels, not picture books.

But this week I sat down with my idea and an empty notebook. I had kids dumping legos all over each other and pulling fur off the cat, but amid the chaos I set my pen down and wrote through what was rattling around in my head. I wrote and wrote and wrote, and I poured out three bowls of applesauce (and wiped applesauce off the floor and the couch and the wall, why was it on the wall?), and then I wrote some more.

And after an hour I’d filled up five pages, front and back, of notes and prose. It wasn’t Where the Wild Things Are, but it was something. Some of it was even funny. I revised and re-arranged and tossed some pages and wrote new ones. As I did, I thought about other ideas that, with my permission, I’ll also write down.  I didn’t fail as miserably as I thought I would, and though the manuscript is far from perfect, I’m surprised with how the wiggly idea grew into a real story.

Perhaps you’re like me, telling yourself that you can’t write picture books or novels or The Great American Dystopian Romance (is that a thing?). Maybe you have an idea wiggling in your head, an idea that’s been dancing like mad around in your brain for ages. Or maybe your idea is more of a wall-flower: quiet, doing a half-shimmy in the corner. Either way, it won’t stop wiggling until you give yourself permission to write it down.

If you’re interested in more stories from published authors, check out our morning workshops. J. Scott Savage is teaching our middle grade class this year, and promises to bring his best, wiggliest ideas with him. Earlybird registration ends in three days (gasp!) so hurry on over and sign up.

Also, don’t forget to check out our Spread the Word Contest, going on right now at the blog. Click here for details.

New Contest: Spread the Word about WIFYR

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New contest: Share the WIFYR Word! The person who gets the word out to the most places/people will win a page critique from a soon-to-be announced surprise guest.

Here’s how it works: Talk about what you love about the WIFYR conference in every way you can. Blog, post, tweet, email, tell friends. Suggestions: let them know about the deadline extension for the WIFYR writing contest with its award of $1000 plus potential publication, the a la carte mini workshops, remind people about the early bird registration extension, the free Keynote speech with Utah’s Poet Laureate Lance Larsen, the discount for SCBWI members, etc. Limit of two posts per day on Facebook and Twitter. When tweeting, please use the hashtag #wifyr2013. You will also get points for liking the WIFYR Facebook page, signing up for the WIFYR email newsletter list, or making comments on the blog.

Us the comments box below to tell us how many times you shared the WIFYR word, and please include a list of places you posted, including blog links, and remember to use #wifyr2013 when you tweet.

Interview: Matthew J. Kirby

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We are very excited to welcome Matthew Kirby to WIFYR for the second year in a row.  Matt says that when he attended WIFYR he “learned more in on week than writing on his own for seven years.” (See WIFYR Success Stories.) Matt met his agent, Steven Fraser, at WIFYR. We are very excited that Steven will be joining the conference again this year.

Q: What is your favorite line that you have ever written or read that someone else wrote and why?

There is a line in the novel A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA I will always remember. The main character, Ged, is engaging in an act of forbidden magic, opening a portal to another realm, only something out of his control manages to come through the rift. The line reads: “And through that bright misshapen breach clambered something like a clot of black shadow, quick and hideous, and it leaped straight out at Ged’s face.” For some reason, that line, those words, at that time, made me aware of the power of stories and the work of the storyteller. The reading of that sentence was literally the moment I knew I wanted to be a writer.

Q: How did you get started in this industry?

A: I’d been trying to write for adults for several years, but hadn’t had any significant success. I was actually pretty close to the point of giving up when I had an epiphany one day and realized I might have been writing the wrong kind of thing. I wondered if I was a children’s writer. I went home and joined SCBWI that day, and through them learned of the WIFYR conference. I signed up and attended Martine Leavitt’s workshop in 2008, I believe, and also met Stephen Fraser, who became my agent the following year. He soon sold my debut, THE CLOCKWORK THREE, to Lisa Sandell at Scholastic.

Q: What is the best advice you have ever received for this business we are in?

A: Martine Leavitt gave me a piece of advice I’ve never forgotten, and which I credit with the success I’ve had. During a one-on-one talk, she told me, “Matt, give yourself permission right now to treat writing like a career.” I wasn’t published at the time, so I didn’t think of writing as a career. It was a hobby. A passion. Not yet a career. But I took her advice, and it changed the way I approached my writing in a profound way. I became more disciplined. I became more focused and goal-directed. And something else unexpected happened. I started to look and think beyond whatever book I was currently writing. After all, I wanted to hopefully publish many books during my career, and that perspective has helped me to see when a project needed to be let go, or set aside, to move on to the next. It helped me to see that my whole writing life did not rise or fall with the success of one manuscript. I still carry that advice with me, and it guides me even today.

Q: What does your typical day look like?

A: I generally wake up around 8 AM. But I’m not a morning person, so I dawdle quite a bit as I make breakfast, feed the dogs, and get ready for the day. I usually take care of some emails, twitter, that kind of thing for a little bit, and then I dive into either research or writing, depending on where I’m at with a project. If I get hungry at lunchtime, I take a break. If not, I keep working. I try to put in a full day, 6 to 8 hours, either writing or handling the business side of things. Of course, this schedule is shot to hell when I’m under deadline, because I don’t always manage my time well, and I procrastinate. With my latest book, for example, in the final 24 hours before it was due, I wrote 15 thousand words, and slept very little.

Learn more about Matt, view his WIFYR bio and class information.

http://www.wifyr.com/biomattkirby.php

Deadlines are Approaching

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The Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers Conference (WIFYR) is dedicated to helping beginners to professionals hone their craft. The five day morning workshops and shorter mini workshops offer small-group learning and include faculty and group critiques. Round off each day with afternoon lectures from a variety of professional faculty, agents and editors.

Early Bird pricing ends April 30, 2013, so enroll now!

Second Annual WIFYR Writing Contest
Hurry, time is running out! This excellent contest features a prize of 1000 dollars and a chance to be published through Familius Publishing! However this great contest ends on April 27th at midnight, so don’t waste any time.

Julie Olsen on Fresh Living Again

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Julie Olsen will again be featured on Utah’s KUTV channel 2′s Fresh Living show at 1pm Wednesday the 17th, today!

JulieOlsenInterviewAuthor/Illustrator Julie Olsen who attends this year’s WIFYR conference will again be featured on Utah’s KUTV channel 2′s Fresh Living show at 1pm Wednesday the 17th, today! If you missed the interview last time, you can see it on her blog, here:
http://jujubeeillustrations.blogspot.com/2013/03/tv-interview-on-becoming.html

If you are unable to see this second interview, it will also be posted on Julie’s blog when available.

Interview: Martine Leavitt

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Today’s interview is with Martine Leavitt, who returns to WIFYR in June to teach the Specialty Novel Class. Martine’s young adult novels have garnered many awards and honors in the United States and Canada. Tom Finder won a Mr. Christie’s Book Award, Heck Superhero was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award and Keturah and Lord Death was a finalist for the National Book Award. It is an honor to welcome Martine back.

Q: When did you know books for kids was the place for you?

A: I knew books for kids was the place for me when I realized that most of the books I loved were for children or young adults, and that all the adult books I loved started out with the protagonist as a child and I got bored as soon as the child grew up. I want to say to the characters in all adult fiction: oh for heaven’s sake get a grip.

Q: If you weren’t a writer, what would you do?

A: If I weren’t a writer, I would be a nurse. Sometimes I fantasize about being a nurse, the kind that soothes your feverish brow with her bare hand and gets the IV in on the first try. I toy with the idea of giving up writing and going to nursing school, but I am too old now – not because they wouldn’t let me in to nursing school, but because when the very young doctor gave me orders I would want to pop a pacifier in his mouth.

Q: What is your favorite city and why?

A: My favorite city is the one I live in. A half hour to the west and I’m in the gorgeous Rocky Mountains. A half hour to the east and I’m in my beloved prairie. A half an hour to the north and I’m in the big city. A half an hour to the south and…. well, I’m nowhere. But still…

Q: What is the best advice you have ever received for this business we are in?

A: One of the best bits of advice I ever got was to expect writing to be hard. I thought there was something wrong with me because it was so hard. But no. It is hard. It’s always hard. Get used to it.

Learn more about Martine Leavitt: http://www.wifyr.com/biomartineleavitt.php