Karen Sandler

Category: The Writing Life

  • #LA11SCBWI – Day 1

    To start with, that’s a heck of a ballroom, isn’t it? And that image only captures half of it. Hard not to feel intimidated.

    After registering and scrambling around for something for breakfast (the Starbucks line was monumentally long), I settled into the second row for my first major SCBWI conference.

    Teeing off was Bruce Coville with a welcoming keynote. He started out by reminding us that children are worth our best efforts, not just lip service. He talked about the importance of craft, but said that craft without inspiration is basket-weaving (and inspiration without craft is Jackson Pollock). He read a fan letter and remarked that as children’s authors we make a difference, that like a stone falling into a pond, the ripples go far beyond where the stone fell. He then listed thirteen key points to success as a writer–the first one being Marry Rich.

     

    Next, Jerry Pickney’s keynote presented the illustrator’s side of the publishing equation. As a YA author, I’m very much in the dark about picture books and the illustrators who help create them. Mr. Pickney is a fabulous artist, and even with his work enlarged to display on a giant screen, the images were jaw-droppingly beautiful. He talked about how his childhood and his family history impacted his art and how an artist should present an illustration as if looking over the shoulder of the action.

     

     

    Next was “Writing about Other Cultures” with author Rukhsana Khan. Since I wrote outside my culture in Tankborn, I appreciated getting a better understanding of what to watch out for to avoid “voice appropriation.” Rukhsana talked about how if an author writes a book about the worst in a culture outside their own, it will probably be a bestseller, but it isn’t fair or completely honest. Instead she urged us to work hard to pay attention to the social construct of a culture, to get the thought process right. We should internalize the values of a different culture, do our research and accept the customs and mores, create that world as we would in a science fiction and fantasy story.

    After a very rushed lunch (the line for sandwiches was even more monumentally long than that for Starbucks), it was on to the publisher’s panel, which included Allyn Johnston from Beach Lane (Simon & Schuster), Julie Strauss-Gabel from Dutton, Jennifer Hunt who is newly arrived at Dial/Penguin Putnam, Beverly Horowitz from Delacorte (Random House), and Debra Dorfman from Scholastic. They ran through what their imprints/houses are publishing. Generally PB to YA, although some houses focus more on one end or the other, e.g., Dial is heavier into PB and Dutton leans more toward YA. They all seemed to agree that although the adult market is sagging, YA is doing well. Beverly commented that we have to be optimistic, but realistic, that electronic doesn’t have to annihilate the physical book. Julie pointed out that there’s no single way to publish a book to success and that social media has to be genuine; kids immediately sniff out a forced effort. Debra suggested that authors put themselves out there with school visits, a website, and blog. They finished with a list of upcoming books they’re very excited about, which included Ghost Bunny (note: I could swear I heard this right, but M. Raven tells me in the comments it’s Ghost Buddy. I like my version) by Lin Oliver and Henry Winkler and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

    After taking a break during which I missed the apparently hysterically funny Libba Bray, I caught the last half-hour or so of a discussion of subsidiary rights by Tracey and Josh Adams of Adams Literary. I’ve heard them speak before and they’re always enthusiastic and informative.

    Emma Dryden gave an extensive talk on where we’re going on the digital highway, then we all headed off to the PAL (Published And Listed) reception/booksigning where I scarfed up a slider and too many spicy chicken nuggets. I then trolled for books and bought two (Hot, Hot Roti for Dada-ji and Woolbur). As Ken Min, illustrator of Hot, Hot Roti, autographed his book, he referred to the two of us as siblings since both both our books are published by Lee and Low. Which was one reason I bought his book–after all, siblings have to stick together. When I reminded Ken when Tankborn comes out, he hinted that he might just buy it (being a sibling and all).  Autographed books in hand, I staggered upstairs to blog and pray those chicken nuggets would digest.

    The only bummer of the day is that my stack of business cards vanished. I’d worked so hard to get them just right, with Tankborn‘s cover and all my contact info. I sent them down on a chair and when I went to leave, they were gone. No idea what could have happened to them. Sigh.

  • SCBWILA11 – Day 0

    Or is that Day -1? Not much of import to report. On Twitter, I’ve seen much exclaiming over luminaries at the faculty dinner, but since I’m not faculty and not yet a luminary, I’ve only met the regular folk so far. Many delightful people and a quite swanky hotel (the Century Plaza/Hyatt Regency). Met my roommate, Meredith, and we walked over to have dinner at BJ’s (where I indulged in their triple chocolate dessert involving a melty warm chocolate cookie, a scoop of chocolate-chocolate chip ice cream and a square of dark chocolate).

    Here’s the daytime view from our room on the 17th floor:

     

     

     

     

     

    Complete with renowned L.A. smog.

     

    And here’s a shot of the fountain in the median of Avenue of the Stars, as well as a pic of the hotel lobby with many attendees confabbing:

     

     

     

     

     

    I’ll report more tomorrow when I’ve attended workshops and actually have something worthy of reporting. Very much looking forward to all the excitement!

  • Rent-a-Cat

    I’m heading down to L.A. tomorrow to attend the international summer conference of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators). Although I’ve been to three regionals since I joined the organization last October, this is my first time attending the big SCBWI conference. I’m really looking forward to it.

    As a former member of Romance Writers of America, I’ve been to several of their big annual conferences, so I have some idea of what to expect. There will be too many workshops to choose from (although this time I have a spiffy app to help with that), over-air-conditioned rooms, rubber chicken lunches, and bleary-eyed mornings spent groping for coffee.

    Although I’ve pubbed plenty of romance novels, my book Tankborn, due out in September, is my very first young adult. I still feel green-as-grass, wet-behind-the-ears about the children’s market. So I plan to do the sponge thing at SCBWI LA and soak up as much wisdom as I can.

    To save on expenses, I’ve entered into an “arranged marriage” (sounds like one of my romance novels) to share a room with a fellow SCBWI member from Kentucky. I’ve done that in the past at RWA conferences and it’s both weird and fun to spend a few days with a total stranger. (Of course, there was that one conference where I roomed with three other women and ended up going home with someone else’s panties in my laundry. Eew.) I’m thinking I’m really going to enjoy my time with Meredith in L.A..

    The hotel looks like a nice one and it’s in Century City, a very vibrant part of L.A. But like any hotel, it has one drawback–no kitties. I’m used to having three of them snoozing in bed with me, snuggled up beside me or maybe draped across my head or curled up at my feet. But I will be catless for the three days of the conference.

    Here’s what I think all hotels should provide–a rent-a-cat. They should have a collection of some nice, mellow orange tabbies, or couch potato torties. Hotel guests could reserve their kitty when they reserve their room. There could be pictures posted on the hotel website with profiles of each cat. The cat of choice would be waiting for the guest in their room when they arrive, ready for belly rubs and scritches behind the ears, more than happy to curl up in a lap.

    Yeah, yeah, I can hear your objections. Some people are allergic to cats. Won’t that be traumatic for the cat? And what about that catbox?

    Minor issues all to be worked out. Just as some hotels provide smoking rooms, they can provide “cat rooms” for the non-allergic. Kitties would be chosen for their laid-back temperament and would enjoy the attention of one and all. The hotel guest can clean the cat box since they likely have plenty of practice at home.

    Yeah, not ever gonna happen. But I still think it’s a lovely idea. My toes kept toasty by a cat. The sound of purring in my ear as the hotel cat uses my pillow as his bed. And then there’s that familiar cat hair in my morning coffee.

    Just like home.

  • Censored by fear of saying the Wrong Thing

    I have a very weighty blog entry in mind, one that will be full of things I find scary to say, but things that really must be said. This is not that blog entry. This is the one about how often I keep my lip zipped due my to fear of saying the Wrong Thing.

    That is not to say that I never say anything awkward or clumsy. Au contraire, I’ve always had a real talent for putting my foot in my mouth (literally, as well as figuratively–doh, there I go again putting an embarrassing image in your minds). From childhood, I have blurted out the Thing I should not, the Observation that should have remained unsaid, the Critique I should have kept to myself. I’d get scolded, I’d feel mortified, I’d feel terrible for anyone whose feelings I hurt.

    In my more mature years, I’ve managed to put a pause on my patter. Most of the time I can take a moment before spewing out the Thing that impulse is goading me to say, to consider whether it’s such a good idea to make that joke or commentary. Sometimes I say it anyway, many times I do not.

    The downside to this is that I’ve become a bit of a coward. I’m so worried about who might be offended that sometimes I say nothing when I should be speaking up. I’m particularly worried about what I post online because of the varied audience and the permanence of words on the internet. I have this fear that I’ll spout an opinion or make a declaration that will anger some group of people so heartily that they decide they’ll Never Buy My Books. Then they’ll tell all their friends, and they’ll start an internet campaign and pretty soon no one will ever buy my books.

    Okay, that’s a wee bit on the irrational side. But it lurks in the back of my mind and I sometimes (often) wonder if those fears end up watering down what I write. Maybe my blog posts, tweets and Facebook statuses are more bland than they could be. I think I’m braver in my books, but there’s at least some self-censoring going on there too.

    I’ve been working on it though. Getting myself accustomed to definitively declaring my stand. Not in every little thing (I try to keep politics out of it), but when it’s something that’s important to me, like in this post, I’ll make a statement.

    Someone once described me as “Don’t rock the boat/rock the boat Karen.” Meaning I hate to rock the boat, but at the same time I feel compelled to rock it. I think it’s time I did a little more rocking.

  • Dystopias & Apocalyptic Dreams

    Two or three times a year, I have a post-apocalyptic dream. Not recurring; it’s different every time. Some disaster has occurred on earth. I’m living with my family under a freeway underpass or in a cave. My life as I knew it has been thoroughly altered.

    Just by itself, Freud would probably have had a field day with a dream like that, but to add to the weirdness, I really like those dreams. I always wake up with a sense of Wow, that was cool! In the dreams, I have it together, I’m powerful and doing a great job taking care of my family and battling whatever the forces are that created the apocalypse. The dreams give me a sense of well-being. Yes, very peculiar.

    I’m guessing that one thing I like about the dreams is the story aspect of them. While I’m in the dream, I’m living that post-apocalyptic life. I’m a part of the landscape, living it first-hand. When I wake, the storyline doesn’t necessarily hold up, but while I’m in it, it’s like experiencing my very own post-apocalyptic movie.

    No surprise that I love reading post-apocalyptic and dystopian books. My first YA, Tankborn, is a dystopian novel. Emptied, a work in progress, is post-apocalyptic. They’ve both been a blast to write.

    So what’s the difference between post-apocalyptic and dystopian stories? Are they essentially the same thing? Definitely not. An apocalypse is a sudden event. Life goes from complete normalcy to utter chaos within a very short time. An asteroid hits earth and the resultant dust cloud & radiation wipes out millions. A disease escapes from a secret lab and kills three-quarters of the population on the planet.

    The story would then proceed from that event, the characters struggling to survive in the midst of disaster. Alliances would be formed, enemies would sprout up to to try to defeat our main characters. By the end, our heroes would have vanquished not only the villains but the desolate landscape itself.

    The creation of a dystopia is a much more gradual process. In a dystopian novel, the evolution of the society it portrays is all backstory, and the main story reveals only hints of how that society came to be as events proceed. If the author were to detail the entire history of how the society developed before she got to the action, her readers’ eyes would glaze over and they’d toss aside the book or delete the sample from their Kindle/Nook/iPad.

    So we jump right into Hunger Games‘ staging of gladiator-style games in which youths fight to the death without knowing exactly the path society took to get there (although it’s a believable extrapolation). The Adoration of Jenna Fox doesn’t detail the decades of scientific development it took to get from today’s medicine to the mystery of how Jenna came to be. Ditto for the Uglies series, where Scott Westerfeld uses another masterful extrapolation to create an entire society that revolves around beauty and fame, in which becoming beautiful is an everyday rite of passage for teens. But none of these worlds/societies happened overnight or due to any sudden, cataclysmic event.

    An apocalypse could lead to a dystopian society, could be the trigger for it. The Forest of Hands and Teeth would qualify, in which a virus of some sort leads to a plague of unconsecrated (i.e., zombies), which then leads to a quasi-religious dystopia. But in Forest, that society took a couple hundred years to develop to the present day depicted in the book.

    If there are examples out there that prove me wrong re: the definition of dystopians vs. post-apocalyptics, I’d be interested in hearing about them. I’d also be interested in more dystopians triggered by apocalyptic events. Leave the titles in a comment.