I’ve updated my list of Where Young Authors Can Submit. It includes contests, publications, podcasts, workshops and communities for youth who like to write. Welcome to my latest addition – YouthWrite camps for kids who write located in Alberta!
I’m happy to announce my next workshop with Whale Rock Literary Workshops. I’ll be co-teaching Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel with US author and poet Laura Shovan.
Feeling It: Creating Emotional Depth in Your Novel
Dates/Times: Thursday, Feb 15, 22, 29 and March 7 at 7:00 to 8:30 pm ET (four sessions)
Cost: $499 US
Delivery: Online with sessions recorded for later viewing“I just didn’t connect with the character.” “The character didn’t resonate with me.”
How many times do writers hear these phrases when submitting to editors and agents? These dreaded, vague responses can often leave writers scratching their heads. Was it the writing? The plotting? How can they write stories that readers can’t resist?
Emotionally deep stories grab readers’ attention and encourage them to care about the characters and their world. It’s one way to improve your writing and craft stories that readers (and agents and editors) connect to. Join Whale Rock faculty Laura Shovan and Karen Krossing for a deep-dive into getting your characters’ emotions on the page.
Participants are expected to bring a chapter from a novel at any stage of development. Each session will tackle different ways to achieve emotional depth, whether you are connecting emotionally to your writer self, your characters, or your story ideas. Sessions will include exercises and side-writing assignments and will explore drafting and revising to achieve emotional depth. Participants will have homework to complete between sessions.
Each participant will walk away with a chapter of greater emotional depth as well as the tools needed to tackle all their manuscripts. Participants will submit ten, double-spaced pages and receive feedback from one of the instructors.
This Workshop Is For You If
- You are writing a middle grade or young adult novel.
- You love plot and/or dialogue, but struggle with getting to your character’s heart.
- You’ve received the dreaded “I just didn’t connect…” feedback on your manuscript.
- You would like to explore new ways of emotional connection in your writing practice.
- You are gearing up for submission and want to be sure your book hits the emotional highs and lows.
- You are a novelist looking to enhance your skills.
To register, go to the Whale Rock website. While you’re there, please also check out their many wonderful offerings for new, emerging, and established writers for children and youth. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Whale Rock newsletter!
I participated in a picture-book chat with illustrator Dawn Lo about One Tiny Bubble, which won the 2023 SCBWI Crystal Kite Award for Canada. NYC indie bookstore Books of Wonder hosted us along with other talented picture-book creators who had won the Crystal Kite Award in their regions. This award is peer-selected, voted on by members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, so it feels like a special honour.
You can watch our Chat with Crystal Kite Award Winners. Plus, there’s a link to buy signed copies of the books!
I’m happy to announce my next workshop with Whale Rock Literary Workshops. I’ll be co-teaching a workshop on social-emotional writing in fantastic literature with US author and poet Laura Shovan. Please check out her latest book – a children’s poetry collection called Welcome to Monsterville. My books with monstrous characters and social-emotional themes include my picture book Sour Cakes and my novels Monster vs. Boy and Bog.
Addressing the Monster in the Room: Social-Emotional Writing in Fantastic Literature
Dates/Times: Sept. 21 and 28 at 7:30 to 9:00 pm ET (two sessions)
Cost: $60 US
Delivery: Online with sessions recorded for later viewingUrsula Le Guin writes in Cheek by Jowl, “What fantasy often does that the realistic novel generally cannot do is include the nonhuman as essential.”
Monsters of all sorts live in our dreams, embodying our deepest emotions. They are guides to our truth and, as such, they play a huge role in social-emotional development. While realistic fiction centers the intricacies of humans, fantastic fiction is the imagination on fire, exploring shadow versions of our world and breathing life into our inner monsters. Stories about monsters – whether they appear in a game of Dungeons and Dragons, in a poem, or in a work of fiction are essential, especially in our post-pandemic times. They help readers and listeners better understand how to manage emotions, develop healthy identities, feel empathy, and show support for others.
This two-session workshop will ask four key craft questions to help you incorporate the monstrous into your writing. What is your protagonist’s relationship to the monstrous? What are your monster’s physical, emotional, and/or magical character traits? What metaphors or image systems define your monster and why? Does your monster live alongside our real world or has the protagonist crossed into the monster’s world? Our goal is to deepen your work’s social-emotional themes, offering you and your reader an opportunity to better understand the heart, mind, and spirit.
This Workshop Is For You If
- You are drafting or revising a picture book or novel with a monstrous theme and/or character.
- You are seeking to deepen your monstrous character(s) (widely defined as invented creatures of any kind).
- You’d like to explore how monsters in fiction support social-emotional learning and themes.
To register, go to the Whale Rock website. While you’re there, please also check out their many wonderful offerings for new, emerging, and established writers for children and youth. And don’t forget to subscribe to the Whale Rock newsletter!
I’m excited to be heading to the July 21 to 29 residency for the Vermont College of Fine Arts as a Teaching Assistant in the Picture Book Intensive semester! This will be the first time the residency happens in Colorado Springs – a huge transition for everyone. I’ll be working with faculty member Loree Griffin Burns to support the students during residency and for the rest of the semester too. I’ll also be delivering a lecture and reading. It’s a great opportunity for me to learn more about how to mentor children’s writers. I’ve been prepping my lecture, and I can’t wait to share it. Plus, it’ll be wonderful to soak up all the wisdom and creative energy of an in-person residency. I’m especially excited to connect with my fellow Teaching Assistant Laura Obuobi, author of the fabulous picture book Black Gold, and to see so many friends deliver their graduating lectures. These writers are brilliant, folks.
Here’s my lecture topic. If it’s available to the public, I’ll be sure to share a link:
Generating Story Approaches: How Else Can You Tell It?
You’ve written a good story, or you have a good story idea. How can you make it great? One way is to improve the writing craft skills you’ll need to write it. Another is to consider the optimal approach to writing it. Taking the time to generate and assess alternative story approaches at the start of your writing process and during revision can elevate a good story to greatness. This lecture will explore the process of generating alternative story approaches using mentor texts as our guides.
While I’m in Colorado, I’ll also be visiting local bookstore Tattered Cover for a reading and presentation of my new middle-grade novel Monster vs. Boy, which will be published on July 11. If you’re around and available, I would love to see friends there!
When: Saturday, July 29 at 6 to 8 pm
Where: Tattered Cover Book Store, 112 N. Tejon St, Colorado Springs
