Attended a fascinating regional children’s book conference in Birmingham over the weekend and had a critique on a manuscript I’m hoping to sell.  There are some wonderful, knowledgeable, and giving people in this industry. Was thrilled to hear Young Adult author Lisa Yee in a keynote and the creator of SCBWI (The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators)and Lin Oliver deliver her 10 success stories keynote to end the daylong conference.

I attended Gail Karwoski’s (of Watkinsville, GA) workshop called The Nonfiction Expedition.  She was really my first introduction to non-fiction and to what is called narrative non-fiction (I learned this term today–used to call it creative non-fiction) through her book SEAMAN, Merriwether Lewis’ dog from the expedition. I’ve always recommended this book when I perform SACAJAWEA SPEAKS for fourth grade audiences.  She is energetic, a very thorough researcher, full of curiosity, skill, prolific, and truly genuine.  She writes with a passion for her subjects.  I could very much follow her research paths that lead to so many tangential material, material you hate to not include as sidebars, etc.  I think in going this route, we’re encouraging our readers or listening audiences to use our material as a starting point (first off) and then to show them that we too find connections and side stories that take us to more interesting facts and stories.  Learning is a never ending process.

Secondly I attended Linda Pratt’s session on achieving tension in your work and by accepting diagnostic evaluations by editors, agents, critics.  I had a private critique session with her and found her very insightful.  I trusted her “diagnosis” and plan to utilize her suggestions. Unfortunately she feared my book garners regional interest, not national.  I hope to prove her wrong as I love this story.  Don’t all authors fall in love with their story?  This one will be a hard one to put down or file away.  She’s an agent who formed her own agency with another woman.  They deal specifically with children’s and young adult authors, but not really with non-fiction writers.  She told me adapted folktales books were popular 10 years ago. Sigh.

From Alexandra Cooper, an editor with Simon Schuster Readers (ages 1-4) I learned that the children’s book market is very narrow these days, with Borders closing and Barnes and Noble doing away with their children’s book wall and leaning more towards educational material.  Isn’t that the purpose of chains like THE SCHOOL BOX, etc?  She said she’s looking for books with 500 or less words!  And here I’m thinking 1200 words is slim for a children’s book.  Apparently you’re allowed more words if you’re in the non-fiction genre.  Talking about making every word matter.  It is a special gift and skill to economize your writing.  At first I thought how can you have any substance in a 500 word book?  But I saw some truly beautiful and artistic ones, such as Jane Yolen’s SCARECROW DANCE, written in rhymes (something a lot of editors, etc. DO NOT LIKE!)  I can see how this is a challenge–just having completed narrowing my 7,000 word manuscript to a 1200 one.  This is where the rewriting and thinking about the value of every word makes writing children’s books so difficult.

From Lola Schaefer (also from Georgia), I saw beautiful narrative non-fiction books, some are her own. I purchased her book JUST ONE BITE and heard her “tell it.”  She serves a a consultant in schools, as well as an author in the schools.  Her passion, skill, knowledge is infectious.  I wanted to see her more in action, with children.  She is a force, very animated and skilled.  Her subjects deal more with science and nature.  I’m thinking this way I guess, obviously, since my book coming out is on honeybees.  But obviously my own work as a performer and playwright, for the most part, deals with historical subjects.  She got me thinking about symbiotic relationships…and I think I’m beginning to find the answer to a book/subject I’d like to tackle.

Lots of things to follow up on from this one day.  Was grateful to have a 3 1/2 hour drive home, to mull over some things.  To be around people who’s full time focus is on writing was wonderful…getting published, of course, is the hard part.  Great to hear and see so many success stories and witness would-be writers as well as on-the-way writers to very successful ones.

I’ll conclude with one of Lin Oliver’s morals of the story…DO THE WORK.  Perseverance and hard work are certainly the first prerequisites.  And now that my first children’s book has gone to press, it’s a different kind of work for me–GETTING OUT THE BUZZ.  More to come.

I found some google links to the debate over what’s narrative non-fiction; what’s memoir; what’s historical fiction. Google away or check out bookendslitagency.blogspot or laureltarulli.wordpress.com.

In the meantime I’ve got to go back to working as a storyteller.  Performances tomorrow at the Atlanta History Center–Halloween tales.