Sally Rippin's Blog, page 5

Last weekend I attended my first international SCBWI conference in Los Angeles. I was extremely fortunate to receive funding to attend this conference from CAL, so I shall do my very best to report back all that I learned as well as the conference highlights for me.

1) The news is good! Editors, Publishers, marketing people report that the current vibe in publishing is 'cautiously optimistic'. Picture books, having suffered a slump in the US recently, are being picked up again and overall, children's books generated the strongest sales in all areas of publishing.

2) Arthur Levine (Scholastic USA) gave the opening address and was asked to speak on 'timeless' books he has worked on. Along with a few of the expected books (the Harry Potter series) he gushed over Shaun Tan's 'The Arrival', which of course made me very proud. ('I know him!' I whispered to the person sitting next to me.)

3) Tony Diterlizzi (co-author of The Spiderwick Chronicles) gave a fabulous and amusing keynote, which made me think I really need to lift my game as a public speaker. Towards the end of the conference, I began to think Americans must have a gene that makes them naturally confident, articulate and amusing as soon as you put them on a stage in front of a microphone. After all there were 1234 people in the audience and even the DEBUT authors showed no sign of nerves!

4) After sitting in on a 'breakout' session with a Hollywood screenwriter-turned YA novelist on how to make my novel better by pitching 'High Concept' ideas to her I was starting to feel completely out of my depth. Fortunately, a later keynote I attended was given by a wonderful author called Patricia Maclachlan, who spoke of writing in the way that it has always been for me: sometimes frightening, occasionally exhilarating, often frustrating and always time-taking. To me, the speakers swung dizzyingly between the Hollywood-style-high-concept-self-marketing-get a book out every six months style to the slower-paced-angsty-self-doubty-'quiet book' that I am more familiar (i.e. comfortable) with.

5) And that was only the first day!

6) Saturday I attended an editors' panel, some more workshops and an incredibly moving keynote speech by Ruta Sepetys who spoke of researching her family's devastating story of life in Latvia under Stalin's reign. How she managed to have us first laughing then bawling then laughing again is beyond me. Later, she ran a great session on touring internationally full of practical details and useful advice that once again left me feeling very backwater.

7) That evening I wagged the 60s themed dance party. I wasn't feeling quite up to dressing up as a hippy and dancing with 1233 strangers so just watched the party from my balcony.

8) Sunday morning was another panel of editors. Apparently, as always, every publisher is just looking for "a good story well told". E-books haven't taken off in children's publishing as much as for adult books but one editor believes that the future of print books will be as beautiful archival objects. I liked that. When working with publishers, we were advised to be flexible and let go of our egos. Oh, and social networking is unavoidable. Everyone must do it. But BE PROFESSIONAL. One agent said she had turned down three prospective clients after looking them up on Facebook. So, untag those drunken party shots and hold back that bitching - someone out there might actually be reading you!

9) The Sunday afternoon marketing overview reiterated much of what the publishers, authors and editors had been saying, that children's publishing was still strong. Middle grade novels are currently in demand, after a glut of YA fiction. There is less interest in vampire and supernatural fiction and more interest in contemporary settings with characters that readers can relate to. BUT we were warned not to pay too much attention to trends. In the end you need to write the book you need to write.

10) Lastly, I will finish with a quote from Somerset Maugham given by author Karen Cushman that I think is probably the most relevant piece of information I took away from the weekend (and was grateful to be reminded of it after feeling extremely overwhelmed by all the conflicting advice I received). So, here it is:

"There are three rules for writing... unfortunately no one knows what they are."

In the end, writing is like riding a bike. You can study the manual, take courses in balance and aerodynamics, endlessly watch other people ride their bikes, but unless you get on that bike, and ride and ride and ride, you will never really learn it for yourself.

I've chosen this picture above as I think it best sums up my week in Los Angeles, the 'city of stars'. Whether you're already a star, on your way to becoming a star or just a star-in-waiting, it's easy to get the impression that star-spotting is what this city is all about. We started out by doing all the touristy things like visiting Universal Studios and Madame Tussaud's wax museum and got our photos taken with Brad Pitt and Lady Gaga.* We took one of those double-decker tour buses around Hollywood, where the recorded guide pointed out where you could potentially spot a star, shop where the stars do, get a glimpse of where the stars live and even eat at the same hot dog stand where stars have been known to eat. After three days of touristy (nearly) star-spotting, I thought it was time to see another part of LA. 
It was then that I remembered the fabulous Pigeons had told me the Valencia 826 crew had a branch in Los Angeles. If you don't know about Pigeons or Valencia 826, you really should. Valencia 826 was started by author Dave Eggers in San Francisco as a drop-in after school tutor centre run by volunteers, often local authors, to help under-priviledged kids with their homework and story writing. Our own lovely Pigeons' founders Lachlann Carter and Jenna Williams had done an internship at Valencia 826 in San Fran and are now in the process of beginning a similar project in Melbourne. I looked up the address, there were two in LA, the closest one in Venice Beach. So, we set our GPS coordinates and headed down Venice Boulevard.
At first we couldn't find it. I had expected a fancy store front - or at least a flashy big sign. In San Franscisco the centre is hidden behind a pirate supply store, in Sydney, the equivalent is tucked behind a store for martians. We pulled up outside an old police station, now run as a community Arts hub. A woman at the front desk directed us to the second floor where, all that showed us where the Valencia 826 people were to be found, was a little piece of paper on a door. Now you have to understand, this organisation has almost taken on iconic status around the world. Dave Eggers started it, Roddy Doyle opened one in Ireland, Markus Zusak is patron of the Sydney one - these people are all my heroes, so I was very humbled to see how simple these offices really were. 
A school holiday program had just finished so we were able to be shown around by a very kind volunteer. There was not much to look at other than a classroom and a simple office space. We bought a couple of books made by students, took some flyers, and that was it. Everything but flashy. On our way out, another volunteer suggested we check out the gallery downstairs, converted from the old jail at the back of the police station. The notice inside the doorway explained that the exhibition of poems and photographs on the white-washed walls was from a program to provide services for incarcerated young people and those reentering the community. 
It was a small exhibition, but incredibly moving. One poem was of a young man apologising to his mother for all the hurt he had caused her, another trying to understand how he had gone from a straight-A student to finding himself in jail. The average age of the writers was seventeen. Younger than my oldest son. I walked away from the community centre both touched and inspired that while I had glimpsed a part of LA that wasn't all money and celebrities, I had finally spotted some stars. Those volunteers at Valencia 826 and the community workers helping young people at risk, so that they might have the same opportunities as those who shop on Rodeo Drive.
Next stop: New Orleans. But I will try and squeeze in a post before on the awe-inspiring, overwhelming, truly gigantic SCBWI conference I attended over the weekend.
*I have photos! But haven't managed to get them on my laptop yet. I will insert them as soon as I can. Come back and see!

I just received the exciting news that Billie B Brown The Big Sister has won The Australian Family Therapist's Award for children's literature. I guess it goes without saying that I am truly thrilled. It's been a big year for Billie!

For any Billie fans out there who'd like to get their hands on the whole collection!
All details at: http://bulletins.billiebbrownboard.com/
Good luck!

In just under two weeks, my beloved and I, along with our youngest, will be heading west to the sunny shores and bright lights of Los Angeles. I am an incredibly grateful recipient of a CAL Cultural Fund grant, which I received in order to attend the 2012 SCBWI Summer Conference in Los Angeles over the first weekend in August. I have been to one of these conferences before, in 1999, in Paris, when I was living in France, and it was an unforgettable experience. As a brand new author, I learnt so much and made some great friends, some of whom I am still in touch with today. (See below!)
Then, if that's not exciting enough, the three of us will be staying on to do a spot of travelling. After all, it's an awful long way to fly for a three day conference! While in Los Angeles we will take a day trip to San Diego to visit  Kane Miller the US publishers of the Billie and Jack series, to be released there in August. I do hope that American children will love Billie and Jack!
After the conference, we will visit my dear friend Whitney Stewart in New Orleans. I met Whitney at the conference in Paris and a few years down the track, we worked on a book together called Becoming Buddha, which was published both in Australia and the US. As we have another book in the pipeline I thought we absolutely HAD to get together to chat about it about over tea and biscuits. Or, would that be mint julep and crawfish? Email and Facebook are only so effective...
Lastly, we are spending a few days in New York. After all, you can't go to the US and NOT go to New York, can you? We are staying at the quaintly eccentric-sounding Library Hotel. ("Each of the 10 guestroom floors honor one of the 10 categories of the Dewey Decimal System and each of the 60 rooms explore a distinctive topic within the category it belongs to." Book-nerdy enough for you?) While in New York we have booked to see The Lion King on Broadway for my youngest, mainly because I am always SO shocked at the prices of musicals in Melbourne I figured if he was only ever going to see one it better be a big one!
So, there's a brief itinerary for you. I guess it goes without saying that we are beside ourselves with excitement. I will try my best to post some touristy/funny/interesting things for your reading pleasure while we are away.

Over the last few months I have been busy working on a new series of books for Penguin as a part of their Our Australian Girl series. I'm really excited to be involved in this series written by some great Australian authors and full of such wonderful characters and stories.
I was lucky enough to be given the choice of era so have chosen to write about 1956 Carlton, Melbourne, and my character is from an Italian migrant family. This was an easy choice for me. My partner's family came to Australia from Italy in the 50s, and since I have known him I have loved listening to stories of their first years in Melbourne. There were some really tough times, but some beautiful moments, too, and I am always moved by his family's fierce loyalty created through having been through so much together. As far as they are concerned, even if you came from the same village you are family. Sadly, in the twelve years since I have known my partner, many of the older generation are no longer here and these stories shared over the table have become fewer and far between. I hope by writing this series I can preserve some of these stories and hand them down to the next generation who may find it hard to imagine their grandmothers/nonnas/yayas/nai-nais as young girls in skirts with hearts full of hopes and heads full of dreams.
I will be posting much more on this over the next few months so stay tuned.

So Saturday afternoon, I went down to Fed Square, partner and child in tow, to open the third reading of The Mystery of a Hansom Cab as a part of The Light In Winter program directed by the fabulous Robyn Archer. Can I firstly say how much I am in love with Fed Square at the moment? It is jam-packed with so many beautiful, inspiring, fascinating, energising things going on that you could spend every day down there over the next two weeks and never see the same thing. Whether you are into Fred Williams or body art, book readings or hip-hop, there is something there for everyone.* How lucky are we in Melbourne to have snaffled Ms Archer from those Adelaidians?

I was very excited to meet Robyn and within the first few minutes of entering the room blurted out a story to her about the first time we had met when I was only a child. In the early 80s, my mother worked on a children's newspaper called Kids' Times. I was around twelve or thirteen, and already liked to think of myself as a budding author/illustrator. As they were often short on readily available children, my sisters and I featured quite heavily in the newspaper, occasionally even dressed up as boys to even up the gender imbalance. (My sister had very short hair at the time, and I guess if you squinted your eyes...)

Anyway, one of the perks of being the editor's daughter, other than having a cartoon column all to myself (I think they were a little short on contributors), meant I sometimes got to go along with my mother to interview children's authors for the newspaper. Remember, this was long before children's authors were in every school and at every festival, so this was a big deal for me. At that time, Robyn Archer and New Yorker cartoonist Victoria Roberts, had collaborated on a children's book called 'Mrs Bottle Burps'. I loved Victoria's quirky illustrations, so happily went along to be the interviewer.

While I was thrilled to meet Victoria and have her do a little drawing in my book, it was Robyn who left the most profound impression on me. I'm embarrassed to say that I don't even really remember what we spoke about, only that she was so impressive, but equally so warm and generous in encouraging my aspirations to be a writer that I will be bold enough to say that along with my year seven English teacher who would read my stories out aloud in class and my year twelve Art teacher who took me to art exhibitions on weekends, Robyn's words, whatever they were, helped fan that little creative fire inside me.

Of course, Robyn didn't remember me, just as I am sure I won't remember all the wonderful children I meet on book tours and school visits, or who send me letters and emails, asking advice or confessing their writerly ambitions to me, but I guess I can only hope that I may have said something encouraging or helpful or sensible enough that perhaps ten, twenty, thirty years down the track a writer might look back and feel that I too could have influenced them enough to keep that fire inside them burning, the way that Robyn Archer did for me.


*If you go down there tonight, you will catch Alice Pung and guests at BMW edge on How We Read The World

Hey there, I was very excited to receive the news today that Billie B Brown The Big Sister has been shortlisted for a YABBA* award. This is a kids' choice award, so it is extra thrilling to be on the shortlist and in the company of such wonderful children's authors. I am often asked by children 'Which is my favourite Billie book?' and honestly, I really don't know the answer to that question, but all the same, this one is pretty special to me.

This is the book when Billie's baby brother, Noah arrives, and Billie feels quite ambivalent about the whole thing. Aside from having expected a little sister, not a brother, Billie isn't sure she likes the idea of her mother going away to hospital - without her! Also, this is the book I was writing when my own dear publisher was very pregnant with her own little bundle of joy, so the book is dedicated to her and her baby daughter. Thanks Hilary!

*The full shortlist and more information about the awards can be found on the YABBA website, included in the link.

I am lucky enough to be travelling to Queensland twice over the next two months. I love heading up north when Melbourne skies are grey. This week I will be appearing at the Voices on the Coast festival on Monday and Tuesday, including a session for teachers Tuesday evening, then on Wednesday, Christopher Cheng and I will be at various libraries around the Sunshine Coast.

Then, on July 10th I will be speaking at a PD session at Riverbend Bookstore on my children's novel Angel Creek, along with three other fabulous Text authors: Richard Newsome, Paula Weston and Paul Griffin. Here is all the information (below). Love to see you there!

Two new Billie books for June!

The ideas behind these two Billie stories came from some of my childhood fears. I love swimming now, but didn't learn to swim until I was almost at the end of primary school, which, for some reason, seemed to be long after everyone else I knew could swim. I still remember that moment of panic when my swimming teacher (who seemed brutally cruel at the time) insisted I jump in and doggie paddle to the other side. Hard to believe that something that comes so naturally now could have been so terrifying for me as a child.

And how about scary movies? I still hate them, but as a child was never brave enough to say so when all my friends wanted to watch them. In fact, I never really got that 'being scared for thrills' thing: rides at the show, horror movies, going fast downhill on your bike. I also remember a period of time at primary school when I was plagued by recurring nightmares and worries. I was a very big worrier as a child. Probably even more so than now. Now, I can think my way out of my fears and worries in a way I wasn't able to as a child.

Adults often forget what a scary place childhood can be, we usually prefer to think of it as a golden time, but you only need to sit with your memories for a while to know that this isn't the case. Remembering these things, and remembering them without trivialising them through an adult's perspective, helps me not only empathise and understand the children in my life, but also the young characters I write about.