COSCBWI Meeting April 2015

This month's Central and Southern Ohio SCBWI meeting featured a special visit from J. Patrick Lewis.  The 2011-2013 Children's Poet Laureate, J. Patrick Lewis is a prolific, award-winning children's writer with over eighty books under his belt.  Our chapter was thrilled that he was able to take time out of his busy schedule to spend an evening with us.

J. Patrick began the meeting by talking a bit about his history in publishing.  Prior to becoming a children's writer, he was an economics professor at Otterbein University.  His work was rejected for seven years, and he was strongly encouraged to give up.  The naysayers just made him want to try all the harder, though, so he kept at it, ultimately publishing his first book, The Tsar and the Amazing Cow, in 1988.  He loves speaking at schools and told us several stories of hilarious things kids have said to him over the years.  He even brings back a t-shirt from each school he visits and currently has 530 in his collection.

After his introduction, J. Patrick opened the floor for questions, and boy did our members pick his brain!  He offered great advice for writers hoping to publish children's poetry.  For reading suggestions, he recommended Robin Skelton's The Shapes of Our Singing and Louis Turco's The Book of Forms, as well as picking up a copy of Writer's Market or Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market for submission research.  He also emphasized that if you want to be a writer, you have to be a re-writer, so don't be afraid to rework and revise your precious words. 
 
Fielding questions about his own writing process, J. Patrick explained that his poems usually go through ten or twenty revisions.  While he doesn't have a critique group, he often seeks feedback from his twin brother.  If his brother says the poem is good, he feels comfortable sending it off.  But if his brother says it stinks (in that brutally-honest sibling way), he works on it some more.  When J. Patrick has a book idea, he starts with a theme and lets the words lead him from there.  He likes to write more poems than will ultimately be in the final book so the publishing house has a variety to choose from.  He explained that not all of his work gets published, and he still deals with rejection.  But perseverance and dedication are the keys to his success, so he reminded us all to never give up and write, write, WRITE! 

J. Patrick wrapped up the meeting by reading his poetry, which was a lovely, mesmerizing treat.

If you want to learn more about J. Patrick Lewis and his books, be sure to visit his website at www.jpatricklewis.com.

You can find out more about Central and Southern Ohio SCBWI and upcoming events by visiting http://ohiocensouth.scbwi.org.  I hope to see you at the May meeting!  

 Note: Photo taken by Linda Miller, used with permission.

And Busy Season is DONE!

I hate to admit it, but I have been ignoring this blog recently.  (Please don't hate me!)

I promise it was unintentional.  While I no longer work at an accounting firm, spring and autumn are still the two busiest seasons for me.  At my current job with the Ohioana Library, spring keeps me very (very) busy planning the annual "Ohioana Book Festival."  It's an awesome one-day event celebrating Ohio literature, and this year's festival was the biggest yet with over 100 authors, a new venue, and a ginormous kids' space. 

2015 festival poster art, painted by the talented Jeffrey Ebbeler.

Throw in an SCBWI illustration workshop right in the middle of this season, and let's just say the past few months have been a whirlwind.  (But blissfully free of non-stop tax return processing.  Huzzah!)

The festival just wrapped up this past weekend, and I'm happy to say it was a big success!  Now that my plate is less full, I'm excited to jump back into blogging again.  Things may be a little jumbled around here for a week or two while I do some catch-up posting from the last few months.  This site is also overdue for a bit of spiffing up, like fixing broken links and updating my portfolio page.  I promise things will be back in shipshape soon!

Thanks for bearing with me while I gave you all the silent treatment.  I hope everyone is having a lovely spring and enjoying those beautiful buds and blooms!