Space City Scribes

By Margaret Lea If it hadn’t been for a high school football injury, Robert Paul Jr. might never have become an artist. Raised in St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands, Robert loved to draw but had no formal art training. While recuperating from his injury, he caught the attention of Karen Bertrand, an artist and teacher at his high school. Impressed by his drawings, she encouraged him to enroll in her class. This encouragement marked the beginning of his journey toward becoming a professional illustrator and animator, and by the end of high school, he was teaching art lessons.  After high school, he moved to the US to attend the Savannah College of Art and Design. He graduated with a degree in animation, then continued learning by taking a class with award-winning animator Daniel Arriaga, who was then at Pixar. He found his first agent by simply posting on social media, “I’m currently seeking representation.” An agent who was following him reached out and eventually made an offer of...

The SCBWI Official Blog is available under the ‘publications’ drop-down menu on the SCBWI website.  New posts are added twice a week and you’ll find “industry news, interviews, and in-depth posts addressing everything from book promotion, to school visits, timely issues and more.” The blog archive goes back to 2010 and has something useful for all SCBWI members. It’s well worth a look! By Margaret Lea

By Margaret Lea Mel considers himself “a five-year-old at heart,” which drew him to picture books. But before picture books, he spent over 30 years as a scientist and professor of microbiology, and many years as a jazz singer and saxophonist. Over the past eight years, Mel has focused on honing his writing skills and establishing his presence in the literary world. He has attended conferences, self-published numerous books, and successfully pitched a children’s literature podcast. For the past two years, he has interviewed authors, agents, illustrators, publishers, and librarians on the New Books Network’s Children’s Literature Channel. You can access the podcast directly through his website authormel.com or through wherever you listen to podcasts.       Born and raised in Ottawa, Canada, Mel moved to Israel at age 18 to escape antisemitism. Now he feels at home, despite the difficulties posed by the current war. He notes that people continue with their lives a...

Hi Everyone! We are going to start spotlighting something on the SCBWI website once a month. Thanks to the New Zealand chapter for the idea! This month we are highlighting the  SCBWI podcast . There are currently seven seasons you can access from the SCBWI website. Click on “Publications” then “Podcasts” to see descriptions for each episode as well as links to play them on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. Or use this link to go straight to the page. The SCBWI Podcasts are hosted by archivist Theo Baker. He interviews publishing professionals as well as award-winning writers, illustrators and translators who discuss the ins and outs of the children’s book industry. Find out about the craft and creative process behind young adult novels, picture books, middle-grade fiction, graphic novels and non-fiction. New episodes are released every Thursday during each season.  While learning about others’ work, it may even spark an idea to use in your own work.  Happy crea...

By Margaret Lea Lynne Kelly, from our own Houston SCBWI regional team, has turned her lifelong love of animals into three published books.  In 2006, while working as a special education teacher reading with her students, Lynne became interested in writing. To hone her craft she joined the SCBWI, found a writing group, attended conferences and seminars, and read books such as Stephen King’s ON WRITING, Anne Lamott’s BIRD BY BIRD and multiple books by Lisa Cron. To write, Lynne begins with something, usually a fact about an animal, that sparks her interest, then she figures out the characters who will live in the story and the plot to go with them.  Her first manuscript started as a picture book, but the leader of her writing group suggested it would work better as a novel. She agreed and it became her first book, CHAINED. It took three years to write and edit, but she found an agent quickly. It sold in 2010 and came out in 2012. Her next book, SONG FOR A WHALE, which now has al...

  By Margaret Lea                Author Katie Keridan spent the first part of her professional life as a pediatric neuropsychologist, working with teens and young adults battling cancer. While rewarding, this wasn’t her true passion, so she eventually followed her heart, despite her fears, and transitioned into full-time fiction writing.                While Katie has enjoyed writing scientific papers, noting that academic writing also has a story arc with beginning, middle, end and specific takeaways for the readers, she loves that fiction writing enables her to be much more creative with form and language.                She finds creating worlds and characters especially fun, and would enjoy hanging out in real life with her two protagonists, Kyra and Sebastian, if that was possible. As a neurodivergent individual, she strives to create character...

Just across our state line in Oklahoma is American-born, raised in China, dual-speaking author Candace Kade, who is this month's feature, and we are most excited to introduce you. She has two published YA novels,  Enhanced  and  Hybrid , and her third in the series finishes this month. Enclave Publishing discovered her at a conference while practicing her pitch over lunch. Let's say she had them at Hello or Ni Hao! I'm excited to share a little about her, even personally; let's start with some of her early beginnings. It will show you how her vision came to fruition.   I first met Candance over a decade ago while she was in Grad school at Texas A&M. She enrolled in my Krav Maga program (Hand-to-Hand Combat from the Israeli Defense Force)—her aim to learn the components and details for fight scenes for  Enchanced  that she began writing. Training under my tutelage for 18 months, she nailed it! The author of this action-packed series learned self-defense ...