Richard Peck always points to the importance of the first line of your book.  Getting that first line just right is worth the time and effort.  After looking through dozens of great books, I realized it is quite an achievement to come up with a first line that really stands out and makes the reader want to read more.  I discovered that most of the time, it really is the first paragraph that moves the story forward in a way that makes the reader want to keep reading.  But here are some of the really good first lines I found. 

Perhaps you can find more and share them here.

“We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.”  Feed by M.T. Anderson

“I have been accused of being anal retentive, an over-achiever, and a compulsive perfectionist, like those are bad things.” Millicent Min, Girl Genius by Lisa Yee

“If your teacher has to die, August isn’t a bad time of year for it.”  The Teacher’s Funeral by Richard Peck

“When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it’s never good news.” Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz

“Today I moved to a twelve-acre rock covered with cement, topped with bird turd and surrounded by water.”  Al Capone Does my Shirts by Gennifer Choldenko

“Like much of my life until that sixteenth year, it was a sunny day.” Knots-in-My Yo-Yo String by Jerry Spinelli.

“When My Brother Fish Turned Thirteen, we moved to the deepest part of inland because of the hurricane and, of course, the fact that he’d caused it.”  Savvy by Ingrid Law

“My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni-and-cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog.”  Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo

“HENRY SMITH’S FATHER told him that if you build your house far enough away from Trouble, then Trouble will never find you.”  Trouble by Gary D Schmidt

“I can’t believe there’s going to be a gay Jewish president.” Wide Awake by David Levithan

“When I look into a mirror, it is her face I see.”  Identical by Ellen Hopkins

So let’s all go back and look at our first lines, before we send them out.

Kathy

8 ways to encourage kids to clean their rooms

Think about your book and ask yourself what type of tip sheet could be made up to go with your book? 

People are interested in reading “Top Ten” lists, etc.  Look how effective it has been for Letterman.  I will give you an example by sharing the list Eileen Spinelli put out to help make my point.

Here is Eileen latest picture book, HOW TO CLEAN YOUR ROOM.  Perfect for a list, so Eileen’s publicist came up with a tip sheet.  Here is the tip sheet taken from ideas in the book.

Tiny lean, mean cleaning machines:

Inspired by How to Clean Your Room Written by Eileen Spinelli, Illustrated by David Leonard.

As parents everywhere know, trying to get your child to clean his or her room can be a daunting task.  Inspired by How to Clean Your Room, here are some tips to help your children enjoy the cleaning process. 

1.  Make it an adventure. Change the way your child thinks about the cleaning process.  Maybe instead of “cleaning,” your child can go on a safari hunt through their room for mysterious creatures hidden under piles of clothes and toys. They’ll never know what they might find until they take the time to look!

2.  Consider the potential. Instead of feeling that cleaning is a chore, encourage your child to consider all the ways they can change and re-organize their room.  Their room is their personalized home – let them make big plans for it, even if they can’t follow through right away.  It’s hard to make plans in a room filled with clutter, so this may help give them the desire to organize.   

3.  Cleaning is artistry. Now that they’ve started cleaning, your child can mold and shape their room into whatever they want it to be!  “First… wade through the clutter of color like an artist – a jungle of green towels, a jangle of yellow socks.  What a lovely mess!” says Spinelli.  Making space and moving toys around will help them with their next big project or plan.  Maybe clearing that space in the corner will mean they can build a fort or castle. 

4.  Encourage them to clean alone. Give your child a chance to spend some time in their room alone.  They will be able to use their imagination on their own, so that cleaning won’t feel so much like a chore. It’s hard to have a real cleaning adventure when Mom’s checking in on their progress too often. 

5.  Take breaks.  While in the middle of cleaning, they may find themselves inspired to go outside, write something down, or draw a picture.  As Spinelli reminds young readers, “Perhaps there is a poem at the gate of your heart.  You’ll want to give it time to unfold itself like an unexpected flower before writing it down… half an hour, at least.”  Allow this kind of creativity. 

6.  Sort through the memories. Your child has spent many hours in this room, playing, dreaming, with friends, and enjoying everything their room has to offer.  If they clean one pile, they might find a whole group of toys they haven’t seen in a while!  Encourage your child to think about all the times they played with those toys and the fun they had.

7.  Let them take their time.  Don’t rush this process – cleaning is a time for your child to explore and enjoy all of the fun things they do while in their room.  It may take longer than you’d like, but giving them time will help them want to clean.

8.  Say “thank you” to the room. As Spinelli encourages children, “Don’t forget to say ‘Thank you.’… Say ‘thank you’ to your room for keeping wind and rain and cold away.  It’s fair to say your room holds you in its arms.” Help your child appreciate their room and all the protection, comfort and creative potential it provides. 

How to Clean Your Room by Eileen Spinelli and illustrated by David Leonard is published by Ideals Publications, an imprint of GuidepostsBooks.  For more information, please visit www.eileenspinelli.com.

Not sure how much cleaning will get done, but if I were a kid, I’d vote for this, instead of the usual nagging.

Kathy

The 3rd issue of 2009’s Sprouts Magazine will be mailed by the end of the month.  It is another great issue.  Each issue of Sprouts contains 28 high-quality colored pages with articles introducing you to editors, agents, and authors, plus various articles to help improve the skills of children’s writers, authors and illustrators.  Every issue includes an Illustrator Showcase to show off children’s illustrators talents.  SCBWI Members may submit articles for consideration.  Illustrators must subscribe to Sprouts to be included in the magazine.  Each of the three issues of this magazine gets mailed to over 60 Art Directors, Editors and Agents in the Children Book Industry. 

Click here to subscribe

Kathy Temean Editor -in-Chief  Sprouts

There’s lots of great things happening for our NJSCBWI members.  Congratulations!

Gayle Eggen Aanensen’s self-published chapter book of historical fiction, The Little Rough Rider at the Jersey Shore, won Honorable Mention in the Writer’s Digest International Self-Published Book Awards in the Middle Grade/Young Adult category.  Gayle published the book using R.J. Communications, a printer in NYC.

Ame Dyckman landed Agent Scott Triemel at the NJ SCBWI June Conference and sold Boy and Bot to Michele Burke at Knopf and Crown.

Kate Hosford signed a two book contract for a picture book titled, Big Bouffant AND Big Bouffant 2 to Andrew Karre at Lerner Publishing. The books will appear under the Carolrhoda imprint as the lead book on their spring 2011 list.
 
Lisa Falkenstern signed a contract for a children’s book with Marshall Cavendish
 
Natalie Zaman and Charlotte Benardo signed a contract for their first young adult novel, Sirens, with Flux.
 
Leeza Hernandez signed a contract for Dog Gone with Putnam.  She wrote and illustrated the book.  It will be out late 2010.

Kat Yeh signed a book contract with Stacy Cantor at Walker Books.

Eileen Kennedy-Moore signed with Ronnie Herman Agency after the June Conference.  She is Ronnie Herman’s client.

Eric Geron & Theresa Julian signed with Jill Corcoran, an agent from the Ronnie Herman Literay Agency, after meeting with her at the June New Jersey SCBWI Conference.

Colleen Kosinski signed with agent Rosemary Stimola.

Judy Palermo signs with agent Steven Chudney for her middle grade novel Son of a Chicken.

Christine Brower-Cohen won the 2009 Toms River Writing Retreat Contest.  

New member Mimi Cross wins the first David L Harrison “Word of the Month” poem contest.

Make sure you  let me know when something good happens.  We love to share in your success.

Kathy

Have you thought about submitting to children’s magazines to further your career?  If not, you should consider it.  Magazines are a good way to build publishing credits.  You don’t make a lot of money, but many have built their careers on writing for magazines.  Even well-published children’s book authors and illustrators continue to submit to Highlights Magazine in order to keep their name in front of their target audience.

HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN
Editorial Guidelines

Highlights for Children is a general-interest magazine for children up to age twelve.

 

Fiction -
Stories for younger readers (ages three to seven) should have 500 words or fewer and should not seem babyish to older readers. Stories for older readers (ages eight to twelve) should have 800 words or fewer and should be appealing to younger readers if read aloud. Frequent needs include humor, mystery, sports, holiday, and adventure stories; retellings of traditional tales; stories with urban settings; and stories that feature world cultures. Pays $150 and up.

Rebus Stories -
Geared toward beginning readers, should feature a variety of familiar words that can easily be shown as pictures. 120 words or fewer. A surprise or twist at the end often work best. Pays $100 and up.

Verse -
Purchased sparingly, is rarely longer than sixteen lines and should be meaningful for young readers. Pays $25 and up.

Nonfiction -
Includes science, arts, biography, autobiography, sports, world cultures, economics, service/self-help, careers, adventure, and history. 800 words or fewer. Articles geared to younger readers (ages three to seven) are especially welcome. These should not exceed 500 words. Pays $150 and up.

Gallant Kids -
400 words or fewer. They should focus on children who are serving others through unique, interesting, kid-
generated projects. Payment: $150 and up.

Puzzles, jokes, finger plays and crafts are $25 and up.

You might want to check out the list of children’s magazines I posted on March 27th this year. http://wp.me/sss2W-314

Happy submitting,

Kathy

Nicole was the editor I was paired up with at my first Rutger’s One-on-One Conference.  Since then she has shared her expertise with the New Jersey Chapter of the SCBWI by joining us at many events in the state.  She also is the editor of the book coming out later next year by Leeza Hernandez, titled DOG GONE.  Leeza is our Art Coordinator in NJ and the Art Director of our Sprouts Magazine, so we are very happy that she made the connection with Nicole.   Its been nice to have been there with Nicole from the beginning of her career.  Here is a little bit of information about Nicole.

Nicole Kasprzak, Associate Editor, G.P. Putnam’s Sons BFYR

www.penguin.com

Bio:  Authors Nicole has had the privilege of working with include Gennifer Choldenko, Keiko Kasza and Jim Arnosky, but she frequently takes on projects by first-timers. Recent and forthcoming debuts include WE’RE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT by Zachary Shapiro, illustrated by Jack E. Davis (January 2009); THE GINGERBREAD MAN IS MISSING! by Laura Murray, illustrated by Mike Lowery; and the chapter book mystery series THE ADVENTURES OF DREADLOCK JONES by Kami Kinard, illustrated by Mark Page. She is currently seeking young, humorous picture books and literary and commercial middle grade and YA. She’s not the biggest fantasy or sci-fi fan and does not take on nonfiction above the picture book level, but is otherwise pretty open. At all reading levels, she looks for strong, unconventional characters, fresh points of view, and writing that knocks her socks off.

So here’s to someone knocking her socks off. 

Good Luck,  Kathy

Since writers and illustrators are always looking for other creative avenues to help pay the bills, I thought you may want to consider writing or illustrating greeting cards.  Here is a list of places put together by Kate Harper with  links to their submission guidelines.  She is a talented established designer of greeting cards, so I would check out her blog for more information.

FOR WRITERS:

Design Design
https://www.designdesign.us/index.php?main_page=login

Nobleworks
http://www.nobleworkscards.com/submission.html

Dayspring Cards
http://www.dayspring.com/contact/editorial.asp

Oatmeal Studios Writers Guidelines
http://www.oatmealstudios.com/Writer%27sGuides/WG-Pg.htm

Blue Mountain Writer’s Guidelines
http://www.sps.com/help/writers_guidelines.html

To read the full list click here

FOR ILLUSTRATORS:

Madison Park Greetings
http://madisonparkgreetings.com/_contact/submit.php

Great Arrow Graphics
http://www.greatarrow.com/guidelinesfaq.asp

Design Design
https://www.designdesign.us/index.php?main_page=login

Caspari
http://casparionline.com/deps/aboutus/submit.php

Brush Dance
http://www.brushdance.com/-strse-template/artguidelines/Page.bok

Read the full List by clicking here.

Now remember this is just to help make some money while you are writing and illustrating childen’s books.

Kathy

DIRT BLUES

Mimi Cross attended the Toms River Children’s Writing Retreat in the beginning of October and followed my suggestions on getting yourself noticed.  She was in the picture book group and had submitted a story in ryhme.  She probably likes to write poems, because of her musical talents.  Mimi is quite an accomplished singer and with a professioinal CD of her songs. 

Anyway, I had told everyone to look for places to show off their talents and one of the places I had mentioned was David L Harrison’s Blog.  He has given poets’ a place to post their poems.  This month was the First Monthly “Word of the Month” poem contest.  The word was “Dirt.”  Mimi entered and today, she was the first winner with her poem DIRT BLUES. 

She says she will be putting up a mp3 of her Dirt Blue Song. I will add it to this post when I receive it.

Congratulations!  Mimi!

Here is -

When you talk about dirt,
You gotta talk about dig.
When you talk about mud,
You gotta talk about a pig.
Oh baby . . .
How do I make my way?
When I start with common dirt – I naturally head straight for a cliche.
My Grandma said, “You eat a peck
Of dirt before you die.”
But I say, “What the heck?!”
I can avoid that if I try!
Oh Grandma . . .
What can you tell me now?
I gotta write this dirty poem, but I cannot – figure out how.
I guess I’ll start from scratch.
With a wordy mud pie.
That way I’ll use a bit of dirt
And mix it with these tears
I cry . . .
Out of frustration and fear.
I’ve got a grimy little blues song – that no one else will ever hear.
– Mimi Cross

If you get a chance, stop by Mimi’s website and listen to her wonderful voice.  Thank you to David L Harrison for putting in the time on his blog to help show off other talented writers.  If you would like to read the winner of the Young Poets’ WORD OF THE MONTH poem, go to YAAgroup’s Blog.  The winner is a 5th grade and she did an excellent job.

Kathy

This is Agent Elana Roth.  I thought you might like to know the things she is interested in seeing cross her desk.

Middle-grade novels. I have been reading a ton of awesome MG novels lately. When You Reach Me is perfect. I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President (which I guess some people are calling YA, but the kid is in 7th grade, so dammit, I’m calling it MG) is cracking me up. So send me something with a strong hook and a great voice, and make it good. Think big. 

Non-paranormal YA. I’ve had so many “I see ghosts” books cross my desk, that even if you are reinventing the hook, I can’t see it anymore. I don’t mind fantasy, or sci-fi elements, but bear in mind, I like my YA reality-based with a splash of those things. Go read CANDOR if you really want to get a sense of my taste.  So give me a twisty YA, give me a voice I haven’t heard before, a vision of the future I haven’t seen yet, a POV that hasn’t been touched on (I’m still waiting for the YA version of the movie SAVED! to cross my desk).

On October 25th, Mary Kate joined us in Princeton for our Mentoring Workshop.  It was the first New Jersey event she has participated in and she added a great deal to the day.  I thought you might be interested in finding out a little about her.

Mary Kate Castellani, Associate Editor, Walker BFYR

www.bloomsburykids.com

Bio: Mary Kate Castellani, associate editor, has been with Walker Books for Young readers for just over two years, starting out as an editorial assistant. Mary Kate acquires books for all age levels, and especially likes quirky, kooky picture books that celebrate personality, and middle-grade fiction with a light-hearted, honest approach like her current middle-grade project The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z. She is also looking to find new YA voices for the Walker list, especially ones that have a more literary feel, but also likes issue-driven stories, such as her upcoming project Dirty Little Secrets, a story that explores the effects of compulsive hoarding on a family. Her acquisitions wish list also includes historical fiction with a strong hook, coming of age stories handled with humor, and explorations of spiritual or cultural identity. Before coming to Walker, Mary Kate worked as an assistant to a literary agent.