Cranky and sore, I greet the new week! After yanking out the summer garden this weekend to prepare for the autumn kale, all I want to do is sit down with a book and a bath. Instead, I am gadding about online yet again… still trying to take in the latest information from my Secret Agent Man about a possible sale by the end of the week (cross your fingers with me, blogsphere!) Meanwhile, other things on my mind:
Ooh! Yet another online bookfair! Author interviews, new books to explore and more blogs – check it out!
You’ve likely heard by now that there’s been a new Robert Frost poem discovered! I was very excited to hear this, since memorizing Stopping By the Woods on a Snowy Evening was a big deal to me in junior high. Take a listen!
Hilarious picture via Big A little a, which shows, of all things … a Discworld wedding cake!!! It is gloriously wacky. Apparently, this lady runs Jane’s Cakes and lives in North Hampshire, and bakes these fabulous cakes of all kinds… Now, why can’t my sister do something interesting like this!? Who needs sheet cake when you can have a universe on the back of four elephants and a gigantic turtle!?
Finally, a good discussion about SCBWI over at Fuse#8. I guess a lot of people have never heard of SCBWI, but someone is raising some questions about the whole structure and body of the group, whether or not it is non-profit or for-profit, and what the Directors get out of it. Because this group is a governing body which also gives away Golden Kite Awards each year, which may be instrumental in propelling certain authors and/or certain houses to prominence, this question is of merit to some. The prevailing attitude seems to be that one can get out of an organization what one is prepared to put into it… which means I should do a bit more networking!
Happy October! Happy Autumn!
That was a VERY interesting discussion about SCBWI. I suppose I never really assumed that it was non-profit, perhaps because the word “society” has different connotations to me than “association.” To me it’s a good networking opportunity, offers some useful information, and provides the chance to see a variety of interesting speakers, and honestly, I don’t expect more out of it than that. Frankly, I try to focus my energies as much as possible on the actual task of writing, and to a secondary extent on researching markets. And if SCBWI offers a useful tidbit of news or brings a good speaker to town, well, then I’ll try to take advantage of that opportunity. And then there’s always the line on the resume.
In all seriousness, though, I don’t consider SCBWI to be a crucial part of my identity as a writer. If I even include it in my cover letters, it’s just a small part of my background information. I’d much rather throw around my impressive academic credentials! 😉 Phi Beta Kappa sounds a lot better than SCBWI any day.
SCBWI is a tool in my toolkit, but I want my writing to speak for itself. Call me an idealist! (And call me antisocial and bad at networking while you’re at it!)
Thanks for the useful links. However, I can’t get the one to the on-line bookfair to work. Is it just me…?
(The link is fixed! Apologies!)
Honestly, I’d never thought about the SCBWI being either nonprofit or for profit… with the amount of $$ we put in, I always figured that someone was getting paid! Along with renting a swanky Beverly Hills office (everything in that zip code is swanky, no doubt), Lin and Steve have to pay printing costs for the newsletter, stipends to authors for appearing at Conferences, and they probably treat editors with gift packs, if not actual stipends for their Conference input as well. I’m glad to put in my money per year for that, because though it’s not always stupendously helpful, picking and choosing a few lectures and hearing authors is always good.
In the early days of my writing, I was really lonely, and SCBWI was a place to go and sort of feel, tentatively, that I was part of something. But I couldn’t find a writing group to belong to, so I …went to graduate school.
You’re right — SCBWI is just a tool in the toolkit, much like an MFA is another tool. Neither of them can be one’s entire identity as a writer, since, either you can write, or you can’t.