Southern Breeze | Cathy C. Hall Writes

Hear that? No, not the jingle bells. That other sound interrupting your happy holiday mood. It’s a tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

Yeah, that’s the holiday clock, reminding you that you still haven’t found the perfect gift for the writer in your life, and time is running out! Fear not, friends. I have the most splendifereous idea: give a writer’s conference!

Your children’s writer will look great in a writer’s conference–it’s a one-size fits all! All you have to do is find a writer’s conference, and that’s easy-peasy if you check out this link at the SCBWI website. My region, Southern Breeze, has a conference coming up in February. It’s called Springmingle and registration is going on right now. And oh, my jolly jingle bells! If you’re an illustrator, you need to read about the Liz Conrad Scholarship RIGHT NOW.

You can also shop here, at the Poets & Writers listing of conferences, if your children’s writer writes for adults as well. Finding the write gift is as quick as a click.

See? You’re already done! Now you have time for all the merry-making you can handle, so dash away, dash away, dash away all!

(Um, you know to come back after, right? See you in 2012!)

In keeping up with Picture Book Idea Month, another SCBWI Southern Breezer stepped up to share how a couple of ideas came to her. Jo S. Kittinger has written a ton of children’s books, she’s a Co-Regional Adviser for Southern Breeze, and she’s a much-in-demand speaker. How does she ever find time to get a picture book idea? I’ll let Jo explain how she catches up with her flitting ideas!

Picture book ideas are like hummingbirds. They zip through my mind on a regular basis. Some I catch and cage in my idea file, some get by before I write them down and are quickly forgotten, others land on my computer and demand to be written.

Rosa’s Bus: the Ride to Civil Rights was one that landed in my office. On my phone to be exact. Donny Williams, who owned Bus #2857 before it was sold to the Henry Ford Museum, called me up out of the blue and asked if I could direct him to a children’s writer that might be interested in writing a book about the bus! He had worked on an adult book dealing with the civil rights movement and his editor was interested in a children’s book about the bus. It turns out that his editor declined the manuscript I wrote, as it was not what she had envisioned. But some time later, after Larry Rosler (editor at Boyds Mills Press) spoke at a Southern Breeze SCBWI conference, I submitted the manuscript to him and he quickly accepted it.

The House on Dirty-Third Street, to be released Spring 2012 with Peachtree Publishers, was a humming idea that came from a slip of the tongue. My husband, Rick, and I were traveling and looking for an address when I stumbled trying to say 33rd Street. It came out Dirty-Third Street and I began wondering what type of place that would be. This picture book has been many years in the making. Thomas Gonzales created fabulous illustrations and I can’t wait to see the finished book!

Of course, there have been hundreds of idea birds that escaped, flitting past while I was pre-occupied. I’m sure 2-3 were likely award winners! Those seem to be the hardest to catch! But I’ve learned to keep a window in my mind always open to welcome ideas.

And P.S. I happen to know that Rosa’s Bus won a 2011 Crystal Kite Member Choice Award. So if I were you, I’d keep that window WIDE open and hope a hummingbird idea flits in!