#LA18SCBWI Faculty Parade and "The Book That Influenced Me / The Book That Changed My Life"

Some video highlights:

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Keynote Bruce Coville

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We are so sorry to miss Marc Brown due to a family emergency and are sending him every good thought and wish. In his stead, Bruce Coville has graciously stepped in to give us a closing keynote. As you may know,  Bruce Coville  has published over 100 books for children and young adults, including the international bestseller My Teacher is an Alien , the four book “ Unicorn Chronicles ” series, and Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher . Before becoming a full time writer in 1986, Bruce was a teacher, a toymaker, a magazine editor, a gravedigger, and a cookware salesman. In 2001 he created FULL CAST AUDIO, an audiobook company devoted to producing full cast, unabridged recordings of material for family listening. He has produced over 120 audiobooks, directing and/or acting in most of them.  Here is a taste of his keynote: Bruce knows most of us are here because we have this crazy belief that children are worth our best efforts. Crazy because society seems to be sayin...
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Eliza Wheeler Keynote

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Eliza Wheeler Eliza Wheeler is the extraordinary author-illustrator of  Miss Maple's Seeds , which debuted as a New York Times best seller list. She's illustrated many picture books, including  Wherever You Go  by Pat Zietlow Miller (an SCBWI member who just hit the NYT list this week!) And she's illustrated several novels, including the Newbery Honor-winning Doll Bones  by Holly Bolack, The Left-Hnaded Fate  by Kate Milford, and the Cody  series by Tricia Springstubb. A SCBWI suc cess story, she won the National Grand Prize for best portfolio in 2011, and was a Sendak Fellowship recipient in 2017. Here are some of her very beautiful books. Eliza's keynote took us on a journey through her process, through the human brain, through JRR Tolkien's creation of a language and the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series, which took 18 years to be published in three volumes when Tolkien was 63 years old. Eliza identified 7 stages of creativity (with 1/2 stages for chec...
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Panel: The Secret of Crafting Engaging Nonfiction - Candace Fleming

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SCBWI Golden Kite Award Winner Candace Fleming writes nonfiction and fiction (more than 40 books!). Most of her nonfiction is historical YA, but she has recently taking a foray into science picture book nonfiction. How is writing nonfiction different from writing fiction? Candace says, "I always think of everything I write in terms of cake. As a writer it's my job to create a cake that all of you want to gobble up in three minutes. When I write fiction I get to buy all the ingredients I want to put in a cake that I pick out myself, like coconut and chocolate chips and maple syrup. When I write nonfiction the goal is exactly the same, but I didn't get to go to the grocery store, I have to use the ingredients my partner Eric brings home, like flax seed and pepto bismol, and find a way to make that into a gobble-able cake." What's your favorite part of writing nonfiction?  The biggest part of nonfiction is figuring out how to take all the research you do and turn it...
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