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Oh, boy!—what an abundance of information Debbie Ridpath Ohi offered to illustrators. Debbie is a social media guru, but she's also a successful illustrator and an SCBWI success story. She won the portfolio showcase at the 2010 SCBWI LA Conference, and has gone on to illustrate several books, including Sam & Eva and Where Are My Books? (Simon & Schuster), more. Fortunately, most of what Debbie offered in her workshop is also available on her website, including  BONUS MATERIALS!

Elana K. Arnold is the award-winning writer of books for kids and teens, including National Book Award finalist What Girls Are Made Of . It's our job as writers to create tension and release it. It's the spinal cord of the book. It gives the book energy and movement.  On the other side of tension is comfort, which comes from the relief.  "Let me hurt you, so later I can heal you." That's what we do as writers. "A writers job is to take away comfort to create tension."  Any time we create imbalance, that causes tension. How? change the frame zoom in zoom out Speed thing up, slow things down, suspend time Hyper-focus on details Let details wash over the reader and run together Focus on something mundane and wrong for the situation Add a ticking clock Give someone a secret Dialogue  Lie Present a paradox Use cycles to your advantage Our job as writers is to: push the reader unbalance the reader give the reader the pleasure of being uncomfortable

Stephanie Garber, author of CARAVAL , garnered wild, breakout success for her YA fantasy which has been on the NYT bestseller list. She's also a creative writing teacher who knows a thing or two about spicy endings. She knows at least five things, actually, but the blog will only share one exercise. First, Stephanie has us think about the sorts of books we love to read, and FINISH reading. She says you'll read a book with a slow beginning as long as the rest of it picks up, but you'll ask for your money back for a book with a bad ending. Or if not bad, a mediocre or forgettable ending you may not bother to finish, which is just as upsetting. A bad ending in this instance means it's got plot holes, or unanswered questions, or a nonsensical resolution or is overly tragic or is a combination of all of the above. Stephanie is a 'discovery' writer vs. being a 'plotter,' and she struggles with the adage that a good writer knows their story's ending before...