Writing for Children Archives

Where do you get your story ideas? – KS Mitchell with Write Your World

Publishing News!

I’m excited to share that Vinspire Publishing has acquired my middle grade mystery series, Pen and Quin: International Agents of Intrigue.

12 year old twins, Penelope and Quin Grey Reyes are shipped off to Mexico to visit their grandparents for the summer. Pen decides to liven things up by advertising their services as international agents of intrigue. Soon they’re tracking down the Codex Cardona, a mysterious 400 year old Aztec book. When their grandfather is attacked, their search turns personal and Pen and Quin are vaulted into an international mystery.

I can’t wait for you to read the rest! Sign up for my newsletter for updates on the release date for Pen and Quin. Follow me on social media for information on my books, writing and life in general!

With books forthcoming from Vinspire Publishing and Glass House Press, 2018 will be an exciting year. Hope you’ll follow along and enjoy the stories!

5 Great Reasons to Attend the Arkansas SCBWI Conference this June

Although Arkansas is the proud host of quite a few writing conferences, the Society for Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) conference is the only major conference in the state focused specifically on writing for children. Here are my top 5 reasons for attending the conference!

The conference will host two editors and one agent from New York publisher Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic and Waxman Leavell Literary Agency. This is an easy way to get your work in front of editors and agents. That’s a BIG deal, and it’s not easy to accomplish.

This is a great opportunity to meet other writers from around the state. Writing can be a hard, lonely business. Use this conference to connect with other children’s writers in Arkansas and stay in touch throughout the year.

The conference is being held in the Butler Center in downtown Little Rock right in the River Market District. Spend a weekend in the capital and enjoy what downtown Little Rock has to offer.

The Arkansas SCBWI conference is NOT intimidating. This isn’t your overcrowded, get lost in the shuffle kind of conference. We’re a small, friendly group of writers looking to support one another. You will have the chance to speak with other writers, and you’ll get to chat with the industry professionals speaking at the conference as well.

Other conferences can be so full of writers that it’s hard to meet anyone, let alone talk personally with the editors and agents. Not so at the Arkansas conference.

Become a better writer. In the end, that’s what we’re all looking for, and the conference sessions will help every writer get better at every aspect of writing, from working on that book to pursuing publication and everything in between.

The Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Arkansas will hold its annual conference June 16-17 in Little Rock. Find out more information at scbwi.org or on Facebook SCBWI Arkansas.

I’ll see you there!

Research at Nerdies

Most writers can tell you one of the most fascinating, and often distracting, parts of being a writer is the research. It’s one of my favorite parts of writing. I’ve learned so many things I wouldn’t otherwise because I needed the knowledge for my characters, or setting, or simply to fuel my imagination. From the history of the Incense Trail to Springdale, Arkansas in the 1950s, research has taken me to some interesting places, both online and in person.

Last week I headed out on my most recent research venture to Nerdies located in downtown Fayetteville. Nerdies popped up on my radar last year and I’ve kept an eye on this fascinating place ever since. Here’s Nerdies’ vision in their own words: “Nerdies is a new type of business which focuses on all us nerds out there by offering an environment where people of all ages come and pursue things that they are interested in. Nerdies provides a unique environment for all those people who think ‘smart is cool’ and are interested in pursuing activities they enjoy in this new tech world.”

Pretty cool, right?

So what sent me to Nerdies, besides this cool mission statement? Simple. One of my characters in my current story is a nerd. A video-game obsessed nerd. The only problem? I’m not much of a gamer, although I’ll debate the nerd identity with you. (Believe me, I can geek out on anything space related).

What’s a non-gaming nerd to do? Find a nerd who does love video games and observe. Nerdies is running some pretty awesome camps this summer for kids 8-14. I contacted Nerdies owner Brad Harvey and asked if I could sit in on a camp session. Brad immediately agreed. Soon I found myself sitting in a small room with several flat screens mounted on the wall and eight kids with laptops set up for the Mods to Minecraft camp.

If you don’t know about Minecraft, you’re A) not a gamer B) not a kid C) not a parent. I’m currently none of the above, so I wasn’t aware of the Minecraft phenomenon that’s been captivating kids the last few years until I decided to create this new character. When I started researching which game he would be obsessed with, Minecraft seemed the obvious choice. A simple search returned results like, “Ten Problems that Parents Can Have with Minecraft, and “A Parent’s Guide to Minecraft: 5 Reasons to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Cubes.”

Parents concerned? Kids obsessed? Sounds like the perfect set-up for a great character. Back to Nerdies. I took a seat and tried to stay out of the way. The kids were playing the game that afternoon and trying out coding they’d learned in the morning session. I listened in while they navigated the blocky, lego-like world. Here’s a slice of the conversations.

“It’s raining and snowing at the same time. Oh my gosh, I love it!”

“I’m in a really good world. I don’t want to die. I’m too young to die!”

“I have a dragon on my leash.”

“Stupid creeper just blew up my house. It was so good. Ugh.”

“Did you freaking kill me? Did you do that?”

“Stop killing people.”

“Okay, stop hitting each other.” (This from the 20 year old instructor, and he means hitting virtually, not physically.) “Don’t build something in someone else’s world if you want to keep it.”

Did you understand all of that? Neither did it, but as I watched the kids interacting with the game and each other, I was impressed by how much of a social experience this was turning out to be.

These kids were having a great time building their own worlds, and sometimes destroying them, fighting monsters, flying and interacting in others’ worlds. And their enthusiasm was out of this world.

My expectations for a quiet, introverted character who sits locked in his room alone playing Minecraft for hours may have to be adjusted.

And that’s why research is important, and hands-on, live research like this is the best case scenario for writers. It knocks down pre-held dispositions. It brings up new questions. It spurs the imagination. My character will be different from how I first imagined him. I want my readers, kids the same age as those I observed, to feel like this character is just like them.

Thanks to my day at Nerdies, he will be!

Minecraft photos via photobucket.com users blackbaseballcap and ZimPLUSDib. Nerd Image courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Thankfulness – Diversity

I knew I wanted to end my November thankfulness series by spotlighting diverse authors. I didn’t realize how appropriate that would be.

Last week Jacqueline Woodson won the National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming. When I finished Brown Girl Dreaming in October, I knew it was one of the best books I’ve read in years. Jackie’s skilled telling of her childhood combined with the racial tension and events occurring in the 1960s and 70s brought an even clearer picture of the struggle she and many others have faced.

Immediately after accepting her award, the emcee of the event, a fellow children’s author, made an inappropriate, racist remark thinly veiled as an attempt at humor. It sadly revealed that the very things Jackie wrote about in Brown Girl Dreaming are alive in America today.

A heartfelt, public apology was made and backed up by raising over $100,000 for the #weneeddiversebooks campaign. Although that’s a wonderful outcome, it doesn’t erase the initial remark or the hurt and humiliation it must have caused.

Last night a grand jury in Ferguson failed to indict a police officer for killing an unarmed black teenager. I’m not making a legal judgment on a case where I don’t have all the facts (does anyone?), but I am shocked by the lack of empathy I’ve seen and heard today as I interact on social media, read opinions and talk with others.

My mind goes back to Jackie’s book, to her struggles as a child, and the realization that the struggles continue for so many in our country while others remain blind to what’s happening. This is exactly why we need books like Brown Girl Dreaming.

So today, with a heavy heart for those who are facing situations like we’ve seen in Ferguson, for those living in a world where hardships and challenges are more common than privileges, a world where we must have a #weneeddiversebooks campaign to increase the diversity of our writing, I’m thankful for writers like Jacqueline Woodson, An Na, Sherman Alexie, Pam Muñoz Ryan, Julia Alvarez, Tina McElroy Ansa, Sandra Cisneros, Marjane Satrapi and so many more – writers who are writing about their diversity, their experiences, their stories for the next generation.

Your stories matter. Your words matter. Your lives matter.

And we need them.

Thank you.

Fantastic Friday – Butterfly in the Sky!

Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high. Take a look, it’s in a book, it’s reading rainbow!

Last night LeVar Burton spoke at the Fayetteville Public Library here in Northwest Arkansas. Yes, LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow fame, Geordi La Forge of Star Trek, the Next Generation, and of course, Kunta Kinte of Roots.

Reading Rainbow began in 1983, just as I was learning to read. Beginning with those familiar synthesized chords, Reading Rainbow’s upbeat song became a regular part of my day. I believed, as I watched the butterfly transform an ordinary world into the extraordinary, that I really could go anywhere and do anything. Burton’s field trips in the series often took him to what seemed impossibly faraway and exotic places. It spurred me to imagine what it would be like to visit other places and meet new people.

1987 brought the launch of Star Trek, the Next Generation, and I fell headlong into a deep love of space, science and pushing the limits of exploration, not to mention that handsome Commander Riker. Burton, already so familiar to me from Reading Rainbow, now impacted my childhood again as Chief Engineer Geordi La Forge. I remember thinking how strange it was to watch him with his visor on in Star Trek, and then view an episode of Reading Rainbow and be able to see his eyes. Burton revealed last night that wearing that visor was extremely difficult, as it cut his sight by nearly 85%. Ironic when you consider that the visor gave Geordi La Forge sight in Star Trek.

Hearing LeVar Burton speak last night and read his new book, The Rhino Who Swallowed a Storm, and having the chance to meet him face to face was an amazing experience. It’s not often someone you’ve never met has the chance to impact your life on so many levels, but Reading Rainbow instilled in me a love of reading and the desire to travel and explore, and Star Trek added a deep belief in science, learning and pressing past previous boundaries “to boldly go” where I’ve never been before.

I’m glad LeVar Burton continues to campaign for literacy and reading for children and that a new generation of children, the next generation, will be inspired to sing and believe, “I can go anywhere. I can be anything. Take a look, it’s in a book!”

Thank you, LeVar, for everything!

Planet and Star Background Image courtesy of Photokanok at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Rainbow Music Background Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How to write diverse characters.

Last month I blogged on why I choose to include diverse characters in my stories. Today I’d like to touch on how to do that.

How can you create characters who aren’t your own race, gender, culture or sexuality without falling into stereotypes?

I posed a similar question to one of my first professors at my master’s program. Jacqueline Woodson is known for her amazing characters and has reached across many boundaries to create them. I asked Jackie how I could produce characters like her (many of whom are African American). I’ve never forgotten Jackie’s answer. She returned my question with one of her own.

“How many black friends do you have?”

We laughed. “Not many,” I replied. Then I realized I did have other friends, Arab, Latino, Peruvian and from many other places and cultures.

The answer seemed so simple, yet at the same time, it’s complicated, isn’t it? If you want to write characters who are different from you, start with your own life. Who are you spending time with? Are your friends people just like you, raised in the same place, from the same ethnic group, with the same values? Or do you have friends who spoke a different language growing up, or grew up in a large city as opposed to a small town. Maybe your friends hold different political views. Those are the types of relationships that will help you begin to understand how to write from other people’s viewpoints.

This weekend I attended a literary festival where Jacqueline Woodson spoke about the themes that drive her work. The overarching themes in her books from the picture book Each Kindness to the young adult story If You Come Softly, focus on peace which comes through empathy for others, their lives and their experiences.

Empathy is a powerful word. When we create characters unlike ourselves, we’re imagining what it would be like to live someone else’s life. That’s something many of us probably don’t practice enough, but if you’re a writer wanting to challenge yourself by writing diversely, practicing empathy is key.

Of course, there are other actions you can and should take to create real, fully formed characters. Research has never been easier. You don’t have to imagine what the scenery looks like in Tibet. Google Earth will show you. Familiarity with the culture or people you’re representing is important, too. Can you find ways to spend time immersed in that culture? Can you use the connections you have with friends to help broaden your circle so the characters you create don’t become unhelpful stereotypes?

Finally, if you’re a writer representing characters from cultures or races not your own, ask friends of that race or culture to vet the book for you. No matter how hard you try, you’ll still stumble into some stereotypes, misuse the language, or misrepresent the culture. Utilizing your friends from these communities will challenge those misperceptions and strengthen your work and your characters.

Creating diverse characters can be scary at first, but it’s worth the effort to challenge yourself to work outside your own experiences. The kids we write for deserve to see a spectrum of characters as diverse as the world we live in.

“Boy Reading” and “Diversity” courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

“Read, Write, Live” by Natalie Mourton

Diversity in Children’s Writing

With Hispanic Heritage Month kicking off this week, and the continuation of the #weneeddiversebooks campaign, I wanted to write about my own reasons for including diverse characters in my stories.

Fact: I was born white and middle class in middle America. Nothing will change that. It’s my history, an essential part of who I am as a writer and a person. But I won’t let that fact completely define me, either. I choose how I live, who I love, and what I write. And more and more, I find the pull of diversity permeating what I do.

As a child, I was obsessed with penpals. I remember filling out forms with my hobbies and sending them to a company called Penpals International or some equally ubiquitous name and requesting penfriends from far away, exotic sounding lands. I’d eagerly await my penpal matches that arrived on colorful slips of paper. I’d try to pronounce the names and examine the countries – Zimbabwe, Ireland, China, Italy, and imagine what my new friends looked like and what life was like in their countries.

Sometimes an exchange lasted only a few letters. I exchanged letters with two girls, Chiara and Desiree, for years. Chiara was Italian and Desiree from Zimbabwe. To this day, I still wonder what these two girls are doing in life. Do they remember the letters we used to send in those wonderful white, blue and red airmail envelopes with an impressive amount of stamps showing off their own little tidbits of culture?

A deep love of languages and the amazing differences people can have from country to country took me to the Middle East for three years. It was here that I began writing, and my first character was not white, but Arab. And not a girl but a boy. An Arab boy. What made me think I could write about that?

In fact, the history, graciousness and humility of the people had worked their way into me, so that the first story to come to me was an Arab boy’s struggle to become a man in a land as ancient as any I’d ever known. It was completely foreign to my white, middle class upbringing, and yet, the struggle for my main character to transition from childhood to adulthood is familiar to anyone who’s experienced those tumultuous years.

I’ve returned to middle America, but increasingly my area of the country is giving way to a more diverse population which promises to bring a richer experience to all of our lives. And for young readers, I want to provide adventures that feature characters as diverse as the ones I’ve met on my travels, as varied as the children I teach here; characters who are a true reflection of where our nation is today, but even more, a picture of where we’re going.

So each day, when I sit down to write, I get to choose.

I’m choosing diversity. I hope you will, too.

Want more information on the #weneeddiversebooks campaign? Check out the official website http://weneeddiversebooks.org/

Photo credits: “World Communication” by digitalart at freedigitalphotos.net, “Yemeni Boy” by Kimberly Mitchell, “Read, Write, Live” by Natalie Mourton.