Hi there,

It’s been an interesting but anxious few days in Brisbane as we once again went into lockdown, reminding us that the one who will not be named isn’t quite finished messing with our lives just yet and reaffirmed the decision to keep CYA Conference online in 2021. 

A few news items for this week:

Final Judge’s of the Published sections

To add to these last few crazy days getting those competition entries in, we thought we’d share who our amazing Final Judges are for the two published sections:

• Children’s Genres – Nicola Santilli – Allen & Unwin

• Adult genres – Clive Hebert – Penguin Random House. 

Remember Tina does stay online till midnight AEST (Brisbane time… no daylight savings!) to help anyone who is having last minute problems - get those entries in, and good luck to all. 
 

Conference Program

The 2021 program is almost complete. If you are someone who checks the site, often you will have seen that the TBA’s have been filled in with some more amazing presenters. We’re in the process of finalising the success panels, and then it will be completely done.

The presenters as of 1st April are:

Bren MacDibble - Trials and tribulations of writing for multiple age groups

Christopher Raja - Writing your own story - How do writers tackle the plot of a non-fiction story?

Danielle Binks - Short-Story Writing Workshop

Dannika Patterson & Megan Forward - Creative Collaborations: From Picture Books to School Workshops

Davina Bell - Creating Picture Book Magic

Deborah Abela - The secrets of diverse and interesting middle grade novels - How to keep them reading

Dr John Barletta - What you might not know about psychopaths but definitely should!

Felicity Pulman - Building on ideas

Jo Sandhu - Dialogue: Tips, Tricks and Punctuation.

JP Pomare - Podcasting – the nuts and bolts.

Kathy Hoopman - Neurodiversity in Literature - the history, the hoopla and the hope

Kristina Schulz - Getting ready to be an author

Lauren Clarke - Killer Conflict - “That’s not a knife … this is a knife.”

Lisa Black (USA) - Rejections, you only fail when you let them stop you.

Lisa Black (USA) - Forensics 101 for your novel

Lisa Fuller - First Nations representation and permissions

Matt Stanton - Write Funny. Draw Funnier

Michelle Somers - Creating Narrative Tension - hooks, opening sentences, conflict

Rachael Johns - What I learnt in 10 years of publishing.

Sam Bowring - Fantasy, sci-fi and beyond.

Tara Settembre (USA) - Making Your Social Posts Go Viral Tips.

T.M. Clark - Author Planning

Assessment Sessions 

We have continued to search for editors that will be great to have at the conference in 2021. And we have added a few more this week…. Have a look-see if anyone on this list tickles your fancy as someone who you might put your work in front of and value their opinion and book it. 

The full list of children’s and adult literature editors for 2021 are:

• Affirm Press - Coco McGrath (Adult)
• Affirm Press - Meg Whelan  (Children & YA)
• Allen & Unwin - Elise Jones (Children)
• Allen & Unwin - Nicola Santilli (Children & YA)
• Allen & Unwin - Tom Bailey-Smith (Adult)
• Berbay Publishing - Nancy Conescu (Children)
• Beyond Words Literary Agency - Fiona Johnson (Children, YA & Adult)
• Creating Ink - Lauren Clarke  (YA & Adult)
• Ethicool - Teigan Margetts (Children)
• Ford Street Publishing - Meredith Costain (Children & YA)
• Freelance Editor - Kristina Schulz (Children)
• Freelance Editor - Sue Whiting (Children & YA)
• Freelance Editor - Suzanne O’Sullivan (Children & YA)
• Hachette - Sophie Hamley (Adult)
• Hardie Grant - Ella Meave (Children)
• Hardie Grant  - Luna Soo (YA & Adult)
• IngramSpark - Debbie Lee (Children & Adult)
• Jacinta di Mase Management - Danielle Binks (Children & YA)
• Kristy Bushnell Editing Services - Kristy Bushnell (Children & YA)
• Mayfair Literary Agency - Justine Barker (Children & YA)
• Pantera Press - Lucy Bell (Children & YA)
• Penguin Random House - Clive Hebard (Adult)
• Penguin Random House - Michelle Madden  (Children)
• Red Paper Kite - Sandra van Doorn (Children)
• Red Paper Kite - Brenda Gurr (Children)
• Scholastic - Clare Hallifax (Children)
• UQP - Cathy Vallance  (Children, YA & Adult)
• Walker Books - Sarah Davis (Children)
• Wild Dog Books - Maryann Ballantyne (Children)
• Windy Hollow Books - Cristina Pase (Children)
• Wombat Books - Rochelle Manners (Children & YA)
• Writers House (USA) - Stephen Barr (Children, YA & Adult)
• Yellow Brick Books - Rowena Beresford (Children & YA)

While the plan was to hold the assessments on the first weekend only, we have added additional sessions on the other weekends to meet the demand. If you missed out on an editor or agent it may be worth checking if they have added additional sessions.

Bootcamps

20 March - Bootcamp report back

What a fantastic day! Thank you, Dee White, for being our awesome Head Ranger at camp as always. And thank you to the fabulous editors Clare Hallifax and Suzanne O’Sullivan for all their hard work with us and for the interesting discussions and Q&A. There was so much information being passed around. And I think we can call the day a massive success. I’m sure everyone there will agree it was hard work, but worth it!

Feedback from the boot campers has been very positive, and as we are always looking to make the experience better, the following will be implemented in the July camps. 

• Option to submit two picture books
  Most editors have already agreed to accept two books in their submissions for bootcamp, so that if time permits you will receive feedback on both works, and you can choose which to spend your writing time one.
  We will be updating the editor pages next week with who will be accepting two texts. 
   
• For author/illustrators will submit a storyboard with their text.
  All attendees who are both author/illustrator’s will be allowed to include a STORYBOARD with their submissions. It can be simply a rough, but for those who are both, it will help the editors to ‘see’ your vision for your book.

Site Membership

Slow progress is being made with migrating site members – but it is continuing. Many people are loving the idea of having everything at their fingertips as to orders, competition entries, who their editor appointments are with etc., and of course, having access to information before it goes out on social media normally is a huge plus too. Please keep on signing up so that we can reach you without a 3rd party like Facebook dictating what we can and can’t say to you and how long information is available to you. 

Socials

CYA Conference was featured on Reading with a chance of Taco’s today – it’s an awesome podcast for writers! We hope you’ll find the time to listen to “the fairy-god-mother” waffle on about the joys of CYA. 

Author tip for the week

For those who don’t know, although I coordinate the CYA Conference, I’m first and foremost a published author, and telling stories is very much still my passion. Recently I found I wasn’t creating. I found that I was filling my hours with admin and simply going over older things, avoiding creating new stories. When I realised this, I looked at my day and realigned it to make room once again for new creations. Have you found yourself at the end of the day just without any more hours and your writing taking last place – not done? Have a look at your day critically and see where you are wasting time. 

For me, it was at night. I used to write heaps at night, now with hubby home all the time (which I love, he used to work away) I found I was spending a few hours together, watching TV. While we both love this time together, it had effectively cut out my creative time. So, we adjusted, we do dinner and watch TV together until 8 pm, then we come back to the computers… (yip we actually do sit back-to-back in our study). 

I’m pleased to say I’m writing new content again. Look at your day and find where you can find some time to claim as your creative time and make the change.    

Keep creating and keep healthy!

Tina

and the CYA All Stars Team
 

If you've enjoyed a success as a result of the CYA Conference we'd love to hear about it.