Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens with Brick by Brick—Building your Blog
and
Trevor Kew with Less Talk, More Action—Achieving Balance between Action, Dialogue, and Description in Your Children’s Book
Time: Saturday, February 18, 2012, 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Conference Room 1
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University).
For a map see http://www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee: 1,500 yen SCBWI members; 2,000 yen nonmembers
Reservations: RSVP contact (at) scbwi (dot) jp by Friday, February 17
This event will be in English.
Brick By Brick: Building Your Blog
Today’s writer needs an online presence. Blogging is one of many ways to create such a presence. Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens will give an overview on blogging specifically for writers. For those who are new to blogging, we’ll look at reasons to blog, how to set up a blog, and what to put on your blog. For those who are already actively blogging, we’ll look at how to build a following. Finally, we’ll take a moment to look at other social media for writers. Is blogging the best route for you? How can you combine your blog with other social media? Q&A and discussion will follow the presentation.
Less Talk, More Action—Achieving Balance between Action, Dialogue, and Description in Your Children’s Book
Have you ever heard kids complain that a book contains too much action? Probably not. Too much dialogue, maybe. Too much description, definitely. All three elements are important to the success of any novel, but how do we achieve the right balance for our audience? How do we paint a picture without boring readers with excessive details? How do we ensure that dialogue doesn’t overwhelm the story? And how do we create action that seems meaningful and authentic? Trevor Kew will speak briefly on his experiences in writing action-packed scenes for children, using examples from both drafts and finished pieces. This will be followed by an interactive session, where participants will get the opportunity to make choices about their own use of action within their writing. Q&A and discussion will follow the presentation.
Claire Dawn-Marie Gittens is a 30-year-old Barbadian living in Iwate. She writes for young adults, and her story “Ichinichi on the Yamanote” will be released in the forthcoming Tomo anthology. Her blog can be found at http://aclairedawn.blogspot.com.
Trevor Kew is the author of three novels for children–Trading Goals, Sidelined and Breakaway that all revolve around sports. His story “The Bridge to Lillooet” will appear in the forthcoming Tomo anthology. He teaches English Literature at Yokohama International School and originally hails from Rossland, British Columbia, Canada. Visit his website at http://trevorkew.wordpress.com.
]]>Fee: Exchange: 500 yen SCBWI members; 800 yen nonmembers
Dinner: charged individually according to dishes ordered
Reservations: RSVP contact (at) scbwi (dot) jp by Friday, January 20 (please specify exchange, dinner or both)
This Creative Exchange will be in English and Japanese.
Join us for the first SCBWI Tokyo Creative Exchange of 2012! Bring your work in progress and your new ideas to share with the group for constructive feedback. Open to published and pre-published writers, illustrators and translators of children’s and young adult books. Also, bring along your questions about writing, illustrating and the marketing process.
After the exchange, join us for a shinnenkai (New Year’s party) dinner to share our creative goals and hopes for the new year.
What to bring for the Creative Exchange:
For MG and YA Fiction Bring 10 copies of a story or chapter up to 2,000 words.
For Picture Books Bring 10 copies of a dummy or story board or manuscript up to 600 words.
For Translations (Japanese to English) Bring 10 copies of a story or chapter up to 2,000 words.
Participants without manuscripts are welcome to participate.
http://www.scbwi.jp
Saturday, September 10, 2011
SCBWI Tokyo Creative Exchange
Time: Saturday, September 10, 2011, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Audiovisual Rooms B and C
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University).
For a map see http://www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee: 500 yen SCBWI members; 800 yen nonmembers
Reservations: RSVP contact (at) scbwi (dot) jp by Friday, September 9
This Creative Exchange will be in English.
Writers and translators, join us for a Creative Exchange. Bring your work in progress to share with the group for constructive feedback. Open to published and pre-published writers and translators of children’s and young adult books. Also, bring along your questions about writing, illustrating and the marketing process.
What to bring:
For MG and YA Fiction This will be a focus on characters and voice; please email contact (at) scbwi (dot) jp.
For Picture Books Bring 10 copies of manuscript up to 800 words.
For Translations Please email contact (at) scbwi (dot) jp.
Participants without manuscripts are welcome to attend.
http://www.scbwi.jp
Anyone interested interested in spending a morning at Tsujido Seaside park? I was thinking sometime during the week of July 18-24th. Kids welcome - I have a 10 month old.
]]>Ive just taken over a Meet up group that organises brunch in and around Tokyo.
If interested, please join the group free of charge at Meet Up Tokyo, it s called Lets Brunch in Tokyo.
I will then let you know via email, when and where events take place.
This will be a regular event approx every 3 weeks at various places, I also accept ideas, recommendations of places to eat etc.
Its non-profit too.
The group is open to all, so men and women alike, any nationality.
Its just simply a place to meet new people, share ideas/experiences and eat good food!!
Any questions, please feel free to emailme at helenmet1975 at yahoo dot co dot uk
Look forward to meeting you all at some point.
]]>Discovering PaperTigers—the Online Forum for Multicultural Children’s Literature
Time: Friday, July 8, 2011, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Conference Room 2B
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University)
for a map see http://www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee: SCBWI members 1,000 yen; nonmembers 1,500 yen
RSVP: Please reserve by sending an e-mail to info (at) scbwi (dot) jp
This event will be in English.
Multicultural children’s literature has been the focus of the website and blog, PaperTigers (http://www.papertigers.org), based in San Francisco, California, since 2002. The website contains a wealth of information about children’s books including reviews, interviews, illustrator’s galleries as well as an outreach program for donating books to libraries and schools world-wide. In addition to the website is a blog, active with near daily posts by international blog contributors Marjorie Coughlan (U.K.) Corinne Robson (Canada) and Sally Ito (Canada). Currently in Japan, Ito will give a presentation on PaperTigers for SCBWI Tokyo with an overview of its history, its current presence on the web, and the outreach projects it is engaged with at the present time. Q&A will follow the presentation.
Sally Ito was born in Alberta, Canada, and grew up in Edmonton and the Northwest Territories. She studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, and travelled on scholarship to Japan, where she translated Japanese poetry. Based in Winnipeg, Canada, Ito is a writer, reviewer and blog contributor for PaperTigers. She has been with the PaperTigers team for about 3 years. In addition to writing for PaperTigers, Ito is a published writer of three books—two collections of poetry, Frogs in the Rain Barrel and Season of Mercy, and Floating Shore, a collection of short stories. Her newest book will be the poetry collection Alert To Glory to be published this fall by Canadian press, Turnstone Books.
Writers’ Night: Writing for Young Adults
Writing YA Short Stories with Suzanne Kamata
Writing YA Verse Novels with Holly Thompson
Time: Saturday, June 11, 2011, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Audiovisual Room
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children’s Castle and United Nations University).
For a map see http://www.scbwi.jp/map.htm
Fee: SCBWI members 1,000 yen; nonmembers 1,500 yen
RSVP: Please reserve by June 10 by sending an e-mail to info at scbwi dot jp
This event will be in English.
Join us for an evening focused on writing for young adults including discussion, brief readings and Q&A.
What makes a good short story? And why bother writing short fiction for teens? Suzanne Kamata, award-winning author of more than 40 published short stories, will answer these questions and suggest established markets and new frontiers for short fiction aimed at young adults.
What exactly is a verse novel? Why write one? And why do teens read them? Holly Thompson, author of the young adult verse novel Orchards will discuss the many variations of the form, share examples of recently published YA verse novels, and offer insights gained along the road to publication.
Books will not be available for sale at the event. Please feel free to purchase copies in advance through your favorite bookseller and bring them along for signing.
Suzanne Kamata (http://www.suzannekamata.com) is the author of the novel Losing Kei (Leapfrog Press) and editor of The Broken Bridge: Fiction from Expatriates in Literary Japan and Love You to Pieces: Creative Writers on Raising a Child with Special Needs (Beacon Press). She serves as fiction editor for Literary Mama (literarymama.com), and her short stories for young adults have appeared frequently in Cicada. Some of those stories will appear in her forthcoming collection The Beautiful One Has Come (Wyatt-Mackenzie Publishing). She is the 2009 recipient of the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award for Fiction.
Holly Thompson (http://www.hatbooks.com) is the author of the YA verse novel Orchards (Delacorte/Random House), the picture book The Wakame Gatherers (Shen’s Books), and the novel Ash (Stone Bridge Press). She serves as Regional Advisor for the Tokyo chapter of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and teaches creative and academic writing at Yokohama City University.
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Two Artists Two Expressions
Colored Pencil Workshop with Katsuya Takahashi and Daniel Schallau
Time: Saturday, May 21, 2011, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Place: Tokyo Women’s Plaza, Audiovisual Room
5-53-67 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
(by the Children‘s Castle and United Nations University;
for a map see http://www.scbwi.jp/map.htm)
Fee: SCBWI members 1,000 yen; nonmembers 1,500 yen
RSVP: Please reserve by May 20 by sending an e-mail to info at scbwi dot jp
This event will be in English and Japanese.
Please join us for an evening workshop led by two master colored pencil children’s book illustrators followed by Q&A.
Katsuya Takahashi will introduce and demonstrate the basic properties and techniques of colored pencils that give his illustrations a unique look and feel. In the second half of his workshop, everyone will have the chance to experiment with the techniques that Takahashi has shared. Please bring a set of twelve or more colored pencils, some paper and an eraser.
Daniel Schallau will focus on the techniques he uses to draw cool winter scenes. Have you ever wondered how to draw snow in night scenes? Just use white? Think again. Schallau’s secrets might surprise you. This part of the workshop will offer the opportunity, for those interested, to try out some of Schallau’s tips. Please bring a range of blue colored pencils and yellow, orange and red pencils. Paper and pencil sharpeners will be provided.
Katsuya Takahashi (http://homepage3.nifty.com/katz-t/) Born in Kyoto, colored pencil artist Katsuya Takahashi studied in the Faculty of Art at Kyoto Seika University. After graduation, he became a freelance illustrator, and his work has been widely recognized in newspapers, books, magazines, and commercials. “Hyper burnishing” is how he describes his colored pencil technique. The rich hues and luminous glow of his illustrations are the result of deep layers of colors. Now a resident of Tokyo, he has held exhibitions every year since 1998. Takahashi works both in Tokyo and the Kansai area and is the author/ illustrator of the picture book, Hora utaga kikoeruyo (Listen, I Hear a Song; Builder Buch).
Daniel Schallau (http://www.danielschallau.com) After working for various architecture firms in the U.S., Daniel Schallau traveled to Tokyo where he now works as an English teacher and an author/illustrator. People often find it difficult to believe his drawings are actually created with colored pencils, insisting instead that they must be done with a computer. His picture book Come Back Soon (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) was published in 2009. Schallau specializes in intricately drawn worlds inhabited by elephants, penguins, whales, bears, snowmen, rabbits and more.
]]>We have a growing number of vegans here or people interested in eating healthier or more responsible (=new eithics of eating- as some books call it). Pink Cow in Tokyo is having a vegan event tomorrow (July 20. 2010 Tue) -check out their website. Below is their message that came on Facebook
Tomorrow@ThePinkCow - Vegan Night Dinner from 8pm (¥2,800pp) & Poker Game. Super yummy food!
http://www.thepinkcow.com
Regards
]]>> fwd b-lo -jn
>
> May 14, 2011 Charity Event
>
> At Alishan Cafe—2 pm discussion on nuclear power in Japan (call to
> reserve your place)
> and from 6 pm live music by Danny Katz
>
> for more info visit
>
> http://www.alishan-organics.com/Alishan2010_organics/04/12/alishan-cafe-charity-concert/
(Alishan Organic Center is located near Tokyo)
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