NEW YEAR, NEW FOCUS AND SCBWI DIVERSITY GRANTS

Happy New Year! 2017 was a year full of publishing and writing projects — my new picture book The Rock Maiden was released by Wisdom Tales Press, and I wrote articles for Faces, Muse, and Mendocino Arts magazine, along with appearances at the California School Library Association Conference and KidQuake at the San Francisco Public Library where I was on panels about writing diversity children's literature, various school visits, the Sonoma County Fair and Bay Area Book Festivals, and as a faculty member at the Book Passage Children's Writing Conference. 

The outcome was that blogging took a backseat. As 2018 begins, I'm hoping to renew my blogging with a new focus on multiculturalism and diversity, especially with respects to writing and publishing children's literature, as well as myths and legends, always a personal interest of mine (as you can probably tell by my last two books.) 

So, to start it off, I want to share the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) North and East Bay Region's two Diversity grants: the Diverse Creator scholarship and the Diverse New Member scholarship. 

The Diversity grants are to encourage a wider entry of diverse writers and illustrators into the publishing industry. Two Diverse Creator scholarships will be awarded — for a writer and an illustrator. It's open to any current member of the SCBWI SF North & East Bay region whose unpublished, completed work (illustrations or writing) contains diverse characters, or is written by a diverse author. 

The Diverse New Member scholarship is open to any children’s writer/illustrator, over 18, in the SCBWI SF North & East Bay region, (https://sfnortheastbay.scbwi.org/) with a diverse background, who has never been an SCBWI member, and is unagented. 

For more information, submission guidelines, and prizes, click HERE.

Speaking of diversity, I was asked by Disney Publishing Worldwide to write a Mulan Chinese New Year picture book. It's my first work-for-hire book project so has been a a good learning experience. After 7 rounds of edits, the manuscript is back with the cultural sensitivity readers. If all is good and well, it's on to Disney's illustrators for the artwork, and the book will be released in October 2018!