Writing for Children & for Young Adults workshops in 3 locales

The Rising, a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong,

a New York Times #1 bestselling author
and one of Brian’s students

Writing for Children & for Young Adults ~ the world’s hottest market

See current listings for Writing Kid Lit weekly classes and one-day Saturday workshops here. See Brian Henry's complete current schedule of classes and workshops here.


With Yasmin Ucar, senior editor, Kids Can Press 
and author Jennifer Mook-Sang 

Saturday, May 13, 2017

10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Albion-Bolton Branch, Caledon Public Library, 150 Queen Street South, Bolton, Ontario (Map here.)

This workshop is also offered Saturday, May 27, in St. Catharines, with Anne Shone, senior editor, Scholastic Books (see here), and Saturday, Aug 12, in Collingwood, with  Monica Pacheco, literary agent with the McDermid Agency (see here).

If you want to write the next best-selling children’s books or just want to create stories for your own kids, this workshop is for you. Learn how to write stories kids and young adults will love and find out what you need to know to sell your book.

Special option: You may, but don't have to, bring 3 copies of the opening pages (first 500 words) of your children’s book or young adult novel (or 1,000 words if that will get you to the end of your picture book or to the end of your first chapter.) If you’re not currently working on a children’s story, don’t worry, we’ll get you started on the spot!

Guest speaker Yasemin Uçar is a Senior Editor at Kids Can Press. Yasemin has been a children’s book editor for close to twenty years. She worked at Scholastic Canada before moving to London, UK, in 2001, where she worked as a Senior Editor at Piccadilly Press. In 2006, she moved back to Toronto and worked as a freelance editor for a number of years before joining Kids Can Press in 2012.

Yasemin has worked with many popular and award-winning authors and illustrators, including internationally bestselling author Louise Rennison, Ashley Spires, Barbara Coloroso and Caroline Adderson.

Guest speaker Jennifer Mook-Sang grew up on the shores of tropical Guyana and moved to Canada when she was fourteen. She lived an ordinary life in search of treasure until she found the beginnings of a story in one of Brian Henry's classes. That story grew into the humorous middle-grade novel Speechless, published by Scholastic in 2015. 

Speechless was shortlisted for many awards, and recommended by the Ontario Library Association, the Canadian Childrens’ Book Centre, the CBC, and the TD Summer Reading Club.

Her picture book Captain Monty Takes the Plunge will be released in the fall of 2017 by Kids Can Press.

Jennifer enjoys visiting schools and libraries to talk about the three RRRs - Reading, wRiting and procRastination. She loves sunshine and sand and, though quite fond of the letter “R,” her favourite letter has always been “the C.” Jennifer lives in Burlington, Ontario. You can find out more about her athttp://jennifermooksang.com/. Speechless is available online here.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He teaches at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. 

He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers and is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing). But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get published. 

Workshop fee: 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 + $6 for pizza lunch = $55 

paid in advance by mail or in person 

or 46.90 + 13% hst = 53 + $6 for pizza lunch = $59 at the door

To pay in advance, make your cheque out to the Caledon Public Library, and mail it to:

Attention:  Laura Nolloth, Caledon Public Library, Albion Bolton Branch, 150 Queen Street South, Bolton, ON, L7E 1E3

Or you can pay in advance in person at any Caledon Library branch. (Branch locations here.)  

To reserve a spot now, email: programs@caledon.library.on.ca

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

“Shoes on the Wire” fiction by Christine Maika

For as long as I can remember, they’ve always been there. As we left Maynooth, usually after stopping for gas and an ice cream on the first long weekend of summer, we’d see them dangling by their laces from the telephone wire above the only road that led into and out of town – a pair of denim blue sneakers. They were a family landmark.

My parents had bought the cottage 25 years before. It was a homecoming of sorts for my dad. He was born in the backcountry of the Barry’s Bay hills to Polish immigrants enticed to Canada by the promise of farmland if they were willing to clear the treed terrain. After the end of the war, my dad left Barry’s Bay for Toronto to start fresh, establishing a general contracting business and marrying my mom – a city girl from Montreal assigned to write my father, a stranger, as part of the war effort.

My parents surprised us one night after Sunday dinner as my mom was clearing our plates from the table. “We bought a place on Kaminiskeg,” my father said matter-of-factly.

My three sisters and brother – all in our teens or early twenties – looked forward to the parties we’d host and the indoor plumbing the cottage had, unlike the our grandfather’s house closer to town where, as kids, we’d spent most of our time in Barry’s Bay.

As the Friday night drive up north became more familiar, we would note the usual landmarks guiding our travel north: the chicken coop near leaning dangerously toward the ground outside of the town of Burleigh Falls, the sign announcing the town of Bancroft, the last major town on route 62 before our destination. Then between here and there, the town of Maynooth, and finally, as we exited town, the dangling sneakers.

Maynooth wasn’t a place to write home about. Highway 62 was the main road in and out of this town, which had a gas station, an ice cream bar, and the shoes. My older sister, ever the authority, would say matter-of-factly that a drunken man had pitched them up there in a stupor one night walking home from the Legion.

My younger and more mischievous brother imagined a kid like himself taking revenge on a school bully, launching his coveted Chuck Taylors over the line. My dad dryly said some lad was keeping them there for safekeeping until he needed them again. We all had our theories.

The shoes were always a topic of conversation as we gassed up and hit the black top, anxious to make the final stretch to the lake. The first one to see them would squeal, “They’re still there!” as we rode underneath the phone line stretching above the highway. On our first trip up every the spring, the shoes were always a highly coveted sighting.

This tradition continued as we invited our friends up to the cottage for parentless weekends. We had gotten used to the shoes hanging on that wire, convinced they weren’t ever going away. The shoes took on an air of nostalgia as we entertained our friends with theories of their origin. The shoes became an omen of good things to come at the cottage and the omen was rarely wrong.

Those shoes on the telephone wire outlasted my dad who stopped going up to the cottage soon after his ALS diagnosis as he became frailer and less mobile. I’d visit him in his care home and report that the shoes were still on the line in Maynooth.

St. Hedwig's, Barrry's Bay, Ontario

Always a man of few words and with a disease robbing him of his body but not his mind, he’d get a twinkle in his eye, and with a slow shake of his head in disbelief, he’d erupt into uncontrollable laughter.

The shoes were on the wire on his final journey home to the cemetery in Barry’s Bay.

Nearly 25 years since we first packed up the cars on a Friday night, I’m still making the trip to Barry’s Bay, now with my two girls riding in the back seat.

Freda shouts, “Are we stopping at the store?” She means the ice cream store in Maynooth and she already knows the answer – they just have to promise to save room for grandma’s chicken noodle soup, which will be warm on the stove when we arrive. Monica giggles and the twinkle in her eye is the same as her grandfather’s.

As we drive out of town with chocolate-stained lips and sticky hands, we anticipate our usual landmark. The three of us are dumfounded as we cross under the telephone wire. The girls turn their little bodies around quickly to get a second look out the back of the truck at the empty wire. I peer at them in the rearview mirror and our wide eyes meet as the girls turn back toward me. They shoes are gone.

“I guess he finally came back and got them!” I tell my girls.

Pausing, uncertain if I’m kidding, they at last erupt into giggles.  We start a new tradition that day, exchanging stories of what happens to the shoes next.

Christine Maika is an Improvement Lead with the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement. In her work, she advocates for health system redesign informed by the lived experience of patients and their families, often shared through storytelling and other engagement techniques.  She is an editor and contributing author of a book released in December 2016 titled Patient Engagement – Catalyzing Improvement and Innovation in Healthcare. Christine is completing her Master’s in Public Health part-time and lives in Ottawa.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

How to Write Great Dialogue workshop, Saturday, July 15, in Mississauga

How to Write Great Dialogue

Saturday, July 15, 2017

10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Unity Church, Unit 8, 3075 Ridgeway Drive, Mississauga, Ontario (Map here.)

Note: You can also attend this workshop on Saturday, July 22, in London. See here.

Accessible to beginners and meaty enough for experienced writers, this workshop will show you how to use dialogue to make your stories more dynamic and dramatic.Whether you’re writing fiction or memoir, you need to be able to write great dialogue that both sounds natural and packs dramatic punch, and you need to know how to mix your dialogue and narrative so that your characters come alive. Come to this workshop and learn both the basics and the best tricks of the trade.

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada’s most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to St. John. But his proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get published.

Read a review of "How to write great dialogue" here. For more reviews of Brian's weekly courses and Saturday workshops see here and scroll down.

Fee: 43.36 + 13% hst = 49 paid in advance

or 46.90 + 13% hst = 53  at the door

To reserve a spot now, email:brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian's full schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Barrie, Bracebridge, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Newmarket, Orillia, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, St. John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

You’re Invited to a Book Launch

Max is back – Again

A Family Matter is Chris Laing's third novel in this post-WWII mystery series featuring Max Dexter and Isabel O’Brien.

Max’s mother returns to Hamilton after an absence of twenty-some years. Max is not anxious to meet with her – why should he be after she’d abandoned him as a child? But a bigger question looms: is she involved in an internal mob war now heating up and about to explode?

Everyone is invited to the book launch
Sunday, May 7, 2017

2–4 p.m

Bryan Prince Bookseller,

1060 King Street West, Hamilton

We hope you can join us!

Chris Laing

www.chrislaing.ca

If you can't make the book launch, A Family Matter is available through Chapters / Indigo here. and the two other Max Dexter mysteries, A deadly Venture and A Private Man, plus Chris's short story collection, West End Kid: Tales from the Forties, are available here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Wanted: Ride to Algonquin, Plus congratulations to Barbara, Dave, Amy and Jane for getting published and to Dianne for a her nomination for an Aurora Award!

Wanted: Ride share to the Algonquin in June Writing Retreat

Hi, 

I want to go to the writing retreat, but don’t drive. If anyone’s going from somewhere in the London area, I’d love to go with you. I’ll split the gas money, of course, and provide good company on the way up and back.

You haven’t heard about the retreat? Check out the details here.

If you can help, please contact me at: pat.mysterywriter@gmail.com

I’d really appreciate it.

Yours,

Patricia (Pat) Brown

Congratulations!

Hi, Brian.

I just received a confirmation letter from Prairie Fire for my short story that will be published in their spring anthology. And they pay! Cool! And I submitted my first picture book manuscript to Owlkids Books and have one more close to completion to submit.

Barbara Baker

For information on submitting to Prairie Fire, see here.

For information on submitting to Owlkids Books, see here.

Hello, Brian.

Watch out for my story “Elevator Games” on CommuterLit.

Cheers

Dave

You can read “Elevator Games” here. Find links to all of Dave’s stories on CommuterLit here.  

For information on submitting to CommuterLit, see here.

Good morning, Brian.

The Harvesters has been nominated for an Aurora award – a truly wonderful honour from the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association. (You can check out the nominations here.)

The eureka moment for this sci-fi novel occurred while attending one of your seminars for help with another book, for which I will always be grateful.

See you at your next seminar!

Dianne Waye

(writing as J. D. Waye)

You can buy The Harvesters and Dianne’s other books at MuseItUp Publishing here.

Hello, Brian.

I have been meaning to write you for a couple of reasons. The first, is to thank you for Quick Brown Fox and to let you know that I achieved one of my goals this year through your site. I learned of Alanna Rusnak's new Blank Spaces Magazine and was able to get my first piece (ever!) of flash fiction published!

I wanted to thank you for the work you do helping people like me find their footing in what can be a challenging industry to navigate. As a beginner writer, I find the links and resources on your website very useful.

Thanks very much. Have a great day!
Amy Holodinsky

For information about submitting to Blank Spaces, see here.

Hi, Brian.

Just wanted you to know that one of my stories was accepted by the Globe & Mail “Facts & Arguments.” You can “Uh-oh. Did I kill my son’s hamster?” here.

And thanks for your help with my query letter for my book. I've just had an agent ask for the full manuscript.

See you soon,

Jane Bedard

For information about submitting a “Facts & Arguments: essay to the Globe & Mail, see here.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

One Canadian and ten UK publishers seeking kid lit – Picture Books to Young Adult – that don't require an agent, including at least one that wants narrative verse

Kids Can Press

25 Dockside Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5A 0B5

http://www.kidscanpress.com/

Kids Can Press seeks picture books and nonfiction manuscripts for children, as well as chapter books for ages 7–10. They do not accept young adult fiction or fantasy novels.

Yasemin Uçar is a Senior Editor at Kids Can Press. Yasemin has been a children’s book editor for close to twenty years. She worked at Scholastic Canada before moving to London, UK, in 2001, where she worked as a Senior Editor at Piccadilly Press. In 2006, she moved back to Toronto and worked as a freelance editor for a number of years before joining Kids Can Press in 2012.

Yasemin has worked with many popular and award-winning authors and illustrators, including internationally bestselling author Louise Rennison author of Angus Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging and other Georgia Nicolson books), Ashley Spires, Barbara Coloroso and Caroline Adderson.

Full submission guidelines here. Illustrator guidelines here.

Note: Yasemin Uçar  will be one of the guest speaker at the “Writing for Children & for Young Adults” workshop on Saturday, May 13, in Caledon (see here). “Writing for Children & for Young Adults” workshops are also offered Saturday, May 27, in St. Catharines, with Anne Shone, senior editor, Scholastic Books (see here) and Saturday, July 29, in Collingwood, with literary agent Monica Pacheco (see here).

Andersen Press is a specialist children's publisher. They publish picture books (500–1000 words), juvenile fiction (3,000–5,000 words), and older fiction up to 75,000 words. 
Submit a synopsis and the first three chapters by mail.

Full submission guidelines here.

Buster Books is the children’s imprint of independent publisher Michael O’Mara Books.

“Our list includes sumptuous colouring books – from the pocket-sized I Heart Colouring series, to The Book of Beasts, a stunning, fully-foiled hardback with information about mythical monsters as well as images to colour.

“We always seek to bring a new twist to established genres – check out The Colossal Creature Count, an epic creature-counting challenge, or Colourtronic, a colour-by-numbers activity book that produces unexpectedly striking results. There’s Dress Up Taylor Swift, which offers stylish stickers and Painty Prints which needs inky fingerprints to complete charming pictures. Kids are even encouraged to Destroy This Book in the Name of Science, a book full of fun, interactive science projects.”

~ Philippa Wingate, Publishing Director, Buster Books

Submissions of fiction and nonfiction ideas are welcome from authors, compilers and illustrators. No picture book or poetry submissions.

Submit a synopsis and sample text by email to: enquiries@mombooks.com

Full submission guidelines here.

David Fickling Books: For nearly twelve years DFB was run as an imprint – first as part of Scholastic, then of Random House. Now they are an independent business, DFB Storyhouse. They publish 12–20 titles a year. But while they are always open to submissions from agents, they are open to submissions directly from authors only occasionally.

Full submission guidelines here.

Floris Books is an independent publishing company based in Edinburgh, Scotland. They publish books in two main areas: nonfiction works for adults that draw on the work of Rudolf Steiner or that would be of interest to the Steiner-Waldorf community, and Scottish themed books for children ages 2–15, including picture books, chapter books, middle grade and young teens.

Full submission guidelines here.

Quatro Kids is part of Quartro Books, which publishes a wide assortment of nonfiction books. The Kids division publishes picture books, multicultural books, picture books and information books.
Full submission guidelines here.

Hogs Back Books is a small publishing house that publishes picture books for kids up to 10 years old, both fiction and nonfiction. Hogs Back welcomes texts directly from authors and from literary agents. They are also always on the lookout for illustrators who can produce original ideas and beautifully executed work to bring their stories to life.

Submit a complete manuscript by mail. Guidelines here.

Little Tiger Group is a small publisher that has has been publishing children’s books for over 25 years. At this time only its Stripes Publishing imprint is accepting unsolicited manuscripts. Stripes publishes fiction for children aged 6–12 years and for teenagers. 

Submit a covering letter, one page synopsis and 1,000-word extract to: editorial@stripespublishing.co.uk

Full submission guidelines here.

All three Little Tiger imprints (Little Tiger, Stripes, and Caterpillar) are looking for illustrators. Full guidelines here.

Mantra Lingua specializes in dual language resources for bilingual children and parents 
and for the multi-lingual classroom. They make books and other resources in 66 languages. They are always looking for translators, illustrators, writers and creators.

Full guidelines here.

Maverick Children’s Books is a new children’s book publisher, established in 2009, that’s growing rapidly, with 36 books scheduled to be published in 2017. It accepts unsolicited submissions.

Picture Books: maximum 650 words, stories in either rhyme or prose (but no poetry) and they prefer quirky. Full guidelines here.

Junior Books for ages 7 – 10 years, 6,000 – 18,000 words. Again, they are looking for something a little quirky (“Sweet stories about fluffy kittens and lost puppies are just not our thing – sorry”), and something with series potential is a bonus. Full guidelines here.

They are also looking for illustrators. Guidelines here.

Mogzilla is currently looking for  historical stories for readers aged 6–15.

Query Mogzilla at:  info@mogzilla.co.uk and provide details of your proposal 

Full submission guidelines here.

Brian Henry offers a full range of classes from beginner to advanced. Mostly, the spring session classes have already started, but there are still openings in one course:

Writing Personal Stories, Thursday afternoons, April 27 – June 15, Burlington Details here.

Details of all classes offered this spring here.

And don't miss the June in Algonquin Writing Retreat,  Friday, June 2 – Sunday, June 4 or Monday, June 5, at Arowhon Pines Resort. Details here.

Other upcoming workshops include: “You can write great dialogue,” Saturday, June 10 in Guelph, with author Hannah McKinnon, (see here) and Saturday, July 22, in London (see here) and “How to Write Great Characters,” Saturday, June 17 in Burlington (see here).

For more information or to reserve a spot in any Saturday workshop or weekly course, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Read reviews of Brian’s courses and workshops here.

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including writing workshops and creative writing courses in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.