Online workshop for grown-ups: Writing Kid Lit with Kids Can Press editor Kathleen Keenan, Saturday, Feb 27

 

Wolf's Curse, a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong
a New York Times #1 bestselling novelist
and one of Brian's students 

Writing for Children and for Young Adults

  ~ The world’s hottest market

With Kids Can Book Editor ~ Kathleen Keenan

Saturday, February 27, 2021

1:00 – 5:00 p.m.

Online via Zoom and accessible wherever there’s Internet

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. Be sure to bring all your questions – we'll have lots of time for interaction.

Special option: Participants are invited to submit the opening couple pages (first 500 words) of your children’s book or young adult novel (or up to 750 words if that gets you to the end of your picture book or to the end of your first chapter.) Email your pages to me prior to our workshop. We want to do some peer critiquing for everyone, and Anne and I will publicly critique several submissions, at least half a dozen, so everyone can see what works, what doesn’t and how to improve your story-telling. If you’re not currently working on a children’s story, don’t worry, we’ll get you started on the spot! ~Brian

Kathleen Keenan is an editor at Kids Can Press. In 2013, she started at Nelson Education, where she worked as a developmental editor on everything from social studies textbooks to poetry. In 2016, she moved to Inuit-owned publishing company Inhabit Media, where she was an editor, and joined Kids Can Press in 2018. Kathleen also has over a decade of experience as an independent bookseller and writes the monthly newsletter for A Novel Spot Bookshop in Toronto. 

Some recently published books she worked on include A Portrait in Poems (for grades 1-4), Wanted! Criminals of the Animal Kingdom (for grades 1-4), In the Dark(for grades 3-7), This Is Your Brain on Stereotypes(for grades 6-9), and the Nature All Around series (for grades 2-5).

Workshop leader Brian Henry has been a book editor, author, and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. 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 Inc). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

“Brian’s the real deal.  He isn't just an inspiring teacher – he's plugged into the publishing world! He got me an agent who sold my first novel, to publishers around the world.  My 13th novel, The Awakening  – a YA urban fantasy –  hit number 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list. Currently, Random House Canada, Bantam U.S. and Little Brown in Britain have contracted my next seven books.  So it looks like I’ll be writing for a while.”

~ Kelley Armstrong, Aylmer, Ontario

P.S. Kelley and I will be doing an online workshop "How to Write a Bestseller," on Saturday, November 7. Details here. 

Read reviews of Brian’s classes and workshops here.

Fee: $43.36 + 13% hst = $49paid in advance by mail or Interac

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca
Note: Don't ever miss a post on Quick Brown Fox. Fill in your email in the box to the right under my bio, and get each post delivered to your Inbox. ~ Brian

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including online and in-person writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Southampton, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

“Checklist for Acting Ethically” a short story by Jayne Evans

 

Alex looks up from his laptop. The Uptown Diner, with its chipped melamine tables and leatherette benches is where he comes to get away from the distractions of the student house he shares with a bunch of University friends; at least that’s what Alex tells himself. Although in reality it’s the burger and fries he can get for half price with his student card that’s the real pull.

The Diner sits across the road from Java Java where the mocca-chocca-lotta brigade hangs out. A metal railing separates Java Java from the street and at a cluster of bistro tables under a broad awning slanting out from the roof, couples huddle around tall, stainless heating lamps, smoking and sipping over-priced coffee. A professional type in brown corduroys leans across the table towards a younger woman, a tasselled scarf wound around her throat like a neck brace, and lights her cigarette.

A man shuffles along the street pushing a shopping cart filled with aluminium cans, his overcoat knotted with string at the waist. Tied to the cart, a thin black dog lopes along behind him. The man stops in front of Java Java and touches a hand to the grubby yellow peak of a Ticats cap. Corduroy Guy shakes his head and looks away and the dog lifts its leg against the railing.

Alex looks back at the screen. The cursor blinks at him. Okay. “Declining Ethical Values in Today’s Society” is the title of his Social Justice essay and typing the title across the top of the page is as far as Alex has got. For inspiration, he clicks on his half page of lecture notes.

‘Checklist for Acting Ethically:’

1.       What would you think if you were on the opposite side of the situation?

2.      What are the alternatives?

3.      Is there someone you can speak to whose advice you trust?

4.      What would your family and friends say if they learned of your actions?

Slumping against the bench, Alex exhales slowly. He’d wanted to do Sports Science but didn’t have the biology, so he’s enrolled in the first program that would take him and plans to switch to Sports Science next semester by taking biology at night school. Although so far, he hasn’t actually managed to get to any biology classes. 

His eyes drift back to the window. “Jesus!” 

The man with the shopping cart has crossed the street and is now pressed up against the glass on the other side of Alex’s table. His eyes, in deep black sockets like railway tunnels, are fixed on Alex.

Alex slides himself up the bench away from the window.

A waitress reaches across the table and re-fills Alex’s mug. “Oh, don’t mind him.” She nods towards the man pressed against the glass. “It’s only Lionel.” Her name, scrawled in thin red pen across a plastic name tag says, Hi, I’m Wendy.

Wendy shakes her head. “Real sweetheart too when the drink’s not doing the talking.”  She flicks a hand at Lionel through the glass. “Go on,” she mouths and Lionel turns away from the window.

“He’s a funny one you know,” says Wendy. “When he comes in, he’ll sit over there.” She points her thumb at a line of stools along the counter.  “And if he has to use the bathroom, he’ll stand up and say, ‘I’m going to make a call from the Oval Office.’” She slaps a hand across Alex’s shoulder. “Cracks me up every time!”

Wendy leans a fist on the table and glances around. “When it’s not busy, I let him inside if he’s got a coupon. Boss don’t need to know. Nothing wrong with a bit of charity is there?”

Alex, his eyes dropping to his palms spread out on the table, slides his hands onto his lap and wipes them down his jeans.

“Coupon?”

“Free donut with your student meal deal. See?” Wendy taps a slip of paper next to the bill she’s tucked under Alex’s plate.

On the laptop, the screen flicks from the swirling vortex of Alex’s screensaver and back onto the Checklist for Acting Ethically. Wendy nods at the window. “See, Lionel wants you to give him your coupon.”

 What would you think if you were on the opposite side of the situation? asks The Checklist.

Alex looks at the coupon on the table. He’d like a free donut himself. Why doesn’t Lionel just go to a soup kitchen or a food bank?

He looks back at the window. Lionel’s lost to sight but the shopping cart, wedged now at an angle against the window, is being scraped against the glass, pulled along by the dog in an effort to follow his owner.

Lionel is pushing open the door of the Diner.

Oh God. He’s coming in. Alex looks from Wendy to Lionel then back at Wendy. He’s coming to get his coupon.

“Nothing wrong with a bit of charity,” Wendy said. Well, doesn’t charity begin at home? A free donut is called lunch when you’re surviving on a student loan.

“Hey, Lionel,” Wendy pushes the coffeepot onto the counter and heads across the diner. She  braces her arms across the doorway. “Not today, sweetheart. Too busy in here.”

Lionel points a shaky finger at Alex. “He’s got my coupon.” A cough rumbles in his throat.

“No. It’s not your coupon, is it?” says Wendy gently, blocking Lionel’s advance with her body. Wendy’s eyes flick to Alex.

Alex shifts on the bench, turns his gaze back to his laptop. I know exactly where the nearest food bank is. I’d be happy to tell Lionel.  

“Any beds at the Y tonight?” Wendy is saying to Lionel who is swaying in the doorway.

He steadies himself against the frame and saws an agitated palm across his face. “Feckin prick!” he shouts at Alex. 

“Come on now.” Wendy reaches for the door and holds it open while Lionel, gripping the frame with both hands, shuffles around. “They won’t let you in the Y if you start with the language, will they?”

Lionel eases himself off the front step and out onto the street.

Alex looks back at the Checklist. What are the alternatives? He sighs and looks out of the window. Not many for a guy like Lionel, who has now pushed the shopping cart over to a bench at a bus stop near the Diner.

Jeez, Alex thinks, he’s getting real good at making himself feel guilty. But Alex’s real problem is that he’s going to flunk his semester if he doesn’t start turning in some decent assignments, and his mom’s got no idea. She’s working double shifts at the hospital so he that can go to university. And when he goes home to visit, she feeds him, does his laundry, sends him back with care packages. And she’s happy to do it, because, she says, he needs to concentrate on his studies.

Concentrating isn’t something Alex does well.

Alex counts out coins onto the table and shoves the coupon into his wallet. Sliding off the bench, Checklist Number 4 drifts through his head. What would your family and friends say if they learned of your actions?   

Answer is too easy: They’d say I was a lazy shit, and how can you treat your mom like that?

Shouts from the street outside brings Wendy to the window. A woman from Java Java is punching numbers into her phone as she runs across the road towards the bus stop while some guy is bending over Lionel who has slid off the bench and is lying unconscious on the pavement. His dog is yelping and pulling on the rope. The shopping cart lurches sideways and tips over, spilling aluminium cans across the pavement.  

A handful of cutlery clatters onto the table and Wendy runs to the door, her Crocs slapping across the tiles like castanets.

In a minute, Wendy is kneeling beside Lionel. She picks up the Ticats cap that’s rolled beside him on the pavement. She presses it into her lap then reaches out and strokes Lionel’s head.  

Alex wishes he’d given him the coupon, wishes he thought better of himself.

Wendy pulls a napkin from her pocket and blows her nose. “I could have given him more than a stupid donut,” she says. “Who can survive on that?”

***

Jayne Evans wrote furiously as a child. Then life took over. Her passion for writing was rekindled when she found a newspaper clipping about the tragic story of her young uncle who immigrated alone to Canada in 1929 and died a year later in Toronto. The provided the inspiration for her first novel which she is currently working on (furiously.) Jayne is a passionate ESL teacher and lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with her husband, Mike. Her short stories have appeared in CommuterLit and she has also written for CERIC Magazine and Moving2Canada.

See Brian Henry’s schedule here, including online and in-person writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Southampton, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Four publishers in Atlantic Canada seeking books for adults and children

Nimbus Publishing

3360 Strawberry Hill
Halifax, NS  B3K 5A9

https://nimbus.ca/

Established in 1978, Nimbus is the largest English-language publisher east of Toronto. They publish, over forty books a year.

In nonfiction, they’re looking for biography, art, history, science and nature, political and social issues, folklore, sports, guidebooks, cookbooks, photographic books.

They also publish children’s fiction and nonfiction, books for babies, through young adult.  

Under their Vagrant imprint, Nimbus also publishes four to six books of fiction for adults each year. They are looking for stories with broad appeal and writing that is modern and innovative. They’re dedicated to supporting Atlantic Canadian writers, and as such first consideration will be given to manuscripts written by Atlantic Canadians.

Vagrant is primarily interested in works of literary and historical ficton, mystery and regionals interest. Mostly, they’re looking for novels, but will consider collections of short fiction.

General submission guidelines here. Submit to Nimbus online here. Submit to Vagrant online here.

 

Formac Publishing Company

Halifax, Nova Scotia

http://www.formac.ca/

Formac is actively acquiring new books. Its publishing program focuses on nonfiction for adults and fiction and nonfiction for kids.

For adults, Formac is especially seeking books with a Maritime regional focus travel guides, history, biography, natural history, Maritime Provinces politics, and regional cookbooks and cookbooks with a fresh/healthy focus.

For children, Formac is particularly seeking submissions to its First Novels series.

First Novels follow a primary character through realistic and humorous tales with themes kids can relate to such as teasing, friendship, diversity and bullying. These beginner chapter books are for children just starting to read on their own, and are accompanied with ten black-and-white illustrations. Main characters are the same age, or slightly older than the reader (grades 1-4, ages 6-9). The word count runs around 4,000. Prospective writers are encouraged to read First Novels such as the Morgan or Lilly series to get a sense of what they’re looking for.

Formac also publishes The Dreadful Truth series: humorous histories for kids in grades 3–8, ages 8–13.

In nonfiction, Formac publishes Canadian History and Nature books for kids.

When submitting a proposal, please include a cover letter describing your book idea, a brief outline (either an annotated table of contents or a chapter-by-chapter summary), a writing sample, a schedule for completion of your work, an estimate of its final word count, and your resume.

Mail your proposal to:

Acquisitions Editor
Formac Publishing Company Limited
5502 Atlantic Street
Halifax, NS  B3H 1G4

See their full submission guidelines here.

 

Breakwater Books

1 Stamp's Lane, PO Box 2188
St. John's, NL  A1C 6E6

https://www.breakwaterbooks.com/

Breakwater Books publishes Canadian literary fiction, commercial fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and children’s books. While they publish books by authors from across the country, they’re particularly interested in the stories and authors of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Breakwater publishes four books of fiction each year, predominantly literary fiction, but sometimes they publish compelling crime and suspense thrillers.

They also publish novels for young adults.

In nonfiction, Breakwater generally publishes four titles each year. They look for nonfiction works written with a literary flair while making a strong argument based on meticulous research. Breakwater’s nonfiction focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on the people and history of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Breakwater publishes contemporary poetry by authors who have usually published extensively in established literary journals and magazines.

Breakwater only publishes one or two children’s titles each year.

Full submission guidelines here.

 

Goose Lane Editions 

500 Beaverbrook Court, Suite 330
Fredericton, NB E3B 5X4

https://gooselane.com/

Goose Lane Editions specializes in high quality Canadian literary fiction, poetry (published under their icehouse poetry imprint), and creative nonfiction. The company considers submissions from outside Canada only when the author is Canadian and the book is of extraordinary interest to Canadian readers. Goose Lanes does not publish books for children or for the young adult market.

Goose Lane publishes works by both established and up-and-coming Canadian authors. Many new authors have previously contributed to distinguished literary journals and magazines such as the Fiddlehead, Antigonish Review, New Quarterly, Malahat Review, and Maisonneuve; newspapers such as the Globe and Mail, the National Post, the Telegraph Journal, and the Ottawa Citizen; magazines such as MacLean’s, Walrus, Geist, Canada's History, Reader's Digest and Toronto Life; or broadcasters such as CBC, Radio-Canada, and PBS. In sum, many of them have had long and distinguished careers in periodical publishing before they began to publish in book form.

Submit fiction here.

Submit nonfiction here.

Submit poetry here.

Full submission guidelines here.

 

Kids Can Press editor Kathleen Keenan

If you’re interested in meeting an agent and in getting published, don’t miss our online How to get Published workshop Saturday, March 6, with Alice Speilburg of the Speilburg Literary Agency (see here).

Beyond that, Brian’s schedule continues to take shape...

Online: Writing and Revising, Saturday, February 6.  Details here.

Online: Writing for Children and for Young Adults workshop with Kids Can Press editor Kathleen Keenan, Saturday, Feb 27 (see here), and Saturday, April 24, with Orca Books editor Liz Kemp, Saturday, April 24. Details to come, but if you’re interested, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca to reserve your spot.

Online: How to Write a Bestseller, with New York Times bestselling author Kelley Armstrong, Saturday, April 3.  Details here.

Online: How to Build Your Novel, with author Laurie Elizabeth Flynn, Sunday, April 11. Details here.

Online: Beginning Right – How to open your novel, Saturday, May 15. Details here.

Spring classes:

Online: Welcome to Creative Writing, an introductory, low pressure course to get the creative juices flowing. Thursday evenings, April 15 – June 24 {no class May 27}. Details here.

Online: Writing Personal Stories, nine weeks of creativity and fellowship. Thursday afternoons, April 15 – June 24 {no class May 27}. Details here.  

Online Writing Kid Lit and Young Adult Fiction weekly Wednesday evenings, April 21 – June 16. Details here.

Writing retreat:

Algonquin Park: Writing Retreat at Arowhon Pines Resort, an island of luxury in the middle of a wilderness. Friday, May 28 – Monday, May 31.  Details here.

For more details or to register for any workshop, retreat or weekly class, email brianhenry@sympatico.ca

See Brian’s complete current schedule here, including online and in-person writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Alliston, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Collingwood, Georgetown, Georgina, Guelph, Hamilton, Jackson’s Point, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Southampton, Sudbury, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.