Awesome Austin Writers Workshop in session (Photo by Cynthia Leitich Smith)

A mega-critique of 26 children’s and YA published and soon-to-be-published authors, the Awesome Austin Writers Workshop  ended Sunday, June 29, and everyone drove home in shock.  Shock because it was over and had gone so well and we realized  that we weren’t coming back to hang out with each other again the next day.

The workshop took place in the 1920s-vintage Austin, Texas home of authors Greg and Cynthia Leitich Smith.

Cynthia, who teaches in the children’s and young adult writing MFA program at the Vermont College of Fine Arts thought up and organized the event with help from her author-attorney husband, Greg and other friends from the Austin chapter of SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.)  

For three days she led the critiques in a tour de force of quick wit, good fun, practical erudition, zinging (as opposed to stinging) professional insight and Kansas Pioneer Woman stamina. 

Months before we’d been asked to submit up to ten pages of our works in progress. These were the beginnings of picture books, parts of YA novels and sci-fantasy chapter books, poems and nonfiction stories. Each writer got 40-45 minutes of vociferous attention from the group, moderated by Cynthia. 

Liz Scanlon, Alison Dellenbaugh, Erin Edwards and Phillip Yates get their papers in order. April Lurie is in the background. (Photo courtesy of Cynthia Leitich Smith.)

It’s an odd sensation to be on the receiving end of so much focus – 26 bright minds reacting to your prose or verse, while you’re not allowed to talk back. It feels like a surgical procedure is being done – a double cataract removal. 

Like the other dazed & AAWW’ed patients after their operations, I got my copies back scribbled with thoughts, kudos, suggestions for fixes, often accompanied by typed notes. We clutched our precious stacks like they were our medical charts and we were on our gurneys in the recovery room.

Since I was one of two illustrators present, I was invited to pass around a couple of sketches to accompany my picture book offering – for additional AAWW-some scrutiny.

There was a lot of sharing, bonding, helping and a lot of eating going on.  Our graceful “pages” (fellow SCBWI’ers)  Donna Bratton and Carmen Oliver kept us supplied with coffee, scrambled egg kolaches, chocolates, juice and jokes (bad pun jokes — relentless pantomiming on the theme ”turning pages”,  ”flipping pages.” At one point they donned tunics with labels: ”Page #1″ and “Page #2.”)

The founder and first regional adviser of our Austin SCBWI chapter, Meredith Davis was there, along with our current RA Tim Crow and former RA Julie Lake and our 90 year old member Betty X. Davis, who frequently outpaces us.  Participant Gene Brenek wrote later, ”These relationships have been years in the making.” It was true and probably contributed to all the magic we felt around us. Still, not  everyone present was an Awesome Austin writer. You see, Awesome writer Varsha Bajaj joined us from the Houston SCBWI chapter. She became one of us quickly, though.

Taking time out from their paginations, Donna Bratton(left) and Carmen Oliver (right) visit with author Lindsey Lane at the Saturday night party at author Helen Hemphill's home. (Photo by Cynthia Leitich Smith.)

We enjoyed a relaxing Saturday night party in the lovely loft residence of YA author Helen Hemphill and her husband Neil. Children’s writers settled right in to flowing wine, a spectacular catered supper and twinkling night views of the downtown.

Sunday around lunchtime everyone drove home in shock, as I’ve explained above. Many, after recovering somewhat, went straight to blogging about their experience, which is why the Awesome Austin Writers Workshop is all over the Internet today, as it should be.

Here are some of the blogposts::

Jo Whittemore, Julie Lake, Liz Scanlon and Betty Davis prepare for the next critique round. (Photo by Cynthia Leitich Smith)

Congratulations!
You’ve landed on a blog and an education-community site intended for you. 

You won’t find another site quite like this. You’ll find art lessons here. But they’re more than art lessons — more like revelations. You’ll find design and drawing tips, too. But they’re more than tips. They’re more like keys to easily tackle most picture-making challenges that you will face. 

You’ll learn how to draw without “learning how to draw.” What I mean to say is: tedium has no place on this blog or in this curriculum –  only discovery.

Anyone can learn to draw, paint and illustrate expressively. a high enough interest level, the right information and a little bit of ”right practice” (but not tedious practice.)  You’ll get these here.

This blog supports Make Your Splashes; Make Your Marks: A power home study course on creating effective illustrations for children’s books, magazines and other media.  Both here and in the year-long online course, you’ll find painting instruction  — but a unique kind that can free you as it encourages and dares you to explore several painting mediums and methods. 

You’ll discover how to grow your illustration from a thumbnail “seed” to a living-breathing, full-sized sketch —  and ”make a scene, fusing the skills of the draftsman with the cunning (artistically speaking) of the storyteller.  

In frequent interviews you’ll meet successful children’s book illustrators and see how they work.  They might share some of their best trade secrets with you. 

You’ll find news roundups of the field,  mini-lessons by guest artist-instructors, and a wonderful exposure to the books, blogs and projects of your fellow illustrators. You’ll find a growing online community, support group and casual clearing house for a vast array of resources and information. And gradually you’ll be able to enter the dialogue of illustrators, graphic designers, art directors, editors, agents, writers, teachers and librarians and others who love the artistry of children’s books.  

As enrolled student-members, you’ll have access to the year-long online course, Make Your Splashes; Make Your Marks: A Power Course in Creating Effective Illustrations for Children’s Books, Magazines and Other Media, based on a popular class honed overmany years in the studio classrooms of the Austin Museum of Art Art School. 

You’ll acquire new skills and sophisticated knowledge that could save you years of  “conventional art study”, frustration/confusion and costly mis-steps. 

You’ll love this journey. You’ll have fun. In the strange, quiet way that creators have fun. And you will  grow.  Maybe a lot.

So bookmark this site. Keep coming back to it. You’ve found a good community for you — but it is partly a gated community.  To enroll as a student-member and have access to the in-depth content and the core training,  e-mail mark@markgmitchell.com.

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Children’s book Author-illustrator Mark G. Mitchell (www.markgmitchell.com) hosts How to Be a Children’s Book Illustrator.   Download his award-winning book Raising La Belle, about the recovery of a 312 year old shipwreck — for free at http://shipwreck-book.weebly.com.

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