edited by Jon Bard   Thanks to everyone for their kind words about our redesign!  We've worked hard to make the Update easier to read, easier to print out and more concise.  Also, we'll now be offering shorter Updates and sending them out a bit more regularly.     1.   Are You Up For a Challenge? Pop quiz: How much would you pay for an ongoing children's writing course, created by one of the world's most respected writing teachers, that took you step by step through the process of writing your own children's book?  A course that combined articles, audio, video and collaboration with thousands of children's writers from across the globe?  A course that broke everything down, and took the seemingly confusing path to publication and made it easy and fun? If you're a CBI Clubhouse Fightin' Bookworm, here's how much extra you'll pay for exactly that: NOTHING. I kid you not.  For less than the price of a latte each month, Fightin' Bookworms not only get: a fresh issue of Children's Book Insider, The Newsletter for Children's Writers audio interviews with top authors video tutorials about every aspect of wiring and submitting children's books to publishers a slew of exclusive articles free ebooks message boards and chatrooms.....   .....they now get The CBI Challenge -- our exclusive step-by-step children's writing course! You can pay hundreds for writing classes....you can spend thousands on books and DVDs... Or you can join the Fightin' Bookworms and get the CBI Challenge -- and everything else -- for less than the cost of lunch at a fast food joint. Check it out for yourself now, at http://cbiclubhouse.com/the-cbi-challenge   From Our Sponsor: Yes You Can! Learn how to land a contract BEFORE you write one word of your manuscript -- even if  you're an inexperienced or unpublished children's writer! Click Now For More Information & To Order        2.  Another Video For You!  Just uploaded:  Write for Success: 7 Tips For Children's Book Writers  .  In this video, we share 7 things you can start doing right now to improve your chances of children's writing success!   http://cbiclubhouse.com/2009/07/write-for-success-7-tips-for-childrens-book-writers/       3. Kidlitosphere '09 Conference Announced   I had an absolute blast at last year's Kidlitosphere Conference -- an event that brought together writers, editors, agents, librarians, teachers, book lovers and other smart folks who enjoy blogging about children's books. This year's conference takes place October 17 in Washington, DC.  Along with a full day of panels and talks, there will also be some informal outings including, planners hope, a tour of the Library of Congress. For more info about this terrific event, visit http://www.motherreader.com/2009/08/kidlitosphere-conference-2009.html         From Our Sponsor: Study Children's Writing at  Spalding University Spalding University in Louisville, KY, is offering a remarkable opportunity: a brief-residency MFA in Writing Program with a concentration in writing for children. For information, request brochure FA80: email mfa@spalding.edu or call (800) 896-8941x2423 or visit http://www.spalding.edu/mfa     4. Miss My Tweets? Here You Go! I've been happily Twittering away and have shared many links with folks that are following along. In case you're not on board yet, here are some of my recent favorites. If you want to follow along, you can find me at http://twitter.com/jonbard Children's Book Publishers: Where to Find 'em in the U.S. & Canada Listen to NPR's "Books That Helped Us Grow Up" Nice Collection of Children's Book Trailers Poetry Links for Children's Writers   5. What's in August's Children's Book Insider?   If you're new to the Update, you may not know that we publish a monthly subscription-only newsletter for aspiring and working children's book writers that's jam-packed with market leads, advice, inside info and much more. It's called Children's Book Insider, and we've been sharing it with subscribers across the globe since May, 1990! (And remember, every subscriber to Children's Book Insider gets total access to the incredible CBI Clubhouse website AND The CBI Challenge!)   Here's a look at what's in the current issue of Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers: Market Tips: *  Publisher Accepts Fiction, Nonfiction for ages 2-12 *  Scout Leaders Can Turn Work with Kids into Magazine Sales *  Publisher Seeks Fiction, Historical Fiction for Ages 8 and Up *  Two Awards for Recently Published Books Accepting Entries *  Children's Book Writing Conference in Nashville, TN In-depth Articles: * How to Jump on the Multimedia Brand-Wagon, Part 2 * Exclusive Interview w/Maggie Stiefvater, author of YA sensation Shiver! * Interview w/Kite Award Winning Nonfiction Writer Pam Turner * The CBI Challenge, Part 4: Developing your Plot & Main Character If you enjoy the information offered in this e-mail update, wait 'til you see what we've got in store for you each month in the pages of CBI!  A subscription to CBI and full access to the CBI Clubhouse and CBI Challenge costs about the same each month as a latte!  For more information and to order, go to http://cbiclubhouse.com/non-members "If you are "thinking" about subscribing, DON'T!!! Just do it. I waited for almost 2 years before I did, now I'm wondering why I waited so long"  Frederick Claus  "I won a subscription to CBI at a conference few years ago. I've been renewing ever since -- 450 magazine and 4 book credits later! Thanks for the best information published. I rely on your newsletter!" Lorri Cardwell-Casey "I knew if I was going to keep getting published I'd need some help so I did some research and discovered your newsletter. It seemed made to order so I ordered it! Five books and over thirty-five articles later, I'm still subscribing and finding Children's Book Insider as useful and inspiring as ever. " Lynne Stover "If you're not sure whether joining CBI is the right move, consider this: I got a book contract from a lead on the first page of my very first issue of CBI! How's that for results?"  Marci Mathers http://cbiclubhouse.com/non-members 6.  Finding Humor in Teenage Drama by Laura Backes, Publisher,  Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers It seems when kids turn 13, one word sums up their lives: melodrama. Emotions hover on the surface; every event is huge. Adults are idiots who don't understand them, and their classmates are constantly watching to make sure they don't do anything stupid (which includes wearing the wrong clothes to saying the wrong thing to listening to the wrong music). Oh. My. God. As adults on the receiving end of this hysteria, we may roll our eyes or deliberately show up at Back to School Night with wet hair, just to see our child's response. But as authors, we can mine the drama for its flip side: humor. Many books for teens feature characters who are on the edge of the abyss and facing life-or-death situations, extreme moral choices, or have been dealt a tough hand and have to somehow live with it. Their drama is achingly real. Or, a protagonist might be self-assured enough to rise above the sniping judgements of his peers. Both characters are admirable, but often not funny. Humor comes from a flawed character the reader genuinely likes, who's in a sticky situation the reader can easily imagine. Then the author turns it up a notch. The reader gets to laugh at someone who's like her, but from the safety of not having to actually suffer the humiliation personally. In Denise Vega's click here (to find out how i survived seventh grade), Erin Swift is not having the best start to middle school. Her big feet are the butt of jokes, she lands the role of Corn Cob in the school play, and the Cute Boy she has a crush on becomes infatuated with her best friend Jilly. But Erin's a whiz with computers, and joins the Intranet Club to become the lead designer for the school's web site. She also keeps a secret blog where she spills all her innermost thoughts and true feelings about everyone at her school. When her blog accidentally gets posted on the school web site, Erin's convinced she's going to die. Vega's taken traditional middle school dynamics and filtered them through Erin's self-deprecating lens, which lightens up the angst of the genuinely heart-wrenching scenes (Cute Boy's attraction to Jilly, Erin overhearing girls criticizing her in the bathroom). Then Vega throws in every middle schooler's worst fear: that they'll be stripped metaphorically naked in front of their peers and revealed for who they really are. If Erin's public blog was the only drama in the book, we'd pity Erin but not really identify with her. But because of the melodrama in earlier scenes, we know that Erin's learning to laugh at herself, and she'll find a way to survive this very real problem. Parents offer endless inspiration for melodrama. If you're looking for a good adolescent plot twist, simply ask yourself, "What the most embarrassing thing a parent could do to this character?" Your answer might give you a whole book. The opening line of Shelley Pearsall's All Shook Up says it all: "Looking back, I would say everything in my life changed the summer I turned thirteen and my dad turned into Elvis." Like Vega, Pearsall keeps close to comforting upper middle grade territory but then cranks up the embarrassment. Josh is sent to live with his father in Chicago one summer when his mother has to take care of his sick grandmother. Josh hasn't seen his dad for a while, and assumes he's still the scatterbrained shoe salesman he remembered. But Dad's got a new gig as an Elvis impersonator. And what's more, when Josh's visit is extended into the fall and he starts school in Chicago, one of his classmates leaves him anonymous notes about Elvis. Josh's dwindling ability to keep his dad's identity a secret is completely shattered when Dad is invited to perform at the school's 1950s concert, and Josh must take drastic action that threatens to ruin his relationship with his father forever. Readers will certainly emphasize with Josh, but also observe how he and his father learn to compromise and respect the person each has become. Josh is forced to think about someone other than himself, which (along with the fact that Dad is a terrific performer) helps deflate the social suicide of having Elvis for a dad. For my money, one of the best beach reads you'll find this summer is Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film About The Grapes of Wrath by Steven Goldman. 17-year-old Mitchell is a slightly scrawny, socially inept, average student, whose best (and only real) friend tells Mitchell he's gay one day at lunch. Mitchell's junior high school year is marked by trying to talk to girls (Does his sister and her best friend count?), navigating the school hierarchy, reassessing his friendship with David, and turning in a slightly pornographic claymation film in lieu of an English paper on a book he hasn't read. Much of the humor comes from Mitchell's dry, somewhat clueless first-person voice. He's hovering outside the whirl of popularity, and so can comment on high school without having much to lose. School Library Journal called the book "A side-splitting slice of male adolescence, [that] turns the spotlight on the ridiculousness that is the average, contemporary American high school experience." When I asked Goldman how he writes humor, he said, "I was just trying to capture some of the feelings I could remember from high school, and really see the world through the eyes and the running narration of a character with a particular view of the world and a particular way of expressing his feelings. One of the things I really enjoy about writing YA is that I find high school students to be funny. Frankly, I think they have better senses of humor than adults. They are willing to put themselves in situations that no one with a brain would, and yet they have the intelligence to realize that they are doing it. That risk-taking extends to language as well -- they will say things that are brutally honest and horrible and therefore frequently funny." This brutal honesty, both with each other and themselves, creates those situations bordering on melodrama. Once of my favorite scenes from Two Parties is at prom, when Mitchell is in the bathroom thinking about his date who's abandoned him, and he accidentally pees on his white tux pants. While laughing at Mitchell's description of himself, I couldn't help but cringe at the image of him walking through the school gym with wet pants. Even as an adult, I still feel I share in Mitchell's experience. That's why writing humor for teens may be easier than you think. As Goldman said, "We never really recover from our adolescence; those years starting in middle school and continuing through high school are so formative that they we can still find them in a lot of the ways that we feel about things as an adult. I might be 45, but when I walk into a party I swear I%u2019m still 17 and clueless about what to do next. We may leave high school, but we never really escape it."   Want more great information just like this? Check out Children's Book Insider, The Newsletter for Children's Writers. Visit now for more info and a special offer.   From Our Sponsors: Writing for Dollars! the ezine for writers featuring tips, tricks and ideas for selling what you write. Get our ebook, 83 Ways to Make Money Writing when you subscribe. Email to subscribe@writingfordollars.com -*- www.WritingForDollars.com Celebrate I Love To Write Day. Visit www.ilovetowriteday.org and learn how you can join the world's largest party for writers of all ages. Over 20,000 schools are part of the ILTWD network. Free Copy of Working Writer Magazine! Get your sample copy by e-mailing workingwriters@aol.com    Copyright 2009, Children's Book Insider, LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the author. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. This information is provided with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting or any other professional service. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the service of a competent professional should be sought. Therefore, the Author and Publisher expressly disclaim any liability for the use of any information contained herein, and this publication is provided with this understanding and none other. Additionally, Children's Book Insider, LLC is not responsible for the availability of external sites, offers or resources mentioned in advertising or in editorial content, and does not endorse and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products, special offers or other materials on or available from such sites or resources. Children's Book Insider, LLC shall not be responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with use of or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on such external sites, offers or resources. We make every effort to verify the legitimacy of the publishers and magazines we include in our market listings. However, we assume no responsibility for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with readers' associations with such publishers. For information about investigating publishers before conducting business with them, see our special report "How to Tell If A New or Small Press is Legitimate" at http://write4kids.com/legit.html		August 6, 2009 Children's Writing  Update Children's Book Insider, LLC 901 Columbia Rd  Fort Collins, CO 80525 970-495-0056 mail@write4kids.comj http://write4kids.com http://write4kids.com/blog http://twitter.com/jonbard http://cbiclubhouse.com for complete listing of our success tools for children's writers, visit http://write4kids.com/collect.html   "I feel like kid in a candy store with permission to eat whatever I want. This site is extraordinary." "Fantastic! This is the best idea I've ever seen on the web!" "Simply Outstanding. This is the most complete site I have ever seen on the topic of writing for children. This is truly a blessing. Thank you!" Ready To Experience The CBI Clubhouse For Yourself?   CLICK HERE!   http://cbiclubhouse.com       Sponsor the Update! Need to reach working and aspiring children's book writers with your marketing message?  We've got more than 44,000 of them!  E-mail us (mail@write4kids.com) and we'll send you all the details.   We've Got Solutions to Aid Your Resolutions! Need insider secrets and fresh markets for your manuscript? Check out Children's Book Insider, the Newsletter for Children's Writers + The CBI Clubhouse at http://cbiclubhouse.com/non-members Just getting started and need a friendly, step-by-step guide to becoming a children's author? Check out Career Starter, The Beginner's Guide to Writing for Children at http://write4kids.com/starter.html Want to have an incredible amount of "How To" wisdom right at your fingertips?  The Children's Writer's Big Book of How To has the solution to more than 100 of the trickiest issues faced by children's authors. From coming up with great ideas right through signing the contract, this amazing volume is packed with insight. http://write4kids.com/bigbook.html Have you written a story but don't know what to do next? I've Written a Story, What Do I Do Now? tells you what you need to know about submitting your manuscript to publishers efficiently and professionally. http://write4kids.com/nowwhat.html Tired of getting rejection letters? Improving The Odds reveals the manuscript-revision secrets of top authors that help push them over the top. http://write4kids.com/odds.html   And there's more. For a full listing, just go to http://write4kids.com/collect.html