Highlights Foundation Summer Camp

I really don’t know where to begin with this, so I’ll start with this sentence telling you I don’t know where to start.

Summer Camp at the Highlights Foundation is a week long mentorship at, well, Highlights Foundation in the Poconos, PA.  You get matched up with a mentor, to whom you mail your chosen manuscript to work on, and, during your time there, they rip it apart and and make you do it over, again, and again.  By the end, you love them, like some evil older brother or sister.  By the end, you see progress, maybe even a finished manuscript, a gem pulled from the rock pile you sent in. You do get to meet with your mentor one on one four times, for about a half hour each time.

There’s also a speaker or two each day for the whole group, and a couple breakout sessions a day, for each of the days there, every single one of which was FABULOUS!

Then, there’s the people.

Other authors, and future authors, like you, who have a piece they love, love so much they want it ripped apart, and gently molded back together. I think I ended up with 574 different versions of the same story.

They’re your people.

The relationships made will hopefully last a long time.  Maybe we’ll even catch up at another Highlights event.

For me, it was about a three hour drive, so getting there wasn’t that bad at all.  Others came from all over the country, as well as New Zealand and Australia.  So, that three hour drive really was a luxury. It sounded like some airport waits were that long...

I’d been to Highlights before.  Three times for the EPA SCBWI yearly gathering, and once for an Unworkshop.

As with those events, there’s food, food, and more food.  Everything is fresh made, sourced locally.  Three meals a day, and unlimited snacks and drinks.  Those snacks and drinks are out 24/7, too.  You got a cabin, or room all to yourself.  This way you can cry over your manuscript, and contemplate never writing again (But most of us still do).

But the people are the best part of it.  From George, the executive director, to Amanda, who, along with her amazing staff, cooked meals for us. Alison, who kept us all in line and going to do the things at the right times, and checked up on us to see how we were doing, to Shadra Strickland, my amazing mentor, and all the authors who mentored and presented (Shadra, Linda Sue Park, Mitali Perkins, Lamar Giles, Peter Jacoby, Anna-Marie McLemore, Jillian Sullivan, Lyndsay Barrett George- I hope I named them all!!).

Then there’s the other Mentees.  They were an incredible, dedicated, fun loving bunch!  There were definitely tears shed together, gallons of wine and been downed, tons of food and coffee eaten and drank together.  We edited together, commiserated together, and even read a story in front of everyone ‘together’.  I hope they had as much as a fabulous time as I did.

The Summer Camp was such an amazing experience,and I came away with so much, including finding my voice, that I will be going back next summer.

Here’s the amazing Summer Camp crew!

Looking For Agents

​Are you in the “I need an agent” mode?  That’s where I’m at.  I’ve been looking for about four years, now.  When I was first sending stuff out, it was the best crap EVER! I wrote it, edited it once or twice, thought, “How can anyone say no?” And, when they did, “OMG!  They don’t know what they’re missing!!”  

Oh how wrong I was.  Now, I just hope they don’t remember me as the person who sent them that manuscript, one that was so bad, they shared it with each other and laughed their butts off.​

I’m finally at the point where I believe, along with my critique group, and a mentor I had, that I have two picture book manuscripts that are ready.  Really ready.  Like, actually edited and revised carefully over a couple years ready.  One I’ve been working on for four years, and may have been one I sent out before I knew what the heck I was doing!  ​

So, how do you search for agents? I used to belong to Julie Hedlund’s 12x12, and have a list of agents from my four years there, plus going through sites like ​agentquery.com.

Look through the sites carefully, make sure you read everything about them, look for comps they represent, or, if not (and you should!!!) make sure it fits the genre and style they’re looking for (do’t be like me and send out “the best thing EVER” with no idea what they want!).​

You loved it, they didn’t.

You wrote, revised, had critique  partner(s) look at it, revised again, and again, and you loved it!  But someone didn’t.

How dare they :)

A severe criticism (given politely, with helpful suggestions) can hurt.  Does hurt.  Even if you say it didn’t, and they’re wrong anyway, it still hurts.  Maybe even enough to make you want to quit.

But you can’t.

                  Do I have to keep going??? 

Writing is a journey with no real ending. And it really is!  I’ve talked to and listened to many authors, agents and editors.  If you want more than just one book, or one poem, published, there is no ending.  Sure, there are stopping points.  But, there’s always another hill to climb- or the same one, depending on how you look at this journey we’re on.

 This is a journey with many bumps and bruises, raging rivers to cross when the bridge is out, and thunderstorms to take cover from (anyone annoyed by that preposition at the end?  It’s truly okay to be there. It’s nothing to be afraid of...).

But, you can begin a sentence with a conjunction, and you must also get up, dust yourself off, dry off from the raging river, recover from that lightning strike, put your backpack on (or get back in the RV), and continue on your way.

If you write, you are a writer.  There truly is no end to your journey.  Just stopping points.  Some good, some bad.  Okay, many bad, but the good ones make it worthwhile.  Whether the good ones are extrinsic, or intrinsic (and THOSE are the ones that matter the most), they over power  the bad, and they keep us going.