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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people. Every once in a while she shares new art, writing and reading resources; subscribe below. Browse the archives here.
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*NEW!* Also see my Broken Crayon resource
Writer comics by Debbie Ridpath Ohi are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
More details: Comic Use Policy
Welcome to Inkygirl: Reading, Writing and Illustrating Children's Books (archive list here) which includes my Creating Picture Books series, Advice For Young Writers and Illustrators, Writer's and Illustrator's Guide To Twitter, Interviews With Authors And Illustrators, #BookADay archives, writing/publishing industry surveys, and 250, 500, 1000 Words/Day Writing Challenge. Also see my Inkygirl archives, and comics for writers. Also check out my Print-Ready Archives for Teachers, Librarians, Booksellers and Young Readers.
I tweet about the craft and business of writing and illustrating at @inkyelbows. If you're interested in my art or other projects, please do visit DebbieOhi.com. Thanks for visiting! -- Debbie Ridpath Ohi
I've been reviewing iPad apps that could be useful to writers on iPadGirl recently. Unfortunately Posterous doesn't have a good archiving index system, so I'm compiling a list of notetaking and writing iPad apps for writers on a separate page, with links to my reviews.
For those interested, here's a list of the writing and note-taking apps for the iPad that I've reviewed on iPadGirl so far. Some have iPhone versions!
"Hi, We are currently working with our providers to resolve the download errors you are experiencing. Sorry for any inconvenience this may be causing and thank you for your patience as we attempt to resolve this issue. Best Regards, Ted Fictionwise Support Team"
Since then, some of the titles I couldn't access before can now be accessed, but there are still quite a few that remain unavailable.
It's this sort of problem that makes it clear that the e-book industry still needs a lot of work before it has a hope of succeeding. I've already had at least one reader say, "See? This sort of thing is why I don't buy e-books."
DRM, for those that don't know, stands for Digital Rights Management. It's a pretty broad term that's used to refer to techniques for restricting the free use and transfer of digital content. It's meant to control copying of digital files but from what I can tell, it only ends up ticking off the consumer while content thieves find ways around it. It only takes ONE person to crack the code, and all the effort/hassle that has gone into the DRM for a particular item (an e-book, for instance) becomes worthless. Less than worthless, actually, because of the problems encountered by a consumer who LEGITIMATELY BOUGHT the e-book.
A quote from science fiction author Simon Haynes about DRM:
And now for DRM. When you sell someone an encrypted e-book, DVD or computer game, what you’re basically saying is: "Here’s the content you wanted, and by the way we think you’re a thief." The joke is that any thieves have already downloaded pirated copies of the same content, so you’re not inconveniencing them. No, the only people you’re annoying are your paying customers.Whatever has changed at Fictionwise, whatever the current geographic restrictions placed on certain titles in their store, the fact remains: THESE ARE E-BOOKS I HAVE ALREADY PAID FOR. It has been nearly a month since I last wrote them, when their support staff said they were "working on it." I'm not the only Fictionwise customer in this situation. If I was running the company, I'd be sending at least one follow-up e-mail a week specifically addressing the issue, keeping my customers up-to-date about what was going on and offering the option of a membership/book refund. I hope someone at Barnes & Noble is paying attention. As the owner of Fictionwise, this reflects poorly on them as well. I've been trying to be patient but I've pretty much hit my limit. I've written to Fictionwise again today; let's see how/if they respond. Related resources: Why DRM Doesn't Work - an illustrated example SF author Simon Haynes’ case against DRM at Amazon and elsewhere (Teleread) Why DRM won't ever work (ZDNet) DRM Doesn't Work - Mark Shuttleworth How Doesn't DRM Work? - Cory Doctorow
One of the many reasons I'm glad I joined Twitter: the Toronto MG/YA Writers' Group. Claudia Osmond started the #torkidlit group, approaching Toronto area middle grade and young adult writers on Twitter and suggesting we get together in person.
We meet once a month at a pub/restaurant in downtown Toronto. Although the focus of our group is on authors of MG and YA books, we are supportive of anyone who helps create children's literature in the Toronto area.
For those that aren't familiar with the term "tweetup," here's a good explanation from SocialHat.com:
A tweetup is an event where people who Twitter come together to meet in person. Normally we connect with our friends online after we have met them. At a tweetup you meet the people you might only otherwise know virtually. Like finally putting a name to a face, a tweetup is a great opportunity to really connect with the people in your network and share just a little more than 140 characters at a time.I enjoyed having dinner at Fresh with Cheryl Rainfield beforehand, catching up with all the recent excitement in her life. Cheryl's book launch for SCARS, for example, takes place on June 24th, 2010 at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre/Multicultural Women Against Rape (519 Church St. Community Centre, Auditorium Room 206) at 6:30 pm. Great to see Stacy King, Deborah Kerbel, Megan Crewe, Andrew Tolson, Hélène Boudreau, Helaine Becker, Lena Coakley, Cheryl Rainfield, Patricia Storms, Jo Swartz and Nelsa Roberto again, and meet Suri Rosen and Ian Keeling.
Hélène, by the way, has a book launch tomorrow for KEEP OUT:
Friday, May 7th, 2010
3-4 pm EST
Markham Village Library
6031 Highway 7, Markham
(corner of Markham Road and Hwy 7)
For more info: 905-513-7977 x4284
Helaine Becker: showed us the cover of one of her new book projects. I had met Lena Coakley while helping Cheryl Rainfield move, but it was great to see her at the tweetup.
Nelsa Roberto: had photos from her recent book launch of ILLEGALLY BLONDE.
I enjoyed meeting Suri Rosen and Ian Keeling, and 'twas fun to watch Jo Swartz and Patricia Storms draw on my iPad.
You can find out more about the MG/YA writers who attend the tweetups at the Toronto MG/YA Writers' Group website. I'm in the midst of moving this blog, so pardon the construction dust!
And if you're a Toronto area middle grade or young adult writer, please do check out #torkidlit on Twitter. For help with Twitter, please see my 
More writers have been asking me about what apps I'm finding useful on the iPad, so I'm going to start reviewing various notetaking and writing apps I've been trying out. I posted my first on iPadGirl today: Sketchbook HD - Great idea, but doesn't work properly in landscape mode
If you're curious about the steps I took to create the image above, see my iPadGirl post.
I've always appreciated those who post about what they've learned at writing conferences. The author of Bluestocking Blog recently wrote about the main lessons she learned at the event, and her post includes some excellent advice.
Last year, I posted that C.S. Lewis had been rejected 800 times after finding the info on several websites. Several readers have since questioned this data, including Mary Mueller, who said:
Who the heck is Inkygirl and where the heck did she get her data?? This is entirely undocumented (the 800 rejections) and shouldn’t be “published,” even on an amateur website, without meticulous documentation.Mary is entirely correct that I don't provide meticulous documentation for the rejection stories I've been posting, so it's entirely possible that some of the stats may be inaccurate. Unfortunately I lack the time to search for the original documents to support each stat but do try to include my sources of info whenever possible, in case readers need to verify info themselves. I make very little income from this site, and provide the info mainly to help inspire and motivate writers. I'm hoping that the spirit behind my Writers & Rejection series is still helpful to some writers, despite the lack of detailed documentation. Thanks to Mary for her feedback, and I do apologize if any of you were misled by my C.S. Lewis info. [Later edit: I just want to clarify...I -do- think Mary had a point, as blunt as her comment may have been. As she pointed out to me in a follow-up e-mail, just because you read something on three websites (or more!) doesn't make it true. It's a good lesson for me, and I do intend on doing a better job at verifying my source info from now on. Again, however, sometimes I won't have time to provide as detailed documentation as I could, so please do feel free to challenge anything I post if you don't agree. :-)] Gary McGath comments:
Claims made on the Web do tend to be picked up by other people and repeated, which gets some people really frustrated. I’m a lot more concerned when major news outlets, which _should_ have the resources to obtain “meticulous documentation,” don’t bother. I try to avoid the trap of repeating someone else’s unsubstantiated claim, but I’ve been caught in it too many times myself. All I can do then is acknowledge it.
I've been reading more magazines on my iPad lately. Here's what I did and didn't like, and my answer to the question, "Will the iPad save the magazine publishing industry?"
Rejection always hurts. I'm skeptical of writers who claim that rejections don't bother them at all. No matter how experienced you are, I can't help but think that a rejection -ANY rejection- has got to sting at least a little.
Don't know about the rest of you, but I'm saving all my rejections (paper and digital) for any particular project so I can roll them out to encourage other writers WHEN that project gets published. I certainly appreciate hearing about other writers' rejections -> success stories!
I've been gradually collecting these types of successful author rejection stories on Inkygirl.
One great place to find other writers' rejections is Literary Rejections On Display. The author of this blog prefers to remain anonymous, but describes himself/herself as follows: "I am a published, award-winning author of fiction and creative nonfiction--but whatever. In the eyes of many, I am still a literary reject."
URL:
http://literaryrejectionsondisplay.blogspot.com
My first comic is online at Writer Unboxed! I'll be posting comics there every other weekend. For those who aren't familiar with the site, Writer Unboxed is an excellent source of writing tips and info for genre fiction writers.
After my last get-together with my writing pal, Mahtab Narsimhan, I've adopted a new daily work schedule. I generally wake at about 6-6:30 a.m. and head down to my office to do e-mail, then surf for publishing news for my Market Watch column while also updating @inkyelbows and other feeds on Twitter.
From now on, I'm going to do some writing first thing ... BEFORE GOING ONLINE. I've been trying it for a few days now and I'm very happy with the results. By 8 a.m., I've been writing for 1.5-2 hours, and then I can start working on my publishing news column. I'll do more writing later, but it's a good way to start the day plus I'm more productive.
It'll take a little while before it becomes habit, though -- when I wake up, I am SO used to going online right away. It's how I wake up, instead of the morning cup of coffee that other people have.
What about the rest of you? What's your morning ritual?
The goal of Julie Duffy's Story A Day challenge is write a story every day in May. Before you freak out, keep in mind that the stories can be of any length. There is also leeway built-in. "You get to decide what “every day” means. If you need to take Sundays off, go for it. You make your own rules, but you are encouraged to set them up early, and stick to them!"
I'm signing up. I'm going to participate in Paula Yoo's National Picture Book Writing week, so I figure writing picture books can count for the first week, then I'll write other types of stories the rest of the month. For me, I'm mainly aiming for story ideas -- a very rough story outline (including a beginning, middle and end) every day. Some days this might only be a few sentences but if I'm feeling super-inspired, I figure I can write a more detailed story outline.
After May, I'll pick out the story ideas that appeal most to me and expand the outlines.
What about the rest of you?
If you're ready to commit, sign up here.
For more info, see http://storyaday.org/.
I recently discovered that my site has been listed in Writer's Digest annual "101 Best Websites For Writers" list, in the May/June 2010 issue. Thanks to all those who nominated me! :-)
And thanks to Heather Wright for letting me know.
I met Deborah Kerbel through the Toronto Area MG/YA Author Group, which was founded by Claudia Osmond via Twitter. Deborah's a cheerful, witty and dedicated YA writer who is the author of several books for young people including Girl on the Other Side, which was nominated for the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award. Her newest book, Lure, is due out from Dundurn Press this September.
You can find out more about Deborah Kerbel and her work at http://deborahkerbel.com/. Meanwhile, Deborah was kind enough to answer some questions for me...
Q - How long have you been writing?
A - Not very long in the grand scheme of things. I really started writing creatively about 10 years ago. But my father is an author as well, so ink has probably been flowing steadily through my blood since birth.
Q - How did you make your first sale?
A - My first sale was huge! I was just starting out as a writer and my agent sold my (as yet un-written) series of four MG novels to a European book-club publisher with plans to translate the series into three different languages and a first print run of 40,000 copies for each book.
Exciting, huh?
Well, as it turned out, not so much. By the time I finished writing the final book in the series, the publisher was encountering financial difficulties and was shutting down their book clubs. In the end, only the first book in the series saw publication (in Germany). The other three books never saw the light of day. But still, I think of it was a hugely valuable experience – basically I got paid to write my first 4 practice novels.
Q - What is your typical writing day like?
A - My typical day is a crazy patchwork of small writing spurts. I'm the mother of two little kids so I really have to write whenever I can grab some quiet time. Half an hour here, an hour there - I take the time wherever I can find it (and there's never enough). Lately, nights have been very productive for me - after my kids are in bed, the house gets quiet and I can hear myself think.
Q - How much research did you have to do for Mackenzie, Lost and Found, which is set in the Middle East?
A - This book needed a LOT of research since it was completely set in a part of the world I had never seen. Luckily for me, I have a good friend who, like Mackenzie, had moved to Israel as a teenager. She was my main source of information. We went through her photo albums and I grilled her for details - from everything to the feel of the air in Tel Aviv, to sneaking into the hotel pools, to the smell of the markets in the souk. She was a fabulous resource.
And then when I was in the editing stage of the manuscript, I was given the opportunity to visit Israel and travel to most of the places that are in my book (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberias) which helped me put the final pieces of the research together and allowed me to really personalize the story to my own experience.
Q - How much outlining do you do?
A - I like to outline - it's my nature to know where I'm headed before I walk out the door. But the amount of outlining I end up doing definitely depends on the book I'm writing. My next YA novel, Lure, was outlined from start to finish - chapter by chapter - before I wrote a word. But I don't always work that way - for Girl on the Other Side, I had no outline, no plot, and not much of a premise - just two strong characters with very distinct voices. I let them loose on the page and they took the lead and surprised me with the story. I love it when that happens - it's truly the magic of writing!
Q - How much time do you spend promoting your books?
A -Some days, not enough - other days, too much. It all depends on where I am in the writing process and if I have a new book coming out. Last spring, I spent weeks organizing a Canada/U.S. blog tour' to promote Mackenzie, Lost and Found. Although it sucked away lots of valuable writing time, it was fun and it got the word out about me and my book which is the most important thing. As Cory Doctorow has said, the biggest problem for writers is obscurity.
Q - How useful have you found online social networks like Twitter?
A - Well, let me put it this way - if it weren't for Twitter, I wouldn't be doing this interview. Twitter and Facebook have been incredibly useful for learning about this industry, getting to know other people in the business, and of course, promoting my work.
There's a huge community of editors, agents, writers, publishers, and book reviewers who are putting themselves out there on a daily basis and I really believe that it's a mistake not to make use of this kind of accessibility (especially for people who are starting out it this business). Writing is probably the most solitary profession in the world and so the need to stay connected to your colleagues and peers is vital.
Q - What are your current/upcoming projects?
A - My next YA novel, Lure, is scheduled for release in September, 2010 and it's a giant departure from anything I've written before. Lure is a ghost story set partly in the present day and partly in the late 1800s and it's based on a real haunted house near where I live.
I also have another YA manuscript that I've just finished called Bye-Bye, Evil Eye and -- I don't even know the right way to describe it - it's kind of a paranomalish mystery, comedy, romance about the Evil Eye. LOL - did that make any sense?
And in between novels, I love to play around with writing picture books. My kids are still at that magical stage, so new book ideas for their age group come to me literally by the hour. Hopefully, I'll get one of them published soon.
Friday, May 14, 2010 at 8:06 AM
