Before
I try to tie Young Adult fiction and Labor Day together in a meaningful post,
I’d like to brag about my own labors.
For
the past three years, I have been the Critique Group Coordinator for SCBWI
Midsouth. The job was occasionally
frustrating, but wildly rewarding, if for no other reason than I sounded
vaguely credible when I asked to join one of the groups I was supposed to track
down and document. That group took me
in, and I now share manuscripts with some seriously talented people. Volunteering as coordinator also got me nominated
for this year’s SCBWI Tribute Scholarship, which I somehow won, entitling me to
a trip to the August 2013 SCBWI conference in Los Angeles. I take no credit for the award, and can only
say “Thank you.” Well, that and, “Check it
out, I got my picture taken with a spitting dinosaur.” (Yeah, I know, a dimetrodon wasn't a dinosaur, but the metaphor I'm about to make doesn't sound right with "non-mammalian synapsid." )
With
my return from LA, I am stepping out of the role of crit group organizer and
into a new role as Midsouth Co-ARA. In
that job, I will be responsible for the all-new Midsouth website. I’ve got to learn something new, which is why
that drooling dinosaur picture is so appropriate. Of course, I’ll still be writing too, which
brings me to today's thought about Labor Day.
With
a nod to the amazing Bruce Coville, who has said many wise things about the place
of children in this world, I note that for most of our history children were a
source of cheap, disposable labor. Teenagers
had already worked for years on farms and in crowded factories, putting in long,
dangerous days and nights. Those kids didn’t
have time for school, to learn to read, to sit down with a book. Or to put it another way, my target audience
didn’t exist. Until recently, I wouldn’t
have been able to do what I do. One of
the reasons for that change is the Labor movement. So as I pause for the holiday, I will be
saying, “Thanks,” not just to the folks who made my LA trip possible, but to
the folks who made my audience possible.
And then I’ll get back to work.
