Learning to Tap Into Market for Kids’ Books

What does it take to write a publishable story or book for children? What kind of stories do youngsters love to hear, and what books attract the adults who buy children’s literature?

Alexis O’Neill, author and regional advisor for the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) will describe what’s hot and what’s not in book and magazine publishing at 1 p.m. Saturday at Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura.

The SCBWI’s annual all-day conference, co-hosted by Cal Lutheran University, will be Nov. 2 at the Thousand Oaks campus. The $55 early-registration fee for nonmembers includes lunch. Call 581-1906 for details.

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Gold Coast Fiction Writers will discuss query letters and manuscript submission at 6:30 tonight at Carrows Restaurant, 2401 E. Harbor Blvd., Ventura. Members admitted free; nonmember fee, $4. Call 644-6153.

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Joan Raymund, editor of rivertalk, and members of the Ojai Center for the Arts poetry workshop will read at 7 p.m. Friday at 113 S. Montgomery St. Open readings are also scheduled. Call 646-7801.

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Local author Mary Embree will describe how to create a successful nonfiction book proposal from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday at Learning Tree University, 72 Moody Court, Thousand Oaks. Call 497-2292 for registration details.

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Mysteries to Die For, 2940 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, has booked three authors this weekend. Sandra West Prowell will sign her best-selling “When Wallflowers Die” at noon Saturday. And at 1 p.m. Sunday, Tom Racina will present his first mystery, “Snow Angel,” and Charles Knief, winner of the 1995 St. Martin’s Press Best First Private Eye competition will sign his new book, “Diamond Head.”

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Newbery Award-winning author Karen Cushman will sign her latest book, “The Ballad of Lucy Whipple,” at 3 p.m. Saturday at Adventures for Kids, 3457 Telegraph Road, Ventura.

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Lily Maestas, co-writer with Lorelei Snyder of “Unlimited Options: Career Strategies to Last a Lifetime,” will discuss and sign the guide at 2:30 p.m. Sunday at Barnes & Noble, 4360 E. Main St., Ventura.

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The Small Publishers, Artists & Writers Network (SPAWN) will meet at 7 p.m. Sunday in the Performance Studio, 34 N. Palm St., Ventura. Call 643-2403.

In Santa Barbara

Terrapin Station Bookstore, which opened its doors four months ago at 536 N. Milpas St., stocks one of the largest collections of Spanish-language and ethnic literature in the area and also carries a full line of titles in English. Victor Villasenor, author of the best-selling “Rain of Gold” will lecture in the bookstore at 8 p.m. Friday.

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The Earthling Bookshop, 1137 State St., has a busy weekend planned. Novelist and essayist Michael Dorris, author of “A Yellow Raft in Blue Water” and “The Broken Cord,” will read and sign his third historical book for young readers, “Sees Behind Trees,” at 7 p.m. Friday.

Using the pseudonym Jethro Paris, four writers have created “Stripmall Bohemia,” a murder mystery they will discuss at 3 p.m. Saturday.

And local resident William Peter Blatty, screenwriter and director whose most famous novel was “The Exorcist,” will sign “Demons-5 Exorcist-Nothing,” his comic novel about the making of an occult movie, at 3 p.m. Sunday.

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Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, whose work has been translated into 33 languages, will present a free lecture titled “The Poet at Ground Zero.” The talk, focusing on life in the Middle East, will be at 8 p.m. Tuesday in Lotte Lehmann Concert Hall at UCSB. Call 893-2080.

Frances Halpern is co-host with Jon O’Brien of “Beyond Words” at 10 a.m. Sundays on KCLU-FM (88.3), Ventura County’s National Public Radio station.