October Meeting - Breaking Into Picture Books and Early Readers

Harshita Jerath will take us through her journey of finding inspiration, honing her voice, and breaking into the world of picture books and early readers.

Harshita Jerath loves writing stories for children. Born and raised in India, she spent much of her childhood scribbling in her secret journal, watching stray cows wander, reading books under the guava tree, and munching apples while daydreaming. During her elementary school days, she learned big words from her older siblings and enjoyed flaunting the vocabulary. Such as, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is a fun way to say ‘wonderful’-(From the Mary Poppins movie)

Harshita’s parents raised her to be a medical doctor – renowned and famous- like them. To their dismay, Harshita did not have the guts to dissect the frogs and mice, so she became a Healthcare Business Analyst. After years in the corporate landscape, she now pursues her long-time passion for writing.

Harshita shares her views about everyday life on her blog, www.ipenlife.com.

Our meetings are free and open to the public. We encourage you to invite members of the Brazos Valley writing community to join us!

Our regional meetings feature guest speakers sharing writing and illustration tips as well as industry news and social time for members to meet and network. Meetings are preceded by a gentle critique (see below). Meetings are streamed via Zoom and available for replay. Login details and replay links are available on each meeting's event page.

Meeting times:

Last Wednesday of each month (minus July, Nov & Dec)

11am - 11:30am Gentle manuscript critique

11:30am - 12:30pm Guest speaker/featured activity

12:30pm - social time followed by lunch at a local restaurant (meal not covered by SCBWI)

Location:

Zoom and in person at Brazos Valley Arts Council, 4180 Hwy 6 South, College Station, TX 77845

Gentle Critique info:

If you’d like to share your work in progress with others and receive or provide feedback, please bring printed copies of up to 5 pages of a manuscript to share. Zoom participants will be allowed to screen share in order to receive feedback. Please see this handy guide on critique etiquette if this will be your first time participating in a critique: https://www.scbwi.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/2014_LA_Dos-and-Donts.pdf

Passionate about a specific kid-lit related topic? Want to practice your upcoming school visit presentation? We’re always looking for guest speakers for our monthly meetings. Our meetings are cozy and supportive - a great place to get your feet wet as a presenter and get to know your local children's literature creators. Feel free to pitch us! Guests can present in person or via Zoom and receive $50 compensation as well as lunch after our meeting. Presentations take place on the last Wednesday of the month from 11am-12pm and can be in the format of workshops, interviews, slideshows… you name it! Pitch us your ideas at brazosvalley-ra@scbwi.org