Friday, September 28, 2012

SCBWI Carolinas Annual Fall Conference

This weekend I'm at the SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Authors and Illustrators') Annual Fall Conference in Charlotte, NC.  I love coming to this conference every year for the great speakers and wonderful cameraderie! 

Since I'm at the conference there will not be an author interview this week.  But here are a few photos highlighting the first day of this wonderful three-day conference!

Today started for me with a 5 am alarm clock ringing.  My friend Jenny and I grabbed our suitcases and laptops and drove the 3 hours to the conference center/hotel here in Charlotte, NC.  (Ugh! So early! Coffee please!) 

The morning began at 8am with a wonderful Intensive Seminar by Author Helen Hemphill (Director of the Highlights Whole Novel Workshop) who gave us tips on revising our novels using story-boards and other outlining/plotting tools and story arch, and who helped us learn to balance the amounts of "scene and summary" in our novels. It was great! Thanks Helen!


The afternoon consisted of 1:1 critiques with agents, editors, and experienced authors,  trips to the SCBWI conference book store to buy books on craft and books written by Carolina SCBWI Members, and times of reflection with old friends who we haven't seen since last year's conference.

More seminars followed, including a great agent panel with agents Sarah Lapolla (Curtis Brown Ltd), Liza Pulitzer Voges (Eden Street Literary),  and Jennifer Rofe (Andrea Brown Literary,) and a wonderful end of evening seminar in which Middle Grade Author (AKA Computer Guru) Stephen Messer taught interested authors how to back up their work using the Dropbox program.  Don't know about Dropbox? Check it out by clicking the link above.


My favorite quote of the day was by Helen Hemphill who said that in this business "the harder you work, the luckier you get."

Overall, it's been a great first day. We look forward to two more wonderful days of seminars and meeting together with fellow authors and illustrators!

6 comments:

Jenny said...

Great post. I'm just wondering when you had time to write it, :)

Carol Baldwin said...

I second Jenny's comment! So glad to meet you in person!

Janelle said...

Ha ha ha, midnight, Jenny. I wrote it at midnight, when all those not already snoring in the conference center were heading off to bed. : )

Whew - what a great whirlwind of a conference! Great job Teresa, Bonnie, and all the other planners!

Janelle said...

Great to meet you in person too, Carol!

It was so great to see everybody!

Joyce Moyer Hostetter said...

"The harder you work, the luckier you get." Good one!

Apparently I missed a great conference. This event always seems to come at my busiest time of year!

Janelle said...

It was a great conference Joyce. We missed you too!