Conference Wrap-Up

The Northern Ohio SCBWI Conference was pretty incredible. So organized and so informative. It honestly was a really, really great weekend.

I arrived at the hotel early, hung out in the lounge. I did this because I knew   was going to be there early and I didn't want her to feel like an outcast. So, she waltzed in and I did my best to stay interested. ;-) Actually, she sat down and we talked non-stop for 2-1/2 hours as though we'd known each other via the Internet for almost 4 years. Which, oddly enough, is true.

Friday Nights dinner was delicious*


 

Mark McVeigh's (The Mcveigh Agency) keynote speech was engaging and funny. The crowd couldn't get enough.**



Afterwards, Dot and I, along with our newest bestest friend Linda Brewer Wilt (@layindalayinda on Twitter) hung out in the lounge for a bit. They both tired of my babble and began to 'fake' yawn. I'm pretty sure, after I left, they met back up in the lounge.

Saturday started with breakfast*
 


Followed by a great opening address by Martha Mihalick (Associate Editor at Greenwillow Books) about why we're so lucky to be in Children's Publishing. It's cool to listen to people who truly love the industry. It's inspiring.

After Martha's speech, I went to the bookstore and picked up MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins and KNIGHTLY ACADEMY by Violet Haberdasher (a.k.a. Robyn Schneider).

Then we dove headfirst into the breakout sessions. Though I knew some of the information being addressed in a few of these sessions, in the end I still learned a few things. As a bonus, I got to bug Dot about her inablity to read a brochure correctly.

After such a great dinner and breakfast. I couldn't wait for lunch. Dot told me we were going to have some fancy French food. I was over the top excited. Until they placed this in front of me*



Oh, well. I still ate everything on my plate.

This was followed by two more breakout sessions. To end the conference, Jennifer Rees, Senior Editor at Scholastic, gave an incredible talk. As she told us about her childhood, growing up in Pittsburg with a single mother and very little money, she wept. She wasn't crying because it was such a sad time, the tears were brought on by Jennifer's fond memories of a mother taking her two daughters to the library each week. How her mother's love of books had been passed on to her. How these stories invigorated something within Jennifer that molded the rest of her life.

All in all, another suberb weekend of writing and books and authors. I love these weekends.

It torments me to say this, but Dot was great, funny and intelligent, a real blast to hang with. I was glad she was there and we spent an awful lot of time together. I'm sure, whenever Dot sees an eyeball, she suffers horrible flashbacks. With some intense therapy (which I'll gladly pay half), she'll be fine.

* All of the food was actually GREAT! We did NOT eat the items pictured. They were posted for humor only.

** No one fell asleep during Mark's speech. He honestly had everyone laughing and interested. A great speaker.