2011 SCBWI LA Conference

Last week, Aug. 5 - 8, I attended the 40th annual SCBWI Summer Conference in LA.  The event was hosted by SCBWI founders Linn Oliver and Steve Mooser and they did an outstanding job!  The lineup of speakers was unbelievable and more than 1,350 people attended!  Here's a list of the keynote speakers (in the order of their appearances): Bruce Coville, Jerry Pinkney, Libba Bray, Emma Dryden, Donna Jo Napoli, David Small, Judy Bloom (surprise special guest), John Scieszka, Norton Juster, Mary Pope Osborne, Gary Paulsen and Laurie Halse Anderson.  Can you believe it?

The annual Saturday night pool party was a slumber party in honor of the 40th anniversary (40 winks).  Here are some pics from the party.

Here I am with my fabulous and hysterical roommates
Meg Flemming, Jenni Bielicki, and Heather Zenzen!

Just a handful of my fellow Illinois authors
(I don't know how Heather got in there)!

I finally met Shellie Braeuner, the first winner of the Cheerios New Author contest, in person.  She's so sweet!  We kept trying to get a picture with our books and a box of Cheerios but we could never coordinate it.  Here's a picture of us at the Friday night PAL book sale.

I had the opportunity to hang out with my agent, Jamie Weiss Chilton, on Saturday night at the gathering she hosted in the hotel bar and again on Monday at the end of the conference.  It's always nice to talk with her in person (I forgot to take a picture with her)!   Jamie and I discussed the great feedback I received from Andrea Welch, editor at Beach Lane Books and Steven Malk, agent at Writer's House - I'm so excited to be working on revisions!

There was a great write-up about the conference on Publishers Weekly - much better than I could have done - so I've linked it for you to read there.