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The Saturday night GLBTQ Mixer that I hosted went really well, with more than 25 people attending! Check out the full post on it at the Official SCBWI Conference Blog here. We had a great discussion, and I got to meet Peter Marino, author of Magic and Misery, which he happily told me was already on this blog!
I also had the lovely experience where a conference attendee approached me and said "You're Lee Wind? I bought your Zen Of Blogging and I loved it. I'm so glad to meet you." Well I was super glad to meet her, too:
Another amazing moment (which happened a number of times, actually) was when people recognized me and told me they read (and appreciate) my blog - this blog! Awww, I know you readers are out there, even when you don't comment. But meeting blog readers in person was so cool!
My main Take Away from the 3 days of the Writers Intensive and the 2010 Winter Conference was really a hybrid of points made by Jane Yolen and Jim Benton.
Jane Yolen shared, in her amazing keynote, this tip: If you're a writer, write every day. Like exercise. Holidays. Weekends. Every day.
And Jim Benton spoke of a sense of joyful experimentation - of trying lots of new things and drawing for fun every day.
And so I'm heading home with the notion of joyful daily exercise of my writing muscles. I'll aim to write something, and have fun with it, every day. And see if I get in better writing "shape." Oh, I'm hoping to feel that endorphin rush, too!
On a craft note, Jacqueline Woodson said a number of things in her keynote - about emotional truth and more - that I found inspiring and really useful.
In fact, it will take me days to go through my notes and just begin to process all the good stuff I gained from attending the conference.
But now, a message of appreciation. I really view the world of Children's literature as a tribe. My tribe. And SCBWI - the members, the staff, the volunteers, the faculty - all together we create that sense of community. I feel very fortunate to have connected with the organization.
I also feel incredibly fortunate to be part of SCBWI Team Blog with Alice Pope, Jaime Temairik, Jolie Stekly, and Suzanne Young. I've simply never had a better - fun, diligent, and passionate - group of co-workers. Thank you.
From left to right: Me, Suzanne, Jaime, Alice and Jolie!
The SCBWI 2010 Winter Conference.
I had a wonderful time.
9 comments:
I miss you already :-)
-Suz
I loved sitting next to you and watching the flangers fly!
Awesome.
Jane
Wonderful list of take aways, Lee! And I love video of Amy. :-)
I loved your tweets during the conference! Thank you for sharing! Jeni (twitter.com/jeniw)
It was a pleasure to meet you Lee! I had an amazing time and wish you the best of luck :)
The coverage from the SCBWI blog team was so great that next year I think I'll just save my money, skip the conference, and read about it at home! J/K.
My takeaways are all about the jokes. The funniest things I heard at the conference (that are printable) were:
"Vampires in YA don't look like they're going away, but then neither did the real estate market."--Ben Schrank
"I don't know if you remember when a lot of writers were drunkards."--Jacqueline Woodson
"I am that twelve year old girl!"--Francesco Seddita
Jim Benton's illustration of Stabby The Narwhal.
And just about every word that came out of Peter Sis' mouth.
The GLBTQ & allies mixer was also a highlight for me, even though it wasn't a big joke.
Nora
I'd be on your team any day, Lee! Once again, what a ride!!!
You guys did such an amazing job blogging about every bit of the conference. Just wanted to stop in and say thanks!
I was there and soaked up all the information and inspiration I could, but have loved reading about it and seeing what others took away from the conference as well!
Thanks again!
Lori
Thanks, Lee. You and Team Blog were awesome - typing until your blur of fingers bled!! Wow - the power of putting people in two places at once!
Claudia
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