I can't believe it's June! Seriously, where did May go? Or for that matter, what happened to April?

My first writing assignment for grad school was due this week. I had to put together a 20-page submission for critique groups that I will participate in this summer. I was shocked by how difficult I found it to pick what to submit. This is the first ( Read more... )

I love SCBWI events, so when my friend Julie Phend asked if I wanted to go to Richmond with her for Everything I Needed to Know: Paths to Success in Writing for Children, it didn't take too much arm twisting to get me to agree to make the two-hour drive. Mostly I wanted to have some time to spend with Julie as she lives about an hour and a half ( Read more... )

The past five weeks have been a little crazy, but it's been one of those crazy wonderful months. I know that I posted a couple of these pictures, but they kind of bear repeating. So here are the five best things that happened to me in the past five week.

Chicago Trip
When you get to spend an entire week with your family and best friend, you'd be ( Read more... )

This was my first official year on the SCBWI Fall Conference Planning Committee, and boy was it crazy hard work. I don't know how these women (and sometimes men) do this year after year after year. But all the hard work totally paid off this weekend. Children's book industry professionals all came together just outside the Beltway to inspire, teach ( Read more... )

Just in case you aren't excited enough about this year's SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Fall Conference, check out the publishing professionals we've got lined up.

Agents Panel: Behind the Scenes at a Literary Agency
Jennifer Rofé is an agent with the Andrea Brown Agency where she handles children’s fiction projects. Some of her clients include Laurie David, ( Read more... )

Just in case you aren't excited enough about this year's SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Fall Conference, check out these local authors--all of whom are guaranteed to keep you in stitches--who will be participating in a panel discussion.

Author Panel: Publishing Postpartum: Highs, lows and expectations after your book is released
Meg Medina has written for ( Read more... )

I can officially give details on the SCBWI Mid-Atlantic Fall Conference 2011! If you haven't gotten the information in the mail, here's a link to the registration form and another for the full conference flyer. If you would like to post the widget for the conference on your blog or website, let me know and I'll email you the html code.

Speaker: ( Read more... )

I'm feeling the love from the acronyms/initialisms. For those of you who need a translation, this means I receives my second Letter of Merit from the Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators' Amazon.com Work-In-Progress Grant Committee. (Note that while WIP is an acronym because it's pronounceable, SCBWI is an initialisms, 2x is ( Read more... )

Usually after I return from a conference, I write a couple of posts about what I learned and things that I want to work on. I had ever intention of doing that this week as well. Then I decided the best thing I could do was take what Sara Zarr and Linda Sue Park both said in their keynote addresses ( Read more... )

I have my two Metro cards tucked in my wallet--one for the city I'm leaving behind and the other for the city I'm heading for. I'm trading monuments and the Potomac for skyscrapers and the Hudson. At least for a little while ( Read more... )