So much to tell you
Let's see. Where to start?
The Fall Philly SCBWI Conference was fabulous, as always. Lindsay Barrett George was the first featured speaker, and she spoke a bit about her career and a bit about the making of picture books. Next up, a panel consisting of my good friend Jennifer Hubbard (writerjenn) talking about YA books, Nan Marino talking about middle grade and Jeannine Norris talking about picture books. The three of them are part of a group of regional authors who have banded together for purposes of book promotion, and they discussed that as well as providing concrete tips about writing and marketing. Our last speaker before lunch was Wendy Mass, who was extremely entertaining, in addition to her practical tips and inspiration. She brought along a scroll made up of rejections for A Mango-Shaped Space, which was her first novel, and two volunteers unrolled it - it had to be 40-50 feet long. After (a yummy) lunch, we heard from Harold Underdown, the keynote speaker, who provided tremendously timely and helpful information about ongoing changes in the publishing industry. The next session included a break-out session - illustrators mostly went off to hear Isabel Warren-Lynch talk about formats (she sat next to me at lunch, and I thought she was entirely lovely); the rest of us heard from agent Erica Rand Silverman, who is with Sterling Lord Literistic. The day closed with an editors' panel (Jennifer Rees of Scholastic, Martha Mihalick of Greenwillow Books, and Elizabeth Barton of Simon Spotlight) and the annual raffle, during which at least three of my five numbers were called (I missed hearing some numbers - and a LOT of numbers are called because of how very many raffle items there are).
The Shakespeare poems are in the last little bit of production - I have one to write, about three to revise, and some non-poetic content to write to go along with the poems. And then I'll send them to another first-reader, who wanted to see the collection as a whole, and I'll go from there.
Our Sense and Sensibility read-along started the other day. I am inclined to delay posting about Chapter 4 until tomorrow, since it's already so late in the day here. This means that any of you who haven't started yet (but who wanted to) are really not far behind. I hope some of you will join us. And I hope those of you who aren't all that interested in Sense & Sensibility don't get fed up with it!
Wally continues to improve. Three times today while going out into the back yard, he has managed to get into a standing position and take two steps or so with his hind legs. I am not yet certain that it is on purpose, but even if it's not, it means it soon will be. When I got home from a visit with my in-laws late this afternoon and took him out, he definitely held his tail out (almost straight back, which is a first) and he wagged it side to side quite entirely on purpose. I can't wait to see what his next new trick will be, but I'm sure it will surprise me. (He tends to make great progress after every single PT treatment.)
The Fall Philly SCBWI Conference was fabulous, as always. Lindsay Barrett George was the first featured speaker, and she spoke a bit about her career and a bit about the making of picture books. Next up, a panel consisting of my good friend Jennifer Hubbard (writerjenn) talking about YA books, Nan Marino talking about middle grade and Jeannine Norris talking about picture books. The three of them are part of a group of regional authors who have banded together for purposes of book promotion, and they discussed that as well as providing concrete tips about writing and marketing. Our last speaker before lunch was Wendy Mass, who was extremely entertaining, in addition to her practical tips and inspiration. She brought along a scroll made up of rejections for A Mango-Shaped Space, which was her first novel, and two volunteers unrolled it - it had to be 40-50 feet long. After (a yummy) lunch, we heard from Harold Underdown, the keynote speaker, who provided tremendously timely and helpful information about ongoing changes in the publishing industry. The next session included a break-out session - illustrators mostly went off to hear Isabel Warren-Lynch talk about formats (she sat next to me at lunch, and I thought she was entirely lovely); the rest of us heard from agent Erica Rand Silverman, who is with Sterling Lord Literistic. The day closed with an editors' panel (Jennifer Rees of Scholastic, Martha Mihalick of Greenwillow Books, and Elizabeth Barton of Simon Spotlight) and the annual raffle, during which at least three of my five numbers were called (I missed hearing some numbers - and a LOT of numbers are called because of how very many raffle items there are).
The Shakespeare poems are in the last little bit of production - I have one to write, about three to revise, and some non-poetic content to write to go along with the poems. And then I'll send them to another first-reader, who wanted to see the collection as a whole, and I'll go from there.
Our Sense and Sensibility read-along started the other day. I am inclined to delay posting about Chapter 4 until tomorrow, since it's already so late in the day here. This means that any of you who haven't started yet (but who wanted to) are really not far behind. I hope some of you will join us. And I hope those of you who aren't all that interested in Sense & Sensibility don't get fed up with it!
Wally continues to improve. Three times today while going out into the back yard, he has managed to get into a standing position and take two steps or so with his hind legs. I am not yet certain that it is on purpose, but even if it's not, it means it soon will be. When I got home from a visit with my in-laws late this afternoon and took him out, he definitely held his tail out (almost straight back, which is a first) and he wagged it side to side quite entirely on purpose. I can't wait to see what his next new trick will be, but I'm sure it will surprise me. (He tends to make great progress after every single PT treatment.)