Back from the NESCBWI conference
Sadly, I was only there for one day, but it was for a good reason, since it was M's junior prom on Saturday. As Angela De Groot reminds me, there will be other conferences, but there will not be another junior prom for M.
My wonderful companion got up at 4:30 with me yesterday morning so we could drive to Springfield, Mass (about 4 hours away). We arrived shortly after 9, and I can tell you that the day passed extremely quickly. There's simply not enough time to catch up with everyone the way I would've liked - particularly when so many of the "everyones" had left already, or were cutting out early.
My workshop went well (I think), despite my rapping the lyrics to "It's Tricky", singing "Amazing Grace" and the theme song to Gilligan's Island, and invoking Toto as an example of how to put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. (Go ahead - listen to the line in "Africa" about Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus about the Serengeti - you'll hear it.) I was thrilled to have such a large and interested audience, and thankful to the two Lindas who moved a table to the front of the room for me when it turned out the podium I'd requested wasn't there.
I managed to catch most of Jane Yolen's speech (questions from my workshop ran over), which was terrific and well worthy of the standing ovation she received. (Jane, in turn, had caught most of my workshop, leaving a few minutes early to get upstairs for her speech.) Then there was a bit of time for catching up, and it was time to go. In the pouring rain. Thank goodness for my wonderful guy, who took care of the driving all the way home (and still managed to make good time, even with the bad weather).
Tomorrow, I start some new writing in earnest. (Today was for recovering.)
My wonderful companion got up at 4:30 with me yesterday morning so we could drive to Springfield, Mass (about 4 hours away). We arrived shortly after 9, and I can tell you that the day passed extremely quickly. There's simply not enough time to catch up with everyone the way I would've liked - particularly when so many of the "everyones" had left already, or were cutting out early.
My workshop went well (I think), despite my rapping the lyrics to "It's Tricky", singing "Amazing Grace" and the theme song to Gilligan's Island, and invoking Toto as an example of how to put the emphasis on the wrong syllable. (Go ahead - listen to the line in "Africa" about Kilimanjaro rising like Olympus about the Serengeti - you'll hear it.) I was thrilled to have such a large and interested audience, and thankful to the two Lindas who moved a table to the front of the room for me when it turned out the podium I'd requested wasn't there.
I managed to catch most of Jane Yolen's speech (questions from my workshop ran over), which was terrific and well worthy of the standing ovation she received. (Jane, in turn, had caught most of my workshop, leaving a few minutes early to get upstairs for her speech.) Then there was a bit of time for catching up, and it was time to go. In the pouring rain. Thank goodness for my wonderful guy, who took care of the driving all the way home (and still managed to make good time, even with the bad weather).
Tomorrow, I start some new writing in earnest. (Today was for recovering.)