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This week involves some planning for a future trip to Louisville, Kentucky as well as for this weekend, when I'll be on faculty at the New Jersey SCBWI Conference in Plainsboro, New Jersey ( Read more... )

At the end of June, I'll be teaching two sessions at the New Jersey SCBWI Conference in Plainsboro, NJ.

My Saturday session will be Unleashing Your Inner Poet (Even if You Don't Write Poetry). It is appropriate for beginning and intermediate poets and for beginning, intermediate and advanced writers of picture books, fiction, and nonfiction who ( Read more... )

Saturday morning, the day started with a keynote speech from Sharon Creech, "The Words We Choose to Say," which was uplifting and inspiring, just as you'd expect. And poetry-related, too, since she referenced both Robert Frost's "The Pasture" and Walter Dean Myers's "Love That Boy" as inspiration for her marvelous Love That Dog. She noted that if ( Read more... )

As some of you know, I've been going to the New England Society for Children's Writers and Illustrators conference for years now, sometimes as an attendeed, sometimes as faculty. This year I was in the former status, since my workshops didn't get picked up. While I love being on faculty there and hope to be included again, I have to say that I also ( Read more... )

I feel a list coming on.

1. Today? Errands, cleaning, and packing for the weekend. My sweetheart and I leave in time to see dawn's crack tomorrow to head to Massachusetts for the NESCBWI conference in Springfield. We will probably visit UMass in the a.m., since we'll be hella early, but it's necessary in order to beat it around NYC before rush ( Read more... )

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 ( Read more... )

I finished a draft of a new picture book at the end of 2011, and I've embarked on revisions in the new year.

Let me say this about that: It's tricky.

Which reminds me that I will be on faculty at the NESCBWI Conference this April, with a presentation entitled "It's Tricky to Rock a Rhyme: Real Tips You Can Use". And yes, I totally swiped those ( Read more... )

These are generally in order of my attendance at things, since I'm skimming my notes in order to prepare this particular post (goodness, but that was alliterative!). Also, my notes only cover speeches and breakout sessions, so while I had a blast at dinner on Friday and Saturday evening, at lunch on Saturday and Sunday, and hanging out in the lobby ( Read more... )

The retreat

I got to see my lovely Aunt Martha twice last week, once Thursday, when she came up to see her new stove and to join us for lunch (grilled cheese - NOM!), and again on Friday when she and my Uncle Jim came up for the weekend, arriving before we'd skipped out. It's always lovely to see both of them, since they are terrifically kind ( Read more... )