Thursday, August 6, 2009

52 days to go...



When you wake up at 3 am on a regular basis you know that something is occupying your mind.

There is always the odd thought...you hope could be a story, but mostly you know it is going to be conference related.

Over in Los Angeles, I’ll bet the organisers of the SCBWI conference (society of children’s book writers and illustrators)are having sleepless nights. The 38th summer conference kicks off today. Four days. 66 presenters. Over 1000 delegates .

There are a couple of kiwis going over...Frances Plumpton is among them and I can’t wait to pick her brains at our conference to see what they were talking about over there.

My guess is that we will be talking about much the same topics...

Marketing and Promotion...Here is a great link to the top ten marketing tips from an author who bills herself as The Shameless Promoter

New technology and how to use it... The creativepenn (a great site) has a post on 5 easy steps to do podcasting...ramp up your website with some excerpts of your work in progress.... Or you could check out Fifis cool book trailer for GLORY

Maybe they will be talking about, and to, amazing authors like Karen Cushman, winner of the Newberry medal who will be a presenter. There is a great interview with her on the cuppajolie blog

I have a new quote for my wall from reading this interview.

“The best reason to write is just to find out what happens.” Karen Cushman

So True. (My planned plots usually last about five chapters...then I need to write to find out what happens.)

They will be talking about the future of publishing... Jane Friedman’s current post about the future of publishing is a must read. Click on the sidebar link or Go Here to read it...

If you check out our conference timetable above you will see that we address all these topics...

But mostly I think the LA delegates will be soaking up the atmosphere.

Alice Pope, The editor of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators market (writers digest annual) is leading a team of bloggers who are blogging the entire conference as well as presenting. Go here to check out some amazing interviews already.

We have got some awesome presenters, great workshops and panels and our delegates come from all over New Zealand and are at all different stages of their writing and illustrating careers.

It’s going to be great.

Now if I could get some sleep to prepare for it.

maureen


pic is our conference schedule...click on it to bring it up in a large new window....

2 comments:

Melinda Szymanik said...

I loved Karen Cushman's 'Catherine Called Birdy'. Just the right blend of history and story which I adore.

I'd love to go the SCBWI LA conference one day but I'm REALLY looking forward to Spinning Gold. I know saying 'don't stress' probably won't make a difference but you've already done so much wonderful work and everything looks fab and just being there with all the other delegates will make my year before I even get to a workshop!

Maureen said...

HI Melinda,
Yeah going to LA that would be so cool....However if you go to the scbwi team blog...which I have linked to...(I updated the links)get yourself a drink and have an uninterrrupted hour trawling through the comments and notes as the bloggers do an amazing job of giving you the flavours of the conference as it happens....
Its sort of like being there...

maureen

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