Meeting of the Minds

Just spent two wonderful days in Birmingham, AL at the SCBWI-Southern Breeze Writing and Illustrating for Kids Conference (WIK, 2011). It's exciting to meet and speak with people of all ages who want to contribute to our current wealth of children's literature. On Friday, I offered a full day intensive on revising the picture book to 43 men and women. We laughed, read, wrote, revised, compared, improved and celebrated growth in our scripts. On Saturday, a large crowd of editors, agents, writers, illustrators, an art director and learners gathered at a high school for inspiration, information, critiques and more. Every aspect of both days was seamless thanks to the detail-oriented planning of the Southern Breeze officers. Every writer, no matter how many published credits, or not, is a learner. We grow by reading the best books, discussing strategies, experimenting, revising, receiving rejections, pushing forward and finding the most important stories that we need to tell with our own original approach and voice. It's a wild and satisfying journey - one that I was pleased to share with kind colleagues for a few hours this weekend. Thank you.