Portmortem: SCBWI 38th Annual Conference

Perhaps you have to be a bonafide introvert to look at this photo of a morgue locker and think it looks-- well, cozy.  Blissfully quiet. And, if you had just the right quilt, a cup of tea and a notebook, it wouldn't be a bad place to hang out for a while. Least that's what occurs to me as I begin our Official SCBWI Portmortem Post!  

Robin and I are just back in from the Society of Childrens Book Writers and Illustrators 38th Annual Conference in LA.  Our mental hard drives are sparkin' and spittin', and our muses are dreamily intoxicated. Mine keeps calling for a cigarette.  After moving en masse with nine hundred and eleven other writers and illustrators for four days, I am relishing deep long breaths-- regathering all my parts and pieces-- settling in.  Good mojo to be had.

I've posted a few photos from our Shrinking Violet table at the Golden Kite Luncheon which was a marvelous event.  The food was lovely, the company delicious, and inspiration came served by the bucket.  Our own Shrinking Violet Donna Gephart was on hand to deliver her acceptance speech for the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, one richly deserved.  We were all so very happy for her!

Pictured  left to right: Thalia Chaltas, RL LaFevers, Katherine Applegate (Yeah, I know--it was all I could do not to shriek!), Sheri Rosen

We were slayed by the speech delivered by Hyewon Yum who won in the best illustration category for her picture book entitled Last Night.  Hyewon spoke of being the child in class who never raised her hand, and spoke little.  She grew up and wrote an completely wordless picture book. (I'm planning on starting a wordless novel this week--a super long one.) What irony, then, that Hyewon won this award and ended up in front of 1000 people, and on a jumbotron, speaking her thanks.  It was very, very moving.  Nary a dry eye at the Shrinking Violet table! We are thinking of electing her our patron saint. 

Richard Peck's keynote at the luncheon was staggering.  I'm hoping they will post a link to his speech.  I have heard him present a few times, and I'm always left with the feeling that I have been in the presence of a real Master.  What a extraordinary privilege.  He is brilliant, profound and the man defines the art of deadpan humor.

This was my first introduction to National Book Award winner Sherman Alexie, and I fell hard for him.  Did you hear the giant thud?  Yeah, t'was my heart falling landing on its arse. He is an extraordinary soul.  I plan on reading everything the man has ever written-- his novels, short stories, poetry. He described being Catholic and Native American as "guilt squared." Love that! He drew an intriguing comparison of both "poor kids and rich kids" as having choices made for them. Later in a session with his editor, Jennifer Hunt,  he had me howling with his wicked humor when he shared an anecdote of an earnest middle grade boy asking him at an event how many times a day he actually did--uh, marinate. :-]

Pictured left to right: Mary Hershey, Sherrie Petersen, Jennie Bielicki

Robin and I extended our stay by a day so we could decompress, and avoid getting the bends by surfacing too quickly.  It was just what we needed. It also gave us some time to do some SVP planning together.  There are some exciting new things that will be rolled out shortly!  Stay tuned for Robin's post about all of that next week.  

If there was a common thread for the two of us in our experience at conference this year, it was that we both felt we'd been given permission.  Permission to be more active business partners with our editors and agents, permission to use social media or NOT, permission to go as dark and edgy or as loose and outrageous as our story dictated.  Permission to choose and tell the story that only we can tell. Permission to honor our voice and our vision no matter what. Permission to grow the things that are important to us, and to let the other things go.  

Even if you didn't attend this conference, we hope that you each will find some quiet time to listen to your own urgings, and the truths that may be calling you. I really encourage you to visit the Team Blog link on the SCBWI site. Many of the sessions and events were covered. There is a wealth of priceless industry and craft information available. Take advantage of it!

A few gems  from my notebook: 

"I wrote because I could not dance."  -- Karen Cushman

"Write something only you can write."  -- Dinah Stevensen

"'Friend' is not a verb."  -- Richard Peck

"We write by the light of every book we ever read."  -- Richard Peck

Pictured left to right: Deborah Gobel, Catherine Stier, Amy Spitzley (winner of the 2009 Fairy Godsister conference grant)

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Contest! Contest!  I love contests!  Robin let me do the drawing for those of you that correctly submitted the name of Maggie Stiefvater's car.  Its name is Loki!  If your name is Pam Bachorz and you have a soon to be published book entitled Candor with Egmont USA that an awful lot of people were talking about at Nationals, you are the winner of an ARC (advanced reader's copy) of Maggie's new book, Shiver Lucky you, Pam! If you'll email me off-line by clicking here, Robin will get that right off to you. 

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Hope you all have a stellar week!  It was a such a rich pleasure to meet some of you this past week in LA.   I hope you'll share some of what you experienced here with us!

Peace,

Mary Hershey

Mary's Take: More Pearls from SCBWI National

It's been great fun visting blogs this week and reading about other people's experiences at Nationals. Though we all attended the same conference, we each left with such different things.

In conference years past, I've taken reams of notes and handouts and freebies and business cards and lengthy lists of all the books I want to read the first hot second I get home. I've literally sucked the marrow from the bone, then earnestly picked my teeth so as not to miss a mini-morsel.

This year, while I wanted to immerse, I also wanted to be more discerning and intentional. I planned to pace myself, rebalance from the demands of my day job, and sit in a quiet place of observation and gratitude. Oh, yeah, and try to breathe and not freak out that I was going to do my first workshop at Nationals. Like in front of people and everything, for god's sake.

Here are the pearls that I've brought home with me:

From "Self Branding for Writers & Illustrators" with Priscilla Burns and Marilyn Scott-Waters. "If you try to be everything, you end of being nothing." Also memorable from this session was a bizarre snafu with their Power Point, so the following slide would not stop coming up. It is imprinted on my mind. It's attributed to Ray Bradbury. "Dream yourself bigger than you have been dreaming yourself." Wow, you know? How many of us do that? Let's start now. G-O.

I loved the "Writing the GLBTQ (Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Questioning) Book" session with Ellen Wittinger, who I now have on my list of People I Truly Adore. I went into the session questioning whether the hets (aka "straight" folk) should/could be writing books with GLBTQ characters. I left convinced. Uh, yes! Ellen spoke passionately about starting with the universal core of the character, and adding the layers that include gender, preferences, family, culture, etc. And doing the necessary research so that you can create as authentic voice as possible. I'm going to write her a very sappy fan letter when I finish this blog tonight.

John Green is probably feeling like the Most Popular Boy at the Conference judging by the number of odes sung to him in various blogs. I'll add mine because he deserves it. This nugget got me in the solar plexus. "Writing is as much translation as creation." And, "... the truth does not lie in the facts. It lies in the people." Finally, he referenced the concept of "radical hope" a number of times, and I'll just leave that with you. The combination of those two words makes me feel a bit breathless. There is a combustible quality to them. John, if you're reading this, could you tell me where this comes from? I'll send you one of our nifty Shrinking Violet mugs if you click here. I'm quite certain you don't have one yet. :-]

Finally, here are just a few other things that I loved about Summer Conference. And, topping the list are my gorgeous writing group buds my Fairy Godmother Lee Wardlaw and Thalia Chaltas, author of the soon to be released YA novel in poems, Furniture, Viking, 2008.

~*~ Meeting Cynthia Leitich Smith in the flesh! She is as remarkable and generous as I guessed and hoped she would be.

~*~ Seeing a pal that didn't think she was going to get to come, but at the last minute her Fairy Godmother gifted her the trip and she was ever so happy and it was the coolest thing EVER!(Yes, I have had a lot of diet coke this afternoon! You can tell by the number of !!!! points I'm using.)

~*~ Seeing a woman in a T-shirt that read "I Prefer to Consider Myself Pre-Published". Awesome.

~*~ Having the One and Only Sue Alexander in my class. Wow. Signing a book for her. Wow to the n-thiest power.

And, bringing us all the way back around to Marketing for Introverts, a-hem, a final thought. In the gestalt kind of place that I worked to inhabit during the conference, I was struck by the absolute diversity of speakers and styles. I'm sure that Lin Oliver and Stephen Mooser select their faculty with that in mind.

And yet, we tend to think that there is only ONE WAY to promote yourself and your work. How can that be?? How can you take this great diverse mix of people and expect that they should all do it the same way? Makes not sense whatsoever. That's all I'm saying. Least for now. :->

Later, friends--

Mary

Calling All Violets

Well, Mary let the cat out of the bag. We're considering a Shrinking Violet Get Together at SCBWI National this August and wanted to check with our fellow Violets to see who was planning on attending National, and if so, would they be interested in meeting face to face. It might be a nice way to arm ourselves with fellow introverts for the conference.

Now, we do understand this requires submitting a comment, and as introverts, that's not our favorite thing, but if you are interested in getting together, do give a shout out in the comments so we can get a head count!