Tuesday, July 28, 2009

PNW Children's Book Conference

Deb:


I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks. As Freckles shared with you, one of those weeks was spent "getting smarter" at the 10th Annual PNW Children's Book Conference at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. What a week! My head is still whirling with all of the information and motivation from this amazing experience. I chose to stay in the dorm so I could focus totally on the writing. Although Freckles was not pleased with my choice, she was not neglected. My husband and oldest son gave her lots of attention and treats in my absence.


Here's some of the gang from the dorm posing with Freckles:

After spending our days in workshops and critique sessions, we'd meet after dinner (wow, did I mention how great the food was???!!!) in the lounge on our floor and talk about our lives, our writing, our hopes for our future.

And we read to each other.

I know what you're thinking, but when you get a bunch of writing-crazy geeks together, we read out loud. What can I say?

We've vowed to stay in touch and I hope that we do. That's always easier said than done. We're scattered all over the U.S. and Canada. But when you've found your soulmates, you have to hang on to them.


There are more pictures of my experience here.


During the conference I got great feedback on the middle grade novel I've been working on and am busy revising it yet again.


All in all a very successful and memorable week!

3 comments:

Rachel Hamby said...

It sounds (and looks) like you had a great time, Deb!

BJW said...

What a blast. I loved it. Including meeting you Deb. Very glad that you stayed in the dorm, no offense Freckles, but you helped make it fun. Who needs sleep anyways right?

Speaking of sharing your work aloud, in my opinion, you are a very fine writer indeed.

And thank you for posting those great pics too. I've got a few of my own that I'll have to figure out how to get everybody.

Cheers,
Ben

Deb Shucka said...

I'm so glad this was the great experience it sounds like it was. I can hardly wait for a personal blow-by-blow.