Tuesday, January 19, 2010

SCBWI Winter Conference Blog

The SCBWI Winter Conference takes place in New York City next week. I will be attending for the first time! The official conference blog is online now with interviews with conference speakers and tips for newbie conference goers. Anyone interested in writing or illustrating books for children can follow the blog while the conference in underway to keep up with each day’s events. Click here for the Official SCBWI Conference Blog.

I had the great experience of being on the blog team for the SCBWI-Midsouth 2009 Blog. I know the conference blog is a time consuming project, but one that is greatly appreciated by conference attendees and SCBWI members who cannot attend the conference. So many thanks to the SCBWI Blog Team for taking the time to provide this great information.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Books Before Movies (I heart Percy Jackson)

I want to know why no one told me about the Percy Jackson books before now. Oh wait. They did. I’m just slow on the uptake sometimes. My daughter is a big Percy Jackson fan. She has talked about the books so much at the dinner table that my son and I were both convinced we must read the books or die. Well almost. Earlier this week, I went to my local bookstore and bought a box set of the first three Percy Jackson books. It’s finally my turn to read book one, The Lightning Thief. (My son is a fast reader.) After reading chapter one of book one, one word: Wow! It was possibly the best first chapter I have ever read. Amazing. I’m a few chapters in now and I want more.

I’m glad that Percy Jackson & The Olympians is coming to a theatre near us on President’s Day. I might not have been compelled to read the book now if the movie release were not a few weeks away. As I’ve mentioned before in a previous blog post, I’m a books-before-movies reader. I also read the first Harry Potter book before seeing the first movie. I was hooked.

Are you a books-before-movies reader? Have you ever heard other people talking nonstop about a book, thought they must be exaggerating, finally gave in to read the book and got hooked yourself?