It's Conference Week!

Tomorrow I fly to Los Angeles to attend my first SCBWI LA national conference. I'm excited to get a manuscript critique, attend workshops, and reconnect with old friends. AND my entire critique group is going!

I finished my last (for now) revision on my latest Work In Progress yesterday. Soon I'll be querying agents.

More later.

A Post on Research

Today I'm talking about "Research for the Non-Researcher". Visit Hen and Inkblots here for some tips on what to do when a ghost shows up in your manuscript and won't go away.

Thank You Social Media

Did you miss the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York this weekend (like me)? Get the highlights at the conference blog here & on twitter by following the hashtag #NY12SCBWI.

Happy Halloween

I’m blowing the dust off of this blog to wish you all a Happy Halloween. Please excuse the coughing. I know it’s a thick layer of dust. As a kid, Halloween was my favorite holiday. 2 reasons. #1: CANDY! #2: it’s the day before my birthday. So Halloween was always like my own personal version of Christmas Eve.

There is a photo on my desk of my brother and me wearing Halloween costumes. Judging by the hair sticking out of my mask, I think I was in the 1^st grade and he was in preschool. I’m a tall-for-my-age pink rabbit with big ears and he’s Caspar the friendly ghost. The masks have big smiles on them and I bet ours matched underneath. After all, we were about to be unleashed on unlimited candy for the evening.

Tonight my costume will consist of a “Happy Halloween” shirt, a skirt, and my orange & black striped tights. I will grab a few mini chocolate bars from the candy bowl when the giant hot dog in charge of candy distribution isn’t looking. But it’s okay, because I bought extra.

Enjoy your evening.

2011 SCBWI Midsouth Conference Blog

The 2011 SCBWI-Midsouth conference is this weekend in Nashville, TN. I am live blogging the conference with the fabulous SCBWI-Midsouth blog team. Follow our blog for conference news and workshop recaps.

Killer Nashville 2011

I attended the Killer Nashville mystery writers’ conference this weekend. I did not solve the murder in the parking garage, but I did pick up some tips on sleuthing and storytelling.

Selling Hope & the Wednesday Writers

Three years ago, something wonderful happened. I got stuck in line. Actually I was stuck in line for the ladies’ restroom at a writers’ conference (a common occurrence). I spoke to the woman in front of me and told her I was new to the Nashville area. Her name was Jennifer Lambe. I asked if she might be interested in getting together for coffee and maybe a little manuscript critiquing. She said yes! When we returned to the auditorium, she introduced me to another writer, Kristin O’Donnell Tubb. Kristin said she would be interested in the coffee and the manuscript critiques, too. I met another writer, Hannah Dills, at an RWA chapter meeting and she wasn’t interested in coffee, but she was definitely interested in manuscript critiques. So the Wednesday Writers started meeting for coffee (and tea) and we started critiquing manuscripts.

One of the first manuscripts we critiqued is in bookstores today! It’s Selling Hope by Kristin O’Donnell Tubb. Here’s the blurb:

It’s May 1910, and Halley’s Comet is due to pass thru the Earth’s atmosphere. And thirteen-year-old Hope McDaniels and her father are due to pass through their hometown of Chicago with their ragtag vaudeville troupe. Hope wants out of vaudeville, and longs for a “normal” life—or as normal as life can be without her mother, who died five years before. Hope sees an opportunity: She invents “anti-comet” pills to sell to the working-class customers desperate for protection. Soon, she’s joined by a fellow troupe member, young Buster Keaton, and the two of them start to make good money. And just when Hope thinks she has all the answers, she has to decide: What is family? Where is home?

Congratulations Kristin!