I’m back from the SCBWI Western Washington conference

and so wonderfully intrigued and inspired.

I would definitely recommend going to this conference, if you’re a children’s book illustrator or a writer writing children’s books mainly in the following categories –

Picture Books, Chapter Books, Middle grade, YA novels. Plenty of useful workshops,

networking opportunities and fun.

The keynote speakers at the conference were Laini Taylor, Jay Asher, Mitali Perkins and Peter Brown.

All of them had very different journeys, different surprises, different “aha” moments and unanticipated challenges in their writing lives. That said, they had one thing in common – a deep sense of love for writing and mountain moving persistence.

Now, I’m in that phase of a writer’s life when your own writing can make you feel like you’re having a mid-life crisis situation. Disconcerting in a million ways.

But, the conference proved a worthwhile checkpoint for reassurance.

I had a manuscript consultation on the first few chapters with author Sundee Frazier (http://www.sundeefrazier.com/) and received some really valuable feedback.


And this is how I feel about my story now –

Hope. You know, like the feeling of committing to a new love affair. *Grin* .

And here’s happy me with the wonderful author, Mitali Perkins at the conference. (http://www.mitaliperkins.com/) Love her stories.

Jolie Stekly, an SCBWI volunteer, blogged live from the conference all weekend, so check out the events here. (http://chinookupdate.blogspot.com/)


So that was that.

I’ll be starting an author series from my next post. For now, check out best-selling author Indu Sundaresan and her books here. (http://indusundaresan.com/)

and tell me, what brought a grin on your face recently?