Category: Conferences (Page 6 of 8)

Nuggets of Writing Wisdom from SCBWI L.A. 2010 Conference

August 28, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

As promised here are some nuggets of wisdom from the SCBWI L.A. conference. They are pretty much all writing related, but many of them have universal wisdom as well.

M.T. Anderson:

- Books take us away from home, so we can actually see our home.

- Literature restores a sense of unknown to what we already know.
- Understanding the past is just as much about forging ahead to the future.

Gordon Korman:

- What do you use more as an adult? Your sense of humor or your ability to recognize foreshadowing.

- Kids are more subtle than you think they are. It’s not that stuff is going over their heads; it’s just the stuff we think is important, they don’t care about.
- Kids are not an exotic subspecies. When we are writing for kids, we are writing for ourselves.

E.B. Lewis:

- We spend so much time scratching to get some wealth that we miss out true wealth: our children.

- Sometimes we don’t scratch deep enough to find the true value of our kids. It’s more valuable than gold. We scratch them too deep sometimes and destroy our children.
- As artists, we need to fill ourselves up to flowing and give it all back.

Rachel Vail:

- The trick to being a good listener is to actually listen.

- Spying is key to being a writer. Put on your headphones in a public place, but don’t really listen to music.

- How can two people in same conversation have such different experiences of what happens.
- When I get stuck, I make some tea and force myself to remember.

Gail Carson Levine:

- When you make a list, no idea is stupid.
- The magic and joy of being a writer is learning about yourself in your writing.

Carolyn Mackler:

- By standing out, you put yourself out there for a fall.
- Be proud of what you wish for and stand by it, even if it’s harder than you expected.

Gennifer Choldenko:

- Human beings need stories; we always have and we always will.

- Harness the energy of your dreams.
- Give yourself the right to take risks; you’re not making real risks if you haven’t risked and failed.

Paul Fleischman:

- Research should be like slip; it should be there but never show.

- Laughter gives you a sense of control.
- There’s now way around but through–that’s the writing life.

There’s not much left to say after reading over what these heavy-hitters in the kidlit world had to say, so I’ll leave you with my own ridiculous mid-conference quotation: “I just don’t think I can listen to one more stranger and pretend to care about they’re saying.”

Name Dropping at the SCBWI L.A. Conference 2010

August 21, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ve been jet setting around the country the last few weeks! I just got back from quiet, relaxing Vermont last night, but when I last left you, I was headed for the SCBWI L.A. conference, which was the complete opposite of quiet and relaxed. This year was bigger and better than ever for me. And this post is all about name-dropping.

(I finally got to see the Hollywood sign!)

I had lots of on-line friends to meet up with this year, which made the whole experience much less intimidating this time around. I was super excited to have dinner plans for Friday night with none other than kidlit-discussion-board guru Verla Kay, her best friend and author Linda Joy Singleton, and other awesome blueboarders. Go me! (Sorry, one of my guilty-pleasure cheerleading movies is on right now! Gold star to the first person who comments with the right movie.)

Some of my favorite moments were busting a move to “Baby Got Back” (among other great dance songs) with my new friends, including my roomie and YA author Julia Karr (whose book XVI comes out in January), listening to mad-scientist of an author M.T. Anderson talk about his writing process, having a great conversation with Newbery winner Susan Patron, and well basically the whole conference (except for the mandatory conference mental break-down on Saturday afternoon…thanks to the hubby for talking me down).

(Here’s a few more famous “literary” figures I crossed paths with while in L.A.)

Coming up next: conference nuggets from the likes of Gail Caron Levine, Rachel Vail, and Gennifer Choldenko.

Prepping for the SCBWI L.A. Conference 2010 With a Picture Post

July 27, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

I’ll be an honorary California girl this weekend when I head off to the SCBWI 39th Annual Summer Conference in L.A. In case you forgot, I attended this conference a few years ago (yup, that’s four links to conference posts…it was that full of inspirational information).

I’ve been busy reading books written by the faculty and doing ‘homework’ for my intensive session with Senior Editor at Delacorte Press Krista Marino. (I was avoiding watching 17 Again, but it really wasn’t bad.) I’m looking forward to adding to my collection of signed books and maybe even getting some signed books for other people.

Here’s my current collection of signed books. Aren’t they pretty? I may have to take over a second bookshelf after this weekend! Here’s a few more pretty pictures to keep you busy while I’m gone.

My pretty (and delicious) cannoli cake from Emerald’s Bakery.

These were taken last summer at the Bridge of Flower s (luckily, the actual bridge isn’t made of flowers because that would be a pretty crappy bridge) in Shelburne Falls, Massachussetts.

And this one is from June of last year from just after a tornado watch expired.

SCBWI Eastern PA 2010 Conference Wrap Up

April 30, 2010 / Katie L. Carroll

A few weeks ago I attended the SCBWI Eastern PA conference at the Shawnee Inn, which is this great golf resort in the Poconos that reminds me of the resort in Dirty Dancing (and little bit of the one in The Shining, but that movie freaked me out so much, I like to pretend it doesn’t exist).

I first attended this conference in 2009. I had been looking for a small and close-to-home SCBWI conference and came across the Poconos one. I live in CT, so a Pennsylvania conference wasn’t necessarily the obvious choice, but a little research on google maps showed me that this conference was actually closer to my house than the SCBWI New England one. Who knew?

My awesome roommate, Kimberly Sabatini, introduced me to the the Eastern PA chapter and I felt like I had truly found kindred spirits in this group. My second year at the conference turned out to be just as awesome. I reconnected with all my old buddies from last year and got to know some new ones.

(Here’s Kim, Jodi, Jeff, and Shiloh hanging out on Saturday evening)

Some of my favorite moments from this year include talking soccer with Jeff (including hearing about his daughter’s team and attempting to explain the elusive offsides rule), discussing our Voices homework (which we all interpreted differently) with Jodi and Roxanne, hearing Kim’s stories about her boys, staying up late on Saturday night eating cookies and talking books in the lobby, checking out Elana’s iPad, discussing starting our own publishing company with Gayle, and winning a gift card to the spa.

Usually when I post about conferences, I share the speakers’ words of wisdom…and today’s post will be no different! So here they are (all those not in quotation marks paraphrased, of course, because my short hand sucks):

The formula to become rich and famous: Do one thing, do it well, and do it over and over. (Sandy Asher, who admits she does not follow this formula!)
The “feeding and caring of the furry muse” is very important. (Judy Schachner)
In a roller-coaster ride you know exactly where you’re going, end up where you began, and you can a buy a ticket to go on again and have almost the same exact experience; it’s thrilling, but it’s not a journey. A journey takes you where you’ve never been before; it’s pretty scary and the dangers are real. (Sandy Asher…guess which one we, as writers, should strive to take take readers on?)
All stories are based in truth somewhere. Pay attention to those stories and write them down. (Judy Schachner)
Voice is the most important part of a manuscript because editors cannot fix it. Voice is undeniable and is the emotional pull of the story. (Eve Adler, Associate Editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
“My search (for an agent) was quite fruitful, but not all the fruit was edible.” (Sandy Asher)
“One man’s junk is another woman’s book.” (Judy Schachner)
By the time I got old enough to ask the right questions, there was no one there to answer them. (Sandy Asher)

For more about the conference, check out Kim’s blog posts and the First Novels Club live blogging of the conference.

A Tour Through the Largest Shopping Mall on the East Coast

October 19, 2009 / Katie L. Carroll

I recently attended the Eastern PA SCBWI Fall Philly Conference. My hotel room was in King of Prussia, PA right next to largest shopping mall on the East Coast. This mall is so big that it has been separated into two different buildings, each of which is the size of a regular mall. The inside of the mall is gorgeous (way more posh and much cleaner than the mall near my house…sorry I forgot my camera, so there’s no pics), and I even saw a mall cop on a segway. No worries…he was wearing a helmet!

Now I’m not a big shopper, but I wanted to check out the bookstore, which was (of course) as far as it could possibly be from where I entered. I walked all the way through the first building (and I accidentally took the long way), into the second building, and all the way to the far end of the second building. Phew! I like to think I’m in pretty good shape, but I was tired after all that walking.

So on my long walk I passed by a Teavana, which is now where I get all my tea (Black Dragon Pearl tea not only has a really cool name, but it also tastes awesome). I texted my husband about seeing a Teavana (they only have two locations in CT…and none of them are that close to my house…boo). Then texted him about seeing a Pottery Barn because we just bought couches from there and the closest Pottery Barn to our house is about 30 minutes away. (Can you tell from all that texting that I was a bit lonely–maybe a little bored too–all by myself in that big mall?)

As I walked more and more, I jokingly texted the hubby that there were so many stores in the mall that there was probably at least one of every possible store. A little while later, I spotted the Teavana on the floor below me. I though Oh no! How did I walk around the whole mall and miss the one store I was looking for? Then I realized I was in a totally different building from the first Teavana, and this was a whole other Teavana. Wow! There really is at least one of everything in that mall!

I did finally find the Borders and bought a few books to be signed by authors I would be meeting at the conference the next day (more on that to come).

One last thing before I go…Mary Cole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency is hosting a query contest over at her Kidlit website. Good luck to those who enter!