{"id":614,"date":"2009-08-12T02:53:51","date_gmt":"2009-08-12T09:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/matthewkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=614"},"modified":"2009-08-12T02:53:51","modified_gmt":"2009-08-12T09:53:51","slug":"scbwi-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/?p=614","title":{"rendered":"SCBWI 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the weekend, I was in LA for the annual summer conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators<\/span><\/a>, and can I just say that I had an absolute blast!\u00a0 Seriously, I love writers.\u00a0 And I believe that as solitary an activity as writing is, writers need other writers.\u00a0 We learn from each other, and encourage each other, and share a community I am proud to be a part of.\u00a0 Especially writers for children.<\/p>\n

The first day was great.\u00a0 I was invited for lunch with some of the 10ers<\/span><\/a>, including Bree Despain, Lindsey Leavitt, Kim Derting (thanks for setting the whole thing up!), Christy Raedeke, Jennifer Cervantes, Denise Jaden, and Suzanne Young.\u00a0 Holly Black, Jay Asher, Kami Garcia and <\/a>Margaret Stohl were there as well, as were bloggers Khy (The Frenetic Reader<\/a><\/span>), Catt (The Dreamer Reader<\/span><\/a>), and Vania (Reverie Book Reviews<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0 Oh, and Magic Johnson was there in the restaurant, but I think it goes without saying that he wasn’t a part of our group.<\/p>\n

The first day also featured a speech by Sherman Alexie.\u00a0 That man is brilliant, inspiring, hilarious, and so down to earth.\u00a0 He had the whole room laughing and on their feet by the end for a standing ovation.\u00a0 Later in the weekend, I was a total fanboy and got to shake his hand and tell him how cool it was that he rendered Stephen Colbert speechless.\u00a0 Have you seen that video?\u00a0 Here it is<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 And here’s a picture of me fanboying it up (as you’ll see, I did that a lot).<\/p>\n

\"me<\/p>\n

The other keynote addresses were incredible.\u00a0 Richard Peck blew the roof off at the Golden Kite Luncheon, and Ingrid Law charmed the whole room with a speech that felt more like a spell.\u00a0 I went to lots of different break-out sessions, and met lots of great people.\u00a0 My agent was there and we went to dinner and had some great discussions about books, writers, movies, theater, and religion.\u00a0 He read the first half of my new novel during the conference and was enthusiastic about it (huge sigh of relief).\u00a0 Later, Elena Jube<\/span><\/a> and I had dinner with him, and I got to know Elena a little better.\u00a0 Steve is her agent too, and she’s a wonderful person and a fantastic writer with a book out on submission right now.\u00a0 I’ve read it, and I loved it.\u00a0 I know an editor will too.<\/p>\n

On the second night, the poolside Blue Moon Ball was great fun.\u00a0 I got to hang out with some writers from Utah, and meet Richard Peck and Ingrid Law.\u00a0 I also chatted with Ed Masessa from the Scholastic Book Fairs about the title of my debut novel.\u00a0 Or lack thereof.\u00a0 Still don’t have one.\u00a0 Here are some pics.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Brodi
Brodi Ashton, Bree Despain, Emily Wing Smith, and Sydney Salter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sydney,
Sydney, me, Brodi, Bree, and Emily<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ingrid
Ingrid Law and her daughter, Richard Peck, and me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"me
me and Jay Asher (in costume)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Sunday night we had our regional get-together, and all us Utah and Idaho writers had a fun time.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Sydney
Sydney Salter and Elena Jube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sydney,
Sydney, Elena, Pat Martinez, and Emily Wing Smith sporting the air quotes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"regional
Jean Patrick, Carolyn Frank, and Neysa Jensen<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bree
Bree and me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bree
Bree and Emily<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"regional
Elena and Pat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That night, I also got a chance to talk with Ellen Hopkins.\u00a0 I truly admire her for making poetry so vital and accessible to teens, and for bringing attention to some of the dangers they face each day.<\/p>\n

\n

\"me
me and Ellen Hopkins<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Monday I had lunch with Kimball Fisher<\/span><\/a> and Fran Slayton<\/span><\/a>, both great people.\u00a0 Kimball is a writer I met at last year’s summer conference, and it was great to see him again.\u00a0 Fran is the author of When the Whistle Blows<\/em><\/span><\/a>, which I have not read yet, but I plan to correct that oversight at the earliest opportunity.\u00a0 From the reviews and the buzz, a wonderful middle-grade debut.\u00a0 It turns out the three of us had some things in common, and I deeply appreciated the time I spent with them.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Fran
Fran Slayton and me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Also on the last day, I waited in line to meet all the writers I hadn’t been able to talk to throughout the conference.\u00a0 More fanboy stuff follows.<\/p>\n

\n

\"me
me and Linda Sue Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Karen
Karen Cushman and me<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then Lin Oliver, the president of SCBWI, introduced me to Henry Winkler.\u00a0 I’d been talking with her during the conference, and I told her that the Hank Zipzer<\/span><\/a> books that she writes with Mr. Winkler are a favorite among the kids I work with.\u00a0 She said I had to tell Henry Winkler myself, so I did.\u00a0 It was awesome.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Lin
Lin Oliver, me, and Henry Winkler<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the other awesomenesses of the weekend, two fellow writers got enthusiastic shoutouts from their agent and editor.\u00a0 In the main ballroom, with the whole conference listening, agent Sarah Davies talked about how amazing Lindsey Leavitt<\/span><\/a> is.\u00a0 Be sure and watch for Sean Griswold’s Head<\/em> and Princess for Hire<\/em><\/span><\/a> in 2010!\u00a0 And then, Egmont editor Elizabeth Law not once, but twice raved about Bree Despain’s<\/a><\/span> The Dark Divine<\/em><\/span><\/a>, out in stores this December!\u00a0 Congrats you two!<\/p>\n

All in all, an amazing weekend.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

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Over the weekend, I was in LA for the annual summer conference of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and can I just say that I had an absolute blast!\u00a0 Seriously, I love writers.\u00a0 And I believe that as solitary an activity as writing is, writers need other writers.\u00a0 We learn from each […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1mtjQ-9U","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/matthewjkirby.com\/kirbside\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}