An SCBWI Conference and A Blog Award

When a good friend suggested that I join her at the Miami SCBWI conference (it had an Alice in Wonderland theme), my first thought was of palm trees and sunshine. I could almost smell coconut oil. However, this fabulous conference turned out to be a lot more than warm temps, oranges, and alligators. Amazing speakers, workshops, critiques, intensives, and people made this conference one of the best I’ve attended. As a bonus, I got to meet a blogging buddy--Medeia Sharif http://www.medeiasharif.com/. It’s always fun to meet blog and Twitter pals in person.

As with most conferences, I left with enough information and inspiration to fill multiple suitcases, but here are a few gems I can share with you:

An amazing book: SECOND SIGHT: An Editor’s Talks on Writing, Revising, and Publishing
Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein, Executive Editor at Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic.

I am in the middle of this amazing book, but I also heard Cheryl Klein speak on character and plot this past weekend. She is brilliant. If you ever have the opportunity to hear her speak, go for it. In the meanwhile, I recommend her book.

A book that writers were gushing over: Plot Versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction by Jeff Gerke

I have ordered this, so I can’t write much else about it yet.

A series of YouTube videos by Martha Alderson, a.k.a. The Plot Whisperer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESfT2Lh1cWo

These were recommended by the agent and author team who taught a novel intensive. I’ll be logging onto YouTube as soon as possible.

Are you familiar with any of these?

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In other news, I’ve been granted a blog award by Carol at http://carolriggs.blogspot.com/ Thank you, Carol! From what I understand, this is for regular and/or great blog comments, and I am to pass it on to 20 fabulous blog buddies—folks I’ve had the pleasure to “meet” by way of their wonderful comments and blogs. Here are my twenty picks in no particular order:

http://ten-lives-second-chances.blogspot.com/

http://getbusywriting.blogspot.com/

http://weavingataleortwo.blogspot.com/

http://gypsyjulesinmysoul.blogspot.com/

http://janetsumnerjohnson.blogspot.com/

http://www.karen-strong.com/blog/

http://paranormalpointofview.blogspot.com/

http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/

http://lisalregan.blogspot.com/

http://lydiakang.blogspot.com/

http://marciahoehne.blogspot.com/

http://kpolark.blogspot.com/

http://doubtingwriter.blogspot.com/

http://lyndaryoung.blogspot.com/

http://nancysthompson.blogspot.com/

http://peggyeddleman.blogspot.com/

http://www.stinalindenblatt.com/

http://susanfieldswriter.blogspot.com/

http://thecharacterdepot.blogspot.com/

http://underthetikihut.blogspot.com/

There are more than twenty wonderful people who generously comment on my blog and have amazing blogs, but the rules said only name twenty. And who needs a bloggy slap on the wrist for not following the rules? Not me.

Happy reading, writing, revising, and blogging to you all!