Category: Conference Report

Posted in Conference Report

Highlights & Thoughts from the 2016 SCBWI Golden Gate Conference at Asilomar

Posted on by beckylevine

I’ve been watching this conference for a decade. I have heard wonderful things about it, but–since it’s not cheap (well, staying at Asilomar isn’t cheap; the conference itself is more than reasonably priced), I felt like I needed to have some work to show before I went. So this year is it. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend. And, although so many things are still circling around in my head, in no particular order yet, I wanted to get a few randomy thoughts done before I forget them.

  • I wasn’t sure what I needed this weekend to be. Turns out I needed it to be about rejuvenation, recharging, and–most of all–recommitment. And it was. Obviously, I need to sustain this feeling and act on it, but I came away feeling that, yes, my writing is going to land at the top of my priorities list once again. Everybody I met and listened to contributed a lot to this feeling, but Deborah Underwood‘s talk about getting rid of obstacles to our creativity really hit a home run for me.
  • You think you’re ready, and you’re not always ready. That includes the state of your manuscripts, your receptivity to hearing critiques about them, and your understanding of what they need to improve. But if you smile and breathe and give things a few hours to sink in, they usually do, and you find yourself thinking the critiquer much more sincerely later in the day, because you now do have some next steps to follow. AND you can see why they’re necessary and important.
  • Clare Vanderpool is not only a wonderful writer and a speaker with a lot of important things to say, she is very possibly the funniest person on the planet. If you are a conference organizer, invite her. If you have a chance to attend a conference where she’s on faculty, go. And be ready to nod and nod and then LAUGH AND LAUGH.
  • I’m pretty sure I’ve never been to a conference where tears were shed during so many talks. It may have been the theme: Live Your Story, but people shared so openly and honestly, the keynotes and workshops stopped being just about my work and your work and became about our work and our worlds and our lives.
  •  Rhyming picture books DO get me. Who knew? Go get Deborah Underwood’s  and Meg Hunt‘s Interstellar Cinderella and Corey Rosen Schwartz‘ and Rebecca J. Gomez‘ and Keika Yamaguchi‘s What about Moose?, and you’ll see what I mean.
  • We had power outages that faculty laughed and spoke through, even though, literally, the power was going off, on, off, on, off, on, like a badly out of sync strobe light, and must have been driving them crazy.
  • I remembered that calendars have power. Every weekend, I will be calendaring my weekday writing into its after-work time slots. And I will be printing a monthly calendar to check off all the days during which I put in writing time. I have promised myself I get to go back to Asilomar in 2017, IF I DO THE WORK. Guess what? I’M GOING TO DO THE WORK.
  • The deer at Asilomar barely look up when you walk near them. Okay, they look up, but they keep chewing away and just let you ooh and ah at them. Because we are no threat. Now we all just need to work on expanding that safety and peace beyond our relationship with deer and beyond the gates of Asilomar.
  • There was a quilting conference going at the same time as ours. I never did get a chance to sneak past their classrooms and see all their work, but I chatted with some while we were in line for meals, including the cousin on one of my absolutely favorite picture book authors. Yes, I asked her to tell her cousin how much I loved her book. Random and special.
  • I have some work to do with my art notes. Or maybe I should say without my art notes.
  • Some of us had to take off after the last sessions, but some of us lingered, joining each other for one last long talk around the lunch table in the dining room. As the last of us pushed away our chairs and started to head toward our cards, one of us said that it felt like leaving summer camp–making sure you gave and got hugs, exchanged emails, shared good and powerful wishes for the next year. I understood what she met, but it felt different for me. I never wanted to go back to summer camp. I DO want to go back to Asilomar.

And I will.

Posted in Conference Report, Writing Conferences

Friday Five: Pennwriters Conference

Posted on by beckylevine

A week ago, I headed downstairs from my hotel room to join the happy crowd picking up their registration goodies for the 2011 Pennwriters Conference. I’d already had some excitement the night before, what with my plane circling the Pittsburgh airport in the middle of some very cool lightning flashes,  landing between the thunderstorms sitting on top of the airport, then waiting an hour or so for the lightning to stop before we could get to our gate. I didn’t mind–the ride wasn’t bumpy at all, we landed safely, and–as our pilot told us after we were on the ground–ten minutes more, and we’d have been heading to Cleveland. I’ve got nothing against Cleveland, but, hey, the conference I wanted to get to was in Pittsburgh! I rode in on the airport shuttle with Denise Little, and we both agreed that making it there made up for any hassles along the way.

And it was great. Pennwriters is an amazing group, filled with warm, friendly, and energized writers. The conference coordinators brought in some awesome faculty–agents and editors and lots of writers to share their craft & market experience. Keynoters were Jacquelyn Michard, who told stories I’m not sure anyone else could have told and had us laughing, and Jonathan Mayberry, who shared all the misconceptions he had about writers when he first started out, before the Pennwriters proved him totally wrong.

Lots and lots happened, but here are five highlights from the weekend.

1. My three workshops went well. The Powerpoint presentations worked, and–let me tell you–it is a joy to give workshops in a hotel where the tech staff is there for you.  People asked lots of questions, and I think I got a few of them feeling better about finding a group and getting started with the whole critique thing.

2. I got the chance to sit in on other people’s classes. I mentioned Ramona DeFelice Long’s character workshop in Tuesday’s post. I also listened to Heather Terrell give a great talk about making the move from “adult” fiction to YA, and went to a fascinating workshop from Tamara Girardi about determining our learning processes, then finding writing techniques and tools that actually work with the way we,  as individuals, learn. I’ll be doing her homework, believe me. On Saturday, I ran in late to a workshop with Kathryn Miller Haines on researching historical fiction. I’ll tell you, sitting with that group, tossing around ideas about how to find the stuff we all need, how to weave facts into story, felt like coming home. Which, since I never thought I’d write historical fiction, is still a bit disconcerting, but wonderful.

3. Friday night, I sat up late (thank goodness for the time change) and did a Read-and-Critique session with Kathleen Ortiz. The last time I did anything like this, I was on the other side of the “table,” having an agent critique the (anonymous) first page of my picture book, so I know how intimidating it can be to be the writer in this scenario. Kudos and big hugs to the eight writers who handed over their first two pages and synopses and let Kathleen and I go at it!  And let me tell you, Kathleen is sharp–she has an incredible ear for voice and is dead on target about that divide between middle-grade and YA. If you’re looking for an agent, I can definitely recommend putting her on your list.

4. I signed books. Yes, I’ve done this before, but never behind long tables with other writers sitting to either side of me, all down the row. Quite fun, because there’s always someone to chat with. Tricky, because–you know–I had books of my own I had to get signed, and while I didn’t have a line out the door (Ha!), I was a bit worried that I’d miss someone while I stood in Jonathan Mayberry’s line, getting his zombie YA signed for my son. It is just so much fun to have someone come up to you, with your book in their hands, and get into conversation about their critique group, their writing project, and their hopes for both.

5. I bought books. Of course I did. I had even called my credit card company ahead of time so they wouldn’t freak out, because there was a conference years ago when they called me, to check if I really HAD gone into the same bookstore six times in two days. Um, yeah. You know. You grab the books you know you want first thing. Then you go to a workshop, and–boy, you need that book. And then another workshop…another book. There is just no way to be efficient about this, folks! I ended up toting home a nice, full suitcase, loaded down with the following:

All in all, the conference was one of the best I’ve ever attended. People came from all over the place; I met a woman from Alaska! I can see why. If you’re anywhere in the neighborhood next year–and, sure, Alaska counts as the neighborhood–I totally recommend this one. It’s a weekend you will treasure.

Posted in Conference Report

Friday Five: SCBWI Spring Spirit Conference

Posted on by beckylevine

Okay, here’s the last of the posts about my trip up to Sacramento and the 2011 Spring Spirit Conference. You’ve got a couple more days to enter my contest for a signed copy of Bruce Coville’s The Monster’s Ring, by leaving a comment at last Monday’s post about Bruce’s keynote speech.

For today, a few conference highlights:

1. The conference basically rocked. The energy of the whole day was wonderful, partly because of the great speakers and workshops, partly because I just love hanging out with kidlit writers. I have to say, though, I think a lot of that energy came directly from the coordinators and volunteers. So thanks to everybody, including the main organizers: Erin Dealey, Patti Newman, and Genny Heikka. We are lucky to have you guys!

2. I sat in on some excellent workshops, particularly Susan Buckley’s talk about writing nonfiction for children and Christy Webster’s session on what else we might be writing for young kids, than picture books. Both speakers sparked ideas and goals in my head, even if I don’t know exactly where those are going to take me. Both Susan and Christy clearly love what they do and get how challenging and fun writing for children can be. If I had to summarize both workshops really fast, I’d say Story, Story, Story!

3. I dropped the first page of my picture book into a basket for Quinlan Lee’s first-page critique session. Let me tell you, when I hear people ask, “How can anyone tell if something’s working or not on the first page?”–they can! No, they can’t tell whether the story is great after that page, they can’t tell if the story is seriously “close” and just needs a bit more revision, but it is possible to get a strong idea about what might/might not be ready and even a little bit about why. Quinlan is incredibly sharp–her critiques were fast, spot on, and always respectful and kind. Oh, and her lunchtime keynote speech had a picture of herself at nine-years-old, sitting on a hillside, reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond for the fourth time. In other words, a picture of why we write. Perfect.

4. I met Bruce Coville. I shook his hand, thank him for his books, and–oh, yeah–gushed a little. (Oh, you would have, too!) Then I watched and listened to him give a keynote speech that had him leaving his microphone behind, climbing onto a chair, brainstorming a make-it-worse-for-your-character with voices, and basically reminding us with humor and conviction who these kids are we’re writing for and what they want to read.

5. The day was filled with meetings–people I’d met before, people I’ve gotten to know online (every third conversation started with, “Have we met, or do I know you from Facebook?!”), ate and hung out with new and old friends (Thanks to Catherine Meyer, Cheri Williams, Tiare Williams Solorzano, Nancy Laughlin, & Claudine Rogers!) I bought books, talked writing and critiquing, and just soaked up all the creativity and motivation.

Wonderful day. I highly recommend a dose of conference time for you all!

Posted in Conference Report, Writing Conferences

Conference Report: Redwood Writers Three Saturdays

Posted on by beckylevine

I’m a member of the California Writers Club, a multi-branch club that has members all over the state. One of the northern branches is the Redwood Writers club, which–for the past couple of years–has run a series of mini-conferences over three consecutive weekends. Last weekend, I drove up to Petaluma to participate in the third weekend, giving a workshop on the basics of critiquing a manuscript.

It was a lovely morning. The group was small, but everybody was warm and friendly and energetic. I did my intro talk, then broke my workshop participants into small groups. They read a sample scene, wrote up a critique, and then presented it to each other. I “eavesdropped” on the critiques, then gave them a few minutes of feedback. No, I didn’t tell them whether they were “right” or “wrong” on what they were saying about the scene. Instead, I focused on whether they were digging deeply into the manuscript, how much detail they wrote into their critiques, and how they presented their comments. I had some really strong critiquers in the group, and it was really fun to listen to them share feedback, then interact with them about the methods and styles.

I got there early enough to sit in on the first workshop of the morning–a great talk about memoirs, presented by Susan Bono. Susan is Editor-in-Chief of Tiny Lights journal. The journal has an annual essay contest, and it’s not too late to enter this year’s. The deadline is Valentine’s Day (this Saturday, folks!), and here’s the info you’ll need if you want to submit.

Linda McCabe is the friend who gave me the first connection to the group, and President Karen Batchelor invited me to speak and kept all the organization stuff running beautifully. Linda sat in on my workshop (Thanks, Linda!), and then took gathered me, Susan, and the other presenter–Ransom Stephens–together for a yummy lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant across the street. Ransom told us all what to order, and I had one of the best noodle bowls I’ve ever eaten.

My “students” were my guinea pigs this weekend; this was the first time for my critique workshop. I think it went well, but I hear a rumor of feedback forms, and I’m really looking forward to any comments and suggestions about how I could improve things. It was a weird experience, listening to a critique for the structure of it, instead of the content, but I think it worked well & I can completely see continuing with this workshop at more conferences in the future.

As usual, any time I hang out with other writers, I had a blast and came home totally recharged. I was even fighting a cold and had a party to go to that night, and I had all the energy I needed to get home, do a quick-change from professional to social apparel, and drag my husband onto the dance floor a couple of times. Son: no way! 🙂

Question for all of you.  I’d like to make this type of post a staple of my blog; just a quick, mini-report of conferences and workshops I go to, either as a speaker or an attendee. Confession–I am LOUSY with a camera and actually avoid taking one with me places, so you’re not going to see a lot of photos of famous/not-so-famous people here. (Although check Linda’s blog out later this week; I think she’s going to put up her pics!) So the question is: Do you like reading about conferences, etc? If not, I’ll probably keep the posts going, but maybe shorten them a bit (I say that like it’s so easy for me!). If you’re enthused, I’ll keep filling you in on all the fun stuff. I think conferences are a great place for writers to learn and just commune with each other, and if I can get you guys intrigued, well, all the better! Let me know!