Thursday, February 7, 2013

New York City....
































































I'm back from the Big Apple!  The SCBWI Winter Conference in New York was wonderful and exhausting and inspiring.

My friend (and conference roommate / critique group partner), Jessixa Bagley was a runner-up for the portfolio showcase, which is super exciting and well deserved.  Congratulations, Jessixa!!  Lori Nichols was the other runner-up and Andrea Offermann, whom I had the pleasure of meeting, was the showcase winner.  Way to go gals!! 

Jessixa, Lisa Anchin, and I had our photo taken with Tomie DePaola, who was a hoot!

Mo Willems' keynote speech was really inspiring.  I met Julie Andrews!  I caught up with old friends and made some new ones, like Sharee Miller, Jen Betton, and Suzanne Kaufman.  I had a great chat over lunch with the extremely talented Kelly Light.  Kelly introduced me to the very warm and lovely Heidi Stemple, who later introduced me to her mom, Jane Yolen.  (Jane Yolen!!!)  I'm looking forward to reading their book, "Bad Girls" which they both signed for me.  

I visited the amazing New York Public Library and the Met (one of my favorite New York places) and spent a few hours at Books of Wonder where I picked up Oliver Jeffers' "The Heart And The Bottle" and "Shadow" by Suzy Lee.  I had lunch with a good friend at a lovely spot in the West Village called Tea and Sympathy (scones with clotted cream!).  On the flight home I fell asleep before the plane even backed away from the gate.

Now that I'm back in Colorado I'm working on book projects, story ideas, and website updates.  Tomorrow I'm heading to California for a quick Hughes family vacation.  Things are feeling a bit whirlwindy these days... whirlwindy, but exciting.  Did you go to the conference, too?  How was it?  What was your favorite part?

12 comments:

  1. Great photos, and nice summary! I am so happy for Andrea, Lori and Jessixa! So sorry to have missed saying hello to you :( We were certainly at the same places with many of the same people (Met, Books of Wonder, Suzanne, Jessixa, Lori)! Next time! :)

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    1. Hi Elizabeth! I'm so sorry that I missed out on getting to say hello to you, too! Any plans to go to the Summer Conference this year? Maybe we'll meet each other there. :)

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  2. Thanks for the great summary! So happy to catch up with you, Brooke! Hope to see you again soon. Summer conference 2013? :)

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    1. It was great to see you, Maple! I'm definitely going to try to make it to the Summer conference this year. I hope you'll be there too! :)

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  3. The impromptu small group talk with Shaun Tan after the Saturday evening portfolio showing made the whole conference worth it. As did his talk.

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    1. How cool to get to talk with Shaun Tan, Jessica! I'm sorry that I missed out on meeting you. I was happy to see that our portfolios were neighbors! Your work is so lovely! :)

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  4. Thanks for the shout out! It was great meeting you. :)

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    1. It was so nice chatting with you, Sharee! And I really enjoyed looking through your portfolio! :)

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  5. Thanks for the shout out, Brooke! And I'm excited to see you went to the library while you were there too! Isn't it amazing? My favorite part was getting to see the real Pooh Corner dolls in the children's section. Piglet was sooooo tiny and they were all so visibly loved! Great to get to see you again!

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    1. Weren't the Pooh Corner dolls great! It was so fun to hang out with you!

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  6. Glad you have a great time and made so many wonderful connections, Brooke!

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