All Booked Up

Last weekend, I had the joy of attending the Florida SCBWI Conference in Miami.

Here I am with Riley Roam in front of some of the decorations created by incredibly talented Kimberly Lynn.

Field trip! Friday night, we enjoyed an outing to the fab independent bookstore, Books & Books in Coral Gables. Here I am with my fab agent, Tina Wexler from I.C.M. (It took the Jaws of Life to extract us from the bookstore . . . oh, actually it was dinner at a Cuban restaurant.)

Lest you think no actual work took place at the conference, here's a shot from the "First Page Critiques" panel. Experts read and critiqued the first pages of attendees' manuscripts. From left to right: Tina Wexler, agent from I.C.M., Alexandra Cooper, editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, Liz Waniewski, editor at Dial Books for Young Readers, Joyce Sweeney, author of thirteen novels for young adults and Arthur Levine, publisher of Arthur A. Levine Books and a vice president of Scholasitc, Inc.
Many talented authors, illustrators, agents and editors spoke. Mark Teague showed us his illustrations for an upcoming picture book. Lisa Yee had us laughing and learning. And Linda Sue Park taught us to "try it" when it comes to playing with your writing. Other wonderful speakers informed and inspired the crowd of 140 attendees.

Me, looking dorky, with a stack of my books.

My signing table buddy was Danette Haworth. Check out her new book -- Violet Raines Almost Got Struck by Lightening.

Paul May and I clown around at the "Big Top" dinner party.

And a little more clowning around with Linda Marlow, Kenny Mikey, Riley Roam, me and Daniel Rousseau. (Don't I have big feet?) Thanks to Janeen Mason, fortune teller, and picture taker extraordinaire.

This coming weekend, it's off to Bookmania (pdf file) at the Blake Library in Stuart, Florida!

If you're in the area, please stop by. There will be lots of great authors who write for adults. And the children's book author segment, Kidsmania, takes place from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday and will feature: Suzy Hammer (as The Bookworm), Marianne Berkes, Jan Day, Janeen Mason, Moi and Riley Roam with Kenny Mikey as they perform The Great Pizza Contest.

I'd love it if you were able to stop by and say hi!