For example, I'm sure the five people speaking on the "First Books" panel (Laen Ghiloni, Shannon Hitchcock, Nicole Lataif, Rob Sanders and Jessica Souders) were chicken, but they got up and made inspiring speeches anyway about the experience of publishing their first books.
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| Shannon Hitchcock telling the touching story of why she dedicated THE BALLAD OF JESSIE PEARL to her son, Alex |
Then we were off to Books and Books in Coral Gables where being chicken wasn't an option. I thanked owner, Mitchell Kaplan, for his wonderful store and for being so supportive of authors. I met with writers/illustrators/editors, etc.
Becky and Aaron from Books and Books operated the bookstore at our conference.
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| Aaron and Becky from Books and Books. This photo was stolen from Augusta Scattergood's blog. |
Saturday was filled with wise words from authors, illustrators, editors and agents. We had the pleasure of hearing Bruce Coville, Rubin Pfeffer, Michael Sterns, Toni Buzzeo, Ellen Hopkins, etc.
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| Here's Bruce Coville, talking about the ripples that extend from what we do. What a wise and witty speaker! |
The evening found us at the Barnyard Stomp. We were dressed as hillbillies, farm animals and even Honey Boo Boo Child.
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| Becca Puglisi, Stacie Ramey, Me, Jill Nadler |
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| Jill Nadler, Fred Koehler and me! |
Sunday workshops included a workshop by Becca Puglisi, who, along with Angela Ackerman, are the authors of The Emotion Thesaurus.
One of the highlights of the excellent workshop was connecting with Augusta Scattergood, author of the highly acclaimed novel, Glory Be.
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| Augusta Scattergood and me, after a long, wonderful conference |
As always, the conference tired me out and energized me. It was GREAT to connect with old friends and make some fine new ones. THANK YOU to Linda Bernfeld and all the people who worked so hard to make this conference so memorable.
My life is far richer for our Florida chidren's literature community!
