rhcrayon: The Blog! - Photos from the 2010 SCBWI Summer Conference are up!!

07:00 am - Photos from the 2010 SCBWI Summer Conference are up!!

Hooray!! Photos from the 2010 SCBWI Summer Conference are up!



Photo credit: Rita Crayon Huang, Copyright ©2010, SCBWI.

You can view the full set of photos in three different places online: at the official SCBWI Flickr photostream (which can also be reached via the SCBWI Web site), at my own Flickr photostream, and on Facebook here. Feel free to tag yourselves in the Facebook album!*

(*Disclaimer: If ever I post a photo you are not 100% comfortable with, let me know and I will pull it immediately, no questions asked. I am here to be your friend!)

As always, you are all invited to use these photos on your own blogs, Web sites, etc. Please credit the photographer whenever you use images; in this case, me, Rita Crayon Huang. I love being able to contribute to SCBWI in this way.

This year's SCBWI Summer Conference was magical and magnificent. Highlights for me included Jon Sciezska's talk on multimedia; M.T. Anderson's talk on "Literary Experiment in Books for Children"; Rubin Pfeffer's riveting call to action as the world of book publishing changes; Rachel Vail—whose books I discovered several months ago and who is a master of Voice—speaking on Voice; and Ashley Bryan—whose books I'd already bought in stacks to give to friends—altering my understanding of reading poetry aloud forevermore. And getting to hang out with great friends, and meeting new, fantastic, creative people.

Actually, Ashley Bryan changed what I now have to tell people when I give out his books. I'm glad I heard him speak first!!

And here are a few momentos (sic) from this year's conference that are just for me, that were not included in the "official" set linked above.


Jon Scieszka's autograph in my copy of The Stinky Cheese Man and other Fairly Stupid Tales. In college my friends and I used to gather 'round in my dorm room and read The Stinky Cheese Man and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs out loud to each other, cracking each other up. Doing voices!


M.T. Anderson singing the state song of "Fair Delaware"


M.T. Anderson and me at the Heart and Soul Celebration Poolside Gala. (Photo by Lee with my camera. Thanks, Lee!)


Getting to wear my red boots at this year's poolside gala! Bright red suede with black, criss-cross laces! (Photo by Tony with my camera. Thanks, Tony!)

I've owned these boots my whole life* but have never figured out how to wear them, even though every time I've pulled them out of my closet and looked at them again, they are the greatest thing ever.

(*if I was 15 years old)

So this year, since the party's theme color was red, I designed a whole outfit around them. I was going for 80s rocker glam, and in my mind I pictured long, black, stretchy jeans with stirrups tucked into the boots. This was as close as I got.


And here I am winning a door prize at the very end of the conference, just for attending!! Woody Allen once said "80% of success is showing up." Door prizes are the epitome of "success" based on showing up, and I feel inordinately encouraged for having won this. (Thanks, Sara, for grabbing my camera and getting this shot of me dancing across the stage!)

Did I tell you that when M.T. Anderson signed my copy of Whales on Stilts, he looked at my nametag and was suddenly like, "Oh! Congratulations on winning your prize!" That happened two hours after my name had been announced amongst a slew of other winners, in a ballroom of over 1,000 attendees! How can that man be so connected to everything going on??

Finally, here is a happy ending to the conference for those of us close to Sara Wilson Etienne, beloved member of one of my writing groups. The announcement of her first book sale—in a two-book deal to Putnam/Penguin—came out in Publishers Weekly the Monday morning of the conference! Here she is sharing it with us at day's end.


Read the official announcement on PW here. Then congratulate Sara at her blog here!

HOORAY! Huzzah!!! May we all journey so happily!!

Cheers, everyone!

Rita


Image of Rescue Rita shown during Jon Sciezska's opening keynote. From Jon Sciezska's Truck Town, illustrated by David Shannon, Loren Long, and David Gordon.