Day 5 Monday August 10th

SCBWI 2009 Conference day 4

Day 4 of the conference started off with a key note by Dinah Stevenson:

May the 4 C’s Be With You: An Editor Suggests Strategies for Hard Times
Creativity: imagination, thoughts, what if’s, making stuff up.
Be brave enough to live creatively.
Creativity is something you do, not something you search for outside yourself.
It is an endless journey to discover yourself. The work of art is what you do after you find yourself.
Saying what you mean in your own way is being creative.
Write something only you can create.
Craft: craft resides in the details.
Community: never let anyone tell you that reading is not important.
Chocolate: you are doing a difficult job and for that you deserve a reward.

And after a very short break was followed by the wonderful Ingrid Law the author of Savvy which sold out before I could get a copy.

Writing Magic: From the Head to the Heart
Put everything you experience into your work because it is a part of who you are.
Wrote savvy after her previous book’s 45 rejections.

I was so captivated by her story I forgot to write much of anything down. She is a fantastic storyteller.

After the morning key notes I went to another of Steven Malk’s sessions:

What to Expect When You’re Expecting: An Agents Guide from Query Letter to Published Book
Writers House is one of the largest independent agencies in the world.
His grandmother opened one of the first children’s book stores in the world in South Africa called the White Rabbit.
Slow down- rushing will never ever help you. Think about your career as a whole not about getting the project out there before it’s ready.
Understand that all your decisions will have consequences.
Always right a personal letter not a form letter.
Don’t leave anything to chance.
Focus on what you can control.
Make everything you can is flawless.
Don’t let anyone else outwork you.
Query letters: make them count.
What made them [the agent or editor] seem like the right person to send your letter too.
Query Letters should not be more than a page.
You need to make sure the agent accepts multi sub queries and state that you are doing so in the letter.
If one person picks you give the others a chance to make an offer as well even if you still go with the first person.
He likes the phone more than email.
Three types of deals:
The publisher takes advantage of the author/artist and the creator walks away feeling resentful.
Both sides walk away happy.
The publisher walks away feeling bullied.
Understand everything that is in your contract.
Strike the balance between the eager author and the over eager author.
Make stores aware of your book before it comes out.
Start with regional book stores and organizations and work outward when starting to build networks.
Your book will succeed over time not right away.
Don’t obsess over your Amazon rating.
Everything you do has a long standing effect.
Your hard work will pay off.
Publishers said All in a Day was too Californian but it got a lot of blog coverage and is now the writers first best seller

After lunch I went to Susan Sherman’s session:

The Publishing Process: An Overview of the Design & Art Direction Process
Walter Lorraine discovered Katrina Hyman
Computers liberated design
They read everything as it comes in.
Good manuscripts circulate around to everyone.
They work on the book as a team; art director, editor, author and illustrator.
They look to illustrators to expand the manuscript.
She likes receiving emails with a line about yourself and a few low rez attachments and link to website.
Art circulates around the office much the same way as the manuscripts.
The characters are more important that anything on a cover.
She starts with kooky fonts first then refines them till she finds the one that’s perfect.

After that we had our final key note by Kathleen Duey:

Transmutation: Books that Matter
Write down conversations you had at the conference.
Go back and annotate your notes.
When you go home go through the business cards of those you met and write down things about them. Contact everyone who gave you a card and thank them for talking to you.
Stay in touch with the people you met here.
Put quotes on the wall that people said here at the conference that meant something to you.
“We write by the light of all the books we have read.” Richard Peck
“All cultures teach their young through story.”

After all the wonderful sessions and key notes were done I went to collect my big back of books then have signed and meet some of the people who had meant a lot to me growing up.

I got to meet Karen Cushman whom I had wanted to meet since I was 12. I am dyslexic and reading was very difficult for me when I was young. I actually hated read a lot until in the 7th grade we read the Midwife’s Apprentice. I absolutely loved the book and historical fiction and went on to read her other books on my own. Thanks to her I now love reading, read every day, not because I have to but because I want to. We also own 7 book cases over flowing with books. I got hard covers of my favorites of hers The Midwife’s Apprentice and Catherine Called Birdy signed and soft covers signed for my two little cousins.

Next I got to meet Holly Black and tell her how fantastic her speech was. I was just going to take a picture of her but she insisted we take a picture together. So here’s us leaning over the table. Oddly enough the Spiderwick book they had for sale at the SCBWI book store was the same one I had brought from home. I did however have to pre movie copy of the Field Guide.

After Holly Black I went to get my copy of Terrible Things signed by Eve Bunting.

While having a friend hold my place I ran over to have Sherman Alexie sign a copy of his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian before he left. His speech was so compelling I am greatly looking forward to reading his book.

I also got to meet David Wiesner whom I have wanted to meet since I was 8 and Tuesday came out. Like I said before reading was extremely hard for me so his wordless picture books were some of my favorite books. I managed to find a hard copy of Tuesday at a Borders half an hour from me so I got that signed along with hard copies of The Three Pigs, Sector 7 and Flotsam.

After waiting in David’s impossibly long line I had just enough time to catch Ingrid Law before she felt. I told her how fantastic I thought her verbal storytelling was and that I would have had her sign a copy of her book for me if they hadn’t sold out before I could get one. Savvy is next on my list of books I need to go pick up.

With my trove of signed books in tow I went to meet up with my boy friend in the lobby and found out they had been filming an episode of Lie to Me all day in the pool/bar area. We hung out for awhile to let traffic get less hectic and then headed out to or next hotel in Anaheim. On the way we saw someone cruising down the freeway in their Tesla Roadster. We got to our nice comfy hotel and got to watch to fireworks from Disneyland. And for the first time in many weeks I actually got to relax.

All the people I met at the conference were awesome and I hope you all keep in touch!

For more photos & video from the conference feel free to visit my FaceBook

Disneyland, Tar Pits, SCBWI & Adam Rex

Back from vacation. It feels a little weird to be back and the weather is so much cooler here. In the coming days I will upload my trip photos to my photobucket and the videos to somewhere. I’ll also be updating my site with new artwork so keep on checking back.
Here’s a day by day vacation recap:

Day 1:
We drove down to Palmdale where one of my mom’s sister’s lives hung out and watched Vantage Point.

Day 2:
We watched Ever After, The Eye and August Rush and I finished making things for the SCBWI LA conference.

Day 3:
We got up at 5:30am packed everything into the car and drove to Disneyland. My mom’s other sister brought two of her daughters and we ended up with about 12 or so people. We got to watch the Jedi Academy show during lunch and Aleric pointed out the inaccuracies in it and the fact that Darth Vader would have demolished all the kids in reality. We went on Indian Jones which promptly broke twice while we were on it. The ride’s just not as cool with the lights on and the snake was broken. We got stuck in the dark in the part where the jeep stalls while surrounded by bats or mice (it’s hard to tell which). It was hysterical because the jeep would rumble and buck and the things would squeak but it wouldn’t continue. They did however let us go on a second time but the ride seemed to break after that and didn’t work the rest of the time we were there or the next day for that matter. We then went on Pirates, I had been worried that they would take out my favorite part. Don’t ask me why but as a kid my fav thing in the whole park was the parrot that talks to you in the line of Pirates of the Caribbean. They had replaced the old one with a parrot that was closer in color to the one from the movie and much more lifelike. He was canned awesome so I took a video clip. When the park was about to close we went back to my other aunts home in Luguna Hills.

Day 4:
We are in the parking lot of Disneyland waiting for the tram when I notice that all the rides in California Adventure Park suddenly screech to a halt as the ground begins to sway. The surrounding cars begin to bounce and the air fills with alarms sounding. Yes I happened to be at Disneyland when the earthquake hit on Tuesday the 29th. We finally get in and try to walk down Main Street as the Mass Exodus fights to break us apart. I have never seen so many people flooding out of anything. Everywhere people seem to be having no luck with cell phones (they didn’t work for 2 hours). We get to and ask the girl at Star Tours when she thinks the rides may reopen, of course she has no idea. We end up sitting in the shade in front of the Tiki Room eating pineapple whips. A lady from Canada voices her surprise that all the buildings didn’t fall down and we have to explain the California building code to her. All the rides a closed for about 3 hours and then only some reopened. We ended up sitting outside Space Mountain under a tree and talking to this cool guy Brad Stone about art, and life. The only rides we actually got on the day were The Jungle Cruise and the Hall of Innovations which isn’t so much a ride as a moving room of canned awesome. We got to see the worlds move advanced AI and yes I got a video clip which I’ll post soon. Though I tried really hard to find her at Fantasmic I never did find my friend Brianna, I blame the earthquake. We finally left the park with these goodies in tow: 2 plush keychain Stitch’s, 2 Stitch as Emperor Palpatine action figures, a Squirt the turtle plush keychain, an Apprentice Mickey car antenna topper, a Star Wars Clone Pilot Republic Gunship and At-at that turn into transformers, a green Tinkerbelle “Little Miss Sassy” t-shirt and a build your own Lightsaber (which I built and proceeded to carry around the rest of the time we were there) that lights up blue and makes noise.

Day 5:
Aleric surprises me by taking me to the La Brea Tar Pits which somehow I forgot was even in California. It’s a pretty cool place if you find museums fun (which I do). It’s kinda weird since it’s a green park with a giant lake of tar surrounded by sky scrapers but hey that have Saber Toothed cats! In fact they have the largest collection of Ice Age bones in the world, an observation room and working pit where you can see Paleontology students wallowing around in tar muck. When we were done we drove back but stopped to drive down the street I was named after, Alicia pkwy. Every time we would go visit my aunt, my mom would point it out but somehow we just never drove down it. For someone with an uncommon name it’s a little weird to see your name on everything. We got back and worked on making banners. My aunt owns a scrapbooking store (among other things) that also had printing services one of which was banner printing. Though the store is closing they still have the printing equipment and so KatGirl Studio now has a 89inx33in retractable banner. If you’re looking for a banner for shows or cons for $250 (half the price of other companies) I can hook you up. I finish my art first and decide to go out and pet Hot Shot their miniature horse (apparently completely different than a pony) who lives in a cute little corral in their backyard. He’s almost the size of my parents German Sheppard and also gets taken for walks in the evening.

Day 6:
We pack up everything and head to my aunts store to get the banners printed. It’s sad that when I actually get to see it its closing, then again I haven’t seen them in about a decade so. Aside from the banners, they bestow upon me a bunch of gifts they make or import. Which I’ll share with you all later. After we go back and get the banners assembled we head out to Beverly Hills were the conference is being held and check into our inn thing. Not to complain but I wouldn’t recommend the place since the air conditioner was loud the shower was badly lit and poorly designed and the parking garage was a pain to maneuver through and we have a Honda Fit, I don’t even want to think what it would have been like in a normal car or hell an SUV.

And because this is an incredibly long post already I’ll post the Conference half on Monday =^.^=