June | 2015 | Writer Side UP!

I’ve said it many times before and I’ll say it again: KidLit events are WONderful! For me, spending time around kindred spirits, regardless of what we’re doing, is very energizing, uplifting, inspirational and just plain FUN!

I’m a big believer in research and being super-organized for an event of this magnitude and importance (certainly for me), and this year I had the added task of creating a new dummy book. I had less time to do it than I would’ve liked, including the development of 9 characters, but I’m happy to report I did finish and was able to Continue reading →

It’s quite a few years now that I’ve been fortunate enough to attend the June New Jersey SCBWI Conference. For those of you unfamiliar, the SCBWI is the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. I was heavily involved with the organizational end of this spectacular event for several years, and in doing so I created countless charts for the many facets comprising it. At that time we provided each of nearly 300 attendees with a pre-filled Personal Schedule for which I designed a version in—of course—none other than chart form. As is the nature with the passing of the organizational “baton,” things change and with that, the method for providing the personal schedules to the attendees. For the past few years they have been generated by RegOnline, the excellent online registration venue our chapter has been using, and this method does the job accurately and swiftly. Continue reading →