April Showers, May Flowers, and June Writing!

Wow - June is normally filled with graduations, end-of-school parties, report cards, track and getting ready for the beach.  But this year, in addition to all those happy events, June was filled with two fantastic writing events.  I had the pleasure of attending the Highlights Foundation "Concentrated Course in Nonfiction".  Peter Jacobi led a terrific workshop packed with information on how to interview your subject, bibliographies, writing magazine articles and much more.  The three days were filled with wonderful meals, meeting the Highlights staff, discussing ideas, country living, and long walks through the woods.  We each had our own cabin surrounding the "Barn".  This is country living at its best!  Everyone I know who has attended on of the various Highlights workshops has all good things to say about the experience.  And I can't say enough about the Highlights folks - every one of them is gracious, professional and down-to-earth.  Kent Brown has built a great new facility to encourage and develop aspiring authors and those perfecting their craft.  Check out the Highlights writing workshops and put it on your bucket list for this year. 

The next weekend I jumped right into the SCBWI-NJ conference in Princeton, NJ.  Kathy Temean, Regional Advisor, really knocked herself out this time!  Over 300 attendees, 30 editors/agents, numerous publishing houses and literary agencies and scores of workshops.  Keynote speaker was Kate DiCamillo, author of Because of Winn-Dixie.  Workshops ranged from the basic "How to Write a Query Letter" to "Developing Your Book Into an App". I followed the nonfiction track and participated in workshops on What is a Book Packager?,  Making a Living as a Freelance Writer, Creating Apps for Your Book, and Meeting Academic Standards.  Check out Kathy Temean's blog for interviews with the editors/agents who attended the conference and a summary of the workshops.  We all left feeling inspired and spent the rest of June writing!