An Early Update from NESCBWI

I left my camera connector thing at home, so photos will have to wait, but I thought I’d post a quick update from Nashua all the same. (For my mom and others who may not know writer acronyms, NESCBWI stands for New England Society of Children’s  Book Writers and Illustrators.)

Highlights of Day 1:

• Meeting conference co-chairs Anna Boll and Anindita Basu Sempere and other conference organizers at lunch.  Honestly, the organizational abilities of these women has me in awe. And they shared some exciting news about next year’s conference – a new venue and a 21st century theme, "Moments of Change," focusing on the way technology impacts our craft and careers.
• Meeting my agent   in person for the first time! She is just as funny and friendly and smart in real life.  I knew it!
• Seeing writer friends from all over New England, meeting people I’ve only talked with online, and celebrating recent good news with so many of them.  We New England folks are a busy, busy bunch of writers & illustrators!
• Coming back to my hotell room to find an email from a young reader that started out, "I wanted to write and thank you for being an author!!!"  Every sentence in her email had three exclamation points.  It made my day and was a lovely reminder of why we’re all here.

Today:

• I’m so looking forward to Cynthia Lord’s keynote address after breakfast.  She warned us to bring the Kleenex.  This is just trouble for those of us who are known to cry during Folgers coffee commercials.
• Terrific workshops on tap – and I’m wishing I could be everywhere at once!  First stop for me today…Jacqueline Davies’ session called "You Lying Scumbag: The Joys and Perils of Creating an Unreliable Narrator."
• I’m presenting this afternoon as part of a panel on "Everything You’ve Wanted to Know About Agents… But Were Afraid to Ask" along with my agent Jennifer Laughran, Jo Knowles and her agent Barry Goldblatt, and Carlyn Beccia and her agent Tracey Adams. We have a crowd of 80 people signed up for the session, and I bet they’ll have some great questions.
• Then I am going to the conference bookstore, where I will proceed to buy more books that do not fit on my shelves at home.  We need more shelves.
• Then off to dinner with friends at a place with what’s been pitched to me as the best fish & chips ever.  Stop by for the full rundown on unreliable narrators, friends, fish & chips later on….