Are you awake?
That was the subject line of the email in my box early Sunday morning at the New England SCBWI Conference. It was Loree Griffin Burns, summoning me for a hike. She needed some exercise and fresh air and knew a trail nearby. Did I want to come along? I did! I just barely caught Loree in the parking lot, and off we went.
After a few minor wrong turns (we were exploring…we weren’t lost), we climbed to the top of some gorgeous rock ledges.
This little guy joined us to enjoy the view for a little while before his owners caught up to him.
Then it was back to the hotel for Kelly Fineman’s workshop on free verse poetry, which was as interesting and informative as I knew it would be. If you love poetry, Kelly’s blog is the place to be – she’s
I had to sneak out of Kelly’s session the tiniest bit early to get ready for my last presentation of the conference, a panel on blogging with two smart, kind friends, Jo Knowles and Carrie Jones.
The audience members had great questions about blogging, how to balance personal and professional selves online, and dealing with friend requests. (Just for the record, if you are a friendly, nice person, I am happy to be your friend just about anywhere, online or in real life!) I’m in the process of converting our presentation for SlideShare, so it will be available on all of our blogs, along with all the links, later this week.
Overall, the conference was absolutely fantastic, thanks in large part to all the volunteers who made it happen, especially the ever-energetic co-directors, Anindita Basu Sempere and Greg Fishbone. I’m already looking forward to next year!