SCBWI Conference

Anyone else out there go to the SCBWI conference? There were over a thousand folks, so I may have missed you.

For those who don't know, that's Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. All the members and officers refer to it by spitting out all those letters, "S-C-B-W-I." I shall never understand why they don't just pronounce it "SKIB-wee," like I do.

Anyhow, it was a fun conference. I met lots of nice people, but didn't make a lot of well-placed connections. (There's a big difference between those two things.) The talks by agents and publishers were informative, but I'm not sure how immediately practical. The talks by famous authors were fun, particularly R.L. Stine, who wrote the Goosebumps series. If I'd sold 400 million books, I'd be a barrel of laughs, too.

Unsure whether I'll be going again next year. It seems to be geared toward total newbies, and I guess I'm not one of those. I think I've graduated to second grade in children's publishing!