Tuesday, May 19, 2009

SCBWI Western Washington Conference

I left you on Friday starving. So off I went for the weekend to Feed my Genius. And what a weekend it was. And feast I did! Yes...I returned stuffed (full of fun, great info, witnessed talent, and the joy of friends)!

A favorite part of any conference is reuniting with friends from near and far and making new ones.

Suzanne Young came to town. Look at her, all cute-like, in her surprise-here-I-am way! Does the girl EVER take a bad photo? I suppose it's impossible with a smile like that.


And this girl's talent goes far beyond being able to write a dozen novels in one night. She has the impressive ability to take a self-photo AND make it look good. She should be on the new reality show called America's Next Top Model when You're Your Own Photographer.

Here's Suzanne photographing half of SCBWI Team Blog! (Me, Jaime, and Suzanne)


And here's the photo she took (swiped from Suzanne)!


What about the new friends? Yes, what about them. Here's one!

Jennie! (You should check out her winning news.)It was so cute when I met her. I introduced myself and she said, "Hey! Are you Jolie of Cuppa Jolie?" That was pretty cool and I was surprised by the number of times reading my little ole blog came up with others a t the conference...even from one of the editors. It's kind of funny because so often (even though I realize that there are many of you out there I don't know) I'm just thinking my buddies, grandpa, and mother-in-law are reading. You know what I mean?

The faculty was unbelievable! Really. Don't believe me? Then take a look HERE!
Here are a few of my favorite quotes from the weekend:

Jon Scieszka talking about the process of writing and getting published: "What a long-ass process this is." and "It's not magic. It's like digging ditches. It's hard."

Then later, I had the pleasure of planning a marketing strategy with him for Suzanne's NAUGHTY LIST series. Here we are (again swiped from Suzanne...that's Sara, Jon, Suzanne, me)...
A couple other quotes:

Adam Rex: "Said is like blue jeans and you should all write that down." He was speaking about the tag said's ability to go with anything, just blend in and be unnoticed.

Patrick Jennings: "The motor of writing is question."

After Patrick's session it was funny when people asked, "Do you really eaves drop, I mean write, in the same coffee shop?" And, yes, we do!

Nancy Pearl: She said the first line of her memoir might be, "I went to Mukilteo to get digitized." Can you imagine being ask to go somewhere in order to be digitized? But then again, how many of us will ever get the chance to be action figures. Too cool! And let me just say this about the wonderful Nancy Pearl, she is one hundred percent delightful!

And now I ask myself, "Where was MY camera? Why didn't I take a photo with Adam (in his jeans) and Patrick and Nancy and so many others?" I learned a lesson from Suzanne and will have my camera ready to go for the L.A. conference.

But here are a couple more photos of the fun...

Me between two baby bumps (Sara's and Laini's). Too cute.

And hanging out with best-seller and Golden Kite winner BonnyBecker.


Very Full. Very Happy!

6 comments:

Jennifer K. Mann said...

Hi Jolie.
Great post, great blog! I've been a lurker for a while, now I am a public follower. Hope that doesn't mean the FBI will show up at my door.
Thanks for your kind words.
See you soon, I'm sure.

Kirby Larson said...

I was so thinking the same thing about Suzanne -- it's not fair that she can be so dang cute and talented and nice, all rolled up in one.

It was fun seeing the conference through your eyes!

holly cupala said...

Don't forget, you got the radical new 'do! It was great to hang out this weekend and see all your pics! xo

Jennie Englund said...

How could I NOT know you, Jolie?

So wished we had a little more time in Washington. Okay, a lot more time.

In a year or two, you'll be up there with your Power Point, showing us all the Cuppa Success Story!

Julie Reinhardt said...

I've been a long-time lurker, too, Jolie. Now that I have a blog, I understand how important it is to leave comments. Otherwise we can feel like we're talking to ourselves out here :).

Suzanne Young said...

OMG I LOVE YOU!