SCBWI Conference * NYC * Team Blog

Feb 4

Ah, I miss it already.

All of it: SCBWI, the friends, the city, my team.

Before I get to all my potentially boring personal stuff...if you missed the Official Conference Blog, you can find it HERE!

Let me know if you hung out with us (online) while our fingers flew from the conference floor. Or if you plan to check it out. I really do want to know. (I still remember being glued to Alice's lone coverage last year, attempting to pretend I was at the conference.)

This is truly a Dream Team to work with...

I'm mean, really! Look at how happy we all look at the end of it all. (From left to right: Lee Wind, Suzanne Young, Jaime Temairik, Alice Pope, and me.)

It always seems that when I get home, I think, I didn't take enough pictures. I didn't get one with her. Or him. Or that!

But I did get one with HER!

Yes, that is the funny and warm Libba Bray, otherwise known as the Super Vixen (the way she requested to be referred to when I blogged her keynote...in her wonderful Libba-way)! Now that we are on speaking terms, Libba and I, I will think of her as my newest and shiniest friend. Look at how our hair is in perfect harmony, swooshing in sync. That must mean something, right? Our hair does sprout just above our brains.

And because Libba told me to go and try this fudge, so I did...

I went with my buddy Lee Wind. Why-oh-why didn't I get a photo with HIM. Lee is behind the camera here. He got some joe for Cuppa Jolie. Ahh! I love that guy.

But wait! I'm getting ahead of myself.

REWIND

Jaime and I took a red eye out of Seattle on Wednesday night and arrived to snow falling in NYC(brrr!). Thursday was the day of our 10 Food Truck Tour with a very cool foodie blogger friend. And yes, we ate at 10 food trucks, getting one item per truck, sharing it between the three of us. It took us over two hours. Our fingers were cold, but our tummies were happy.

My favorite...the Belgium waffle with fudge and fresh strawberries. The only way I can describe it: chewy, sugary, fudgy, strawberry yumminess...it stayed on my mind the whole trip. I wish I could have made it back for another and another and another.

Just LOOK at it. I miss you, Waffle!!!!

Friday brought on the Writer's Intensive. It's well named because it is an intense treat. I highly recommend it if you ever attend the winter conference. Here's a photo of my first group. Look how happy everyone looks (hardly intense).

Friday was a fun, happy day that ended at the SCBWI cocktail party.

Here's Jenn Bailey doing the Cuppa pose with me. You can read the blog post of her breakout session HERE.

And then there was the always beautiful Esther Hershenhorn.

Jaime, Lee, and I had a great bloggy chit-chat with her. You can read about it at the wonderful Teaching Authors Blog.

Then it was off to kidlit drink night, but I was missing my party pants that night, so I didn't close down the place with the others. (Note-to-self: remember to pack an extra pair of party pants for the next conference.)

The main reason for being at the conference was for SCBWI Team Blog, and although we all blogged a bit on Friday, the real work started on Saturday. Can I call it work? Well, yeah, it's work, but work I love, so it's fan-flipping-tastic.

But there as some down time. Like the Saturday luncheon. I enjoyed a table with several people from Western Washington. Like Jennifer Mann and Stasia Kehoe.

And SCBWI WWA's fearless leaders Laurie Thompson and Joni Sensel.

The lovely Kim Baker was there, too. (How'd she miss a photo-op? Wait. No. She didn't. There she is. You see? That one, behind her hands...that's Kim.)

Can you tell what a great table we had? Just look the smiles those ladies brought to our faces.

After a full day of conference-going and blogging, it was time for a night out with friends. I celebrated my anniversary with Ann Haywood Leal (our special friendship started at this very conference three years before).

Ann and I take a Cuppa photo.

After dinner and wine, what does a group need next? CUPCAKES AND MORE WINE!

Look at the seriousness taken to find the correct route to get to Sweet Revenge. (A place that pairs cupcakes with wine and beer. That can't be missed!)