So, I'm back from the conference. Below you'll find my wrap-up, links and sketches. It was inspiring, creative and an awesome networking oppurtunity, same as last year.

The biggest glitch (besides a minorly major tidbit below) was my inability to navigate around New York. I have been to the big city a few times now and one would think I had learned the ins and outs of transportation. That would be a poor assumption. I was cursed, ditsy and just unlucky when it came to the various transportation venues available from Queens to Manhattan. Everyday I discovered a new way to enrage the transportation gods and ensure I was either late, lost or paying an arm and leg. Read more and tell me you don't agree.

Friday:
Transportation: I woke up early Friday morning, cuddled the Pud and walked to the subway in Queens. No problem, easy peasy. Got lost under Grand Central but asked the right person where to go and eventually found my way out of the building. It was 8:30 ish it took a bit of time to get a cab. I was quite pleased with my cab-catching ability. I simply walked up to a cab at a stop sign and used various hand gestures to see if he was available. He was so I and slid in the back seat ready to roll. Fast forward to a lot of traffic, a meter that was going higher than expected and a cyclist bumping into the car and knocking off the mirror and I start to get a little stressed. My blood pressure continued to rise as the driver and cyclist got into a screaming/punching match through the driver's window while I sit in the back seat stunned into inaction. The driver finally goes forward, cutting across four lanes of traffic trying to kill the cyclist while apoligizing to me at the same time. He then pulls over 5 blocks from the Hilton and starts yelling to a cop. I sensibly decide to get out of the car, hand the cabby the fare as he continues to yell and I walk to the hotel. I call my husband and repeat some of the language I had just heard while describing my feelings toward cab drivers.


Onto the conference:

I'm late, grab a coffee and muffin and slink into Mac Cool's discussion of Graphic novels. Very well presented history of the graphic novel and beautiful examples of techniques, compositions and progression of the craft make me calm down a bit. I try to balance my portfolio, coat, scarf, gloves, coffee, muffin and sketchbook so I am not able to take notes. I get inspired just listening to the talk and dream of making a quirky graphic novel featuring crime fighting grandmas.

I spot Heather at the end of the talk, give her a hug and share my morning trivals. I also get to meet the adorable Roz, Sweet Patrice and bubbly Laura Logan. I get around to looking at my schedule see that my next session is with G. Brian Karas and get very excited. I have his website saved and often look at it for his simply drawn but amazing chacaters.

I am lucky to share this session with Laura and Heather Laura has a beautifully soft, gentle style. She is also bubbly and warm and a mother to a 4 year old so we bond. Heather uses simple, quirky shapes wonderfully and has a similar sense of humor so I thourougly enjoy this session. Brian gives a slide show and presention first. He advises us to know our characters. Know their history, what happened to them they day before and know them inside and out. Give them personality through their limbs, outfits and expressions. This doesn't mean they have to be complicated. He shows many examples of simply drawn characters that convey a lot of personality.



The assignment was given to create a mini dummy based on a letter of the alphabet. I get L so I sketch a story about Louie is gets lost. Brian is very down to earth and kind and walks around the room helping out with flow, composition, whatever we need.

We break for lunch and I wander around until I meet a reginal advisor and John Shelly who is a British illustrator living in Japan.

After lunch, I head back into Brian's class, work on the dummy some more. After the session is over, I head out into the hallway feeling a bit forlorn that I hadn't found my conference buddy Dee. I am lucky enough to bump into Ruth , author /illustrator of Ellie McDoodle and creator of the best sketchbook of the NY conferences. A few minutes later Dee pops around the corner, we squeal and we head to the next session with David Diaz. I also bumped into Amy Farrier, whom I know though illustration friday as Dahlgirl.

For this session, we were given an assignment a few months prior to the conference to complete a 3-4 dummy spread with the same character. I chose my Grump book and stuggled mightly with one of the paintings. We have a sort of group critique. David (who is super laid back with a great sense of humor) gives me a few technique tips that I desperatly need.

Next up is Betsy Lewin, illustrator for Click, Clack, Moo Cows that type. She gives a great talk, shows up a bit of her process, work space, work day and past illustrations.


Transportation: It is time to head out so I head out into the cold. I was intially going to take a cab to Grand Central but decide to take the subway instead. I get tremendously lost but with the help of my brother-in-law I get on a train heading south. I get off after one stop, wander around a bit more, find a kind stranger, avoid a British red-coat mime and get to GC. From there I wander around until I find the main hall, ask when the next train is heading to Stamford CT. (for hommade indian food, yum). I forget which track I am told, ask again when I buy my ticket and get directed to the wrong track. I don't realize I'm on the wrong train until I get very comfortable and hear the final boarding call listing the stops. I don't hear mine, so I ask a few people, get different answers so I get off the train. After a bit more wandering around, I find a conducter who points me in the direction of the right train. I arrive a bit late but feel pleased that I am able to somewhat navigate (survive) the subway.

Saturday:

I wake up a bit late and am lucky that my brother-in-law is kind enough to drop me off at the hotel. I drop my showcase submission, cards and easel off and head to the main ballroom. I mee Dee and start to look for Johanna Wright. We have e-mailed and swapped before and I am looking forwrd to meeting her in person. We had agreed on a general meeting place but the area is swamped. I approach a lady with long dark hair and find out it's not who I'm looking for but am lucky enough to be overheard by Johanna. We gather our things and head into the ballroom for the first speech.

Linn Olver welcomes everyone and gets people pumped and laughing with her great sense of humor. Then Susan Cooper ,author speaks and advises us to read, read, read for the sake of your imigination, use your subconcious hauntings to inspire your writing and keep a notebook of ideas and look at it frequently. A note on rejections, her first book was rejected by 23 publishers.
Susan Cooper

We then go to our break-out sessions. I ended up in Mass Market for Writers (I think I meant to choose YA) and learn a lot about what mass market really is. There is no advice given for illustrators but it is an intersting lecture nonetheless.

I meet up with Johanna and Dee for the luncheon and we get to hear Ann Brashares, author of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series. (yes, she does wear jeans) She talks about bringing humor into tweens lives, dealing with all aspects of the emotional spectrum and knowing when to end a series.

Time for our second Break-out session. This one is picture books for illustrators. It becomes a question and answer session covering a lot of the basics of publishing. It was a bit frustrating to only hear about things that can be learned from a publishers' web-site or in a book but the art director was very kind and is someone I would like to send my work too.


Next is the market panel consisting of one of the owners of Bytes, Books and Beyond, and buyers from Borders and Barnes and Noble. I expected to be bored but it was interesting to hear the marketing/buying side of the business. I meet Andi Carter who has a great graphic style on her card and opening page.
We had a surprise appearance by Jane Yolen who talked about how to love revision.

It was almost time for the Showcase and I was dragging my feet just a bit. I had no aspirations of winning but knew I would still be a bit bummed at not being chosen for the final 10. Well, it turns out that the procedure had changed and the winners would not be announced until Sunday and there would be three winners instead of a top ten narrowing down into three. (I went with Granny and the Grump, thank you so much to everyone who gave me their opinion)

Now that I knew I didn't have a chance, I decided to scope out the competition. I breezed through the aisles completly impressed by artists like Avi Katz, Mary Peterson, Sarah Stern, Lisa Fields and Stacey Previn to name just a few.

Then I came to my painting. There it sat, waiting to be judged by my peers, editors and art directors. Only, it had the wrong name. Yes, the wrong name, the wrong name, and the wrong buisness cards. I think I sqeaked, gasped and squealed that that was not my name. I located an advisor, she pointed me to a nice guy (sorry nice guy, thanks for your help, but i forgot your name) who was prepared to create a make-shift name tag for me. Luckily, Johanna had been thinking clearly and had looked around until she found my name. We switched the paintings to the correct name places and business cards and I tried to calm down. (the other artist walked up about this time and discovered the snafu).


So, I was a little freaked. But I was (lucky for me) one of the first people through the line so hopefully my dream editor/art director didn't pick up the wrong buisness cards. I meandered around the conference some more and met Kristen Darbyshire. She was the winner of the Showcase two years ago and is extremly nice and funny so buy her book.

Transportation:
The showcase wrapped up around 7:30 and I headed home. Johanna (a former native) gave me excellent intructions on how to take a cab home succesfully. Despite her adivse, I ended up getting into a private car and almost bursting into tears when the ride turned out to be thirty dollars more than it should have been. At this point, I really missed DC.

Sunday:

Transportation:
The hubby dropped me off at the subway. (the closest station was closed) I got on the right train. I just got off a stop too early. I found myself standing on a streecorner at 8:30 on a Sunday morning with no one in sight. I never knew New York could look so empty. Relying on my expierence of asking strangers for directions, I stop the first friendly looking lady. (I always ask women it seems) Turns out it is Dianne de La Casas who I heard give a wonderful story performances at the conference last year and who won the LA "Idol" Conference contest in August of 2005 . She is hilarious and after stopping to ask for directions we make our way to the conference.

Once again I meet Johanna and Dee and we find seats near Ruth and Heidi. The winners of the showcase are announced and it was for Wilson Swain for third place, Lisa Falkenstern for second and John Rocco for first. I had met John at the conference last year and chatted with him and his lovely wife Aileen and even cuter baby at the showcase. The Tomie de Paola awards were announced and Brian Gerrity received the gift certificate and Tomie gave special notice to my online pal Roz and Patrice.

The first speaker was Brian Selznick, author/illustrator of The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He talked about using the form of the book to deliver the story. He showed some wonderful examples from his latest book where he uses the turning pages to create suspense and a sense of time.


Break for Brunch and to look at the Publishers displays then back to the ballroom.

The last speaker was Katherine Patterson, author of Bridge to Terabithia. She talked about how there are no guarentees, how we need to dare failure and mediacritoty. She reminded writers that they are the only people who can tell their stories truthfully and beautifully. She was truly inspiring and I nearly cried when she told the basis of her book. If you ever have the chance to go see her speak, go.

transportation: let's just wrap this one up by saying that if anyone tells you to meet them at the jefferson heights station note that the sign says roosevelt stop in the large letters you can see from the train.

So, all in all a wonderful expierence. I think I'm ready for LA.....maybe next year.

Katherine Patterson

Labels: SCBWI Conference