News! I'm the new Twitter Diva for our SCBWI Regional Team!

Our local chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators, the California North/Central Region, has been bidding a fond farewell to longtime regional team members, and welcoming new ones into their positions.

I'm happy to announce that I'm taking over the Twitter Diva (does a tiara come with this title?) position from Bitsy Kemper, who has done a fantastic job of filling the @SCBWINorthCal feed with useful and entertaining content for our regional members.

So if you're not already following, please do so! :)

SCBWI LA Recovery Post

Hopefully by the time this post goes up, I will be back home (I say hopefully because flight delays are being announced as I type) from the SCBWI LA conference. I will do a more in-depth post for next Monday, but for now some pictures of me and writer friends:

First is me and blogger-friend Laurie Dennison from Florida:

This was Laurie's first big conference too, and we reached out to each other in the weeks leading up to it, sharing the things we were nervous about and the things we were excited about. She stayed for the intensive, so hopefully she got some great work done today!

And next up is my critique partner Nancy Ashcraft Herman and our picture with Jay Asher:

and last but not least is a crappy video of the excellent flashmob:


I can say it's crappy because I filmed and edited this version! And Laurie and I also had a picture of us taken in our Hippie Hop getups, but it will have to wait until I get a copy from her phone.
Update: yay, here it is! I painted my arms and everything. Thanks, Laurie, for sharing the photo!

So check back over the next few Mondays and I'll have some serious (well, as serious as it's possible for me to get) takes on the workshops and speakers. Yay, I don't have to think up blog posts for a while!

I'm Going to L.A., Baby!

I found out yesterday that I won our Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrator's regional chapter's grant for the summer conference! Here's the official announcement:

The goal of this contest is to provide monetary assistance to talented CA North/Central members who would not be able to attend the summer conference without it. We received 21 entries this year (five more than last year!) , and the choice proved difficult. In the end our blind judging process turned up three very deserving winners. Please join us in congratulating YA writer Angelica Jackson of Shingle Springs, illustrator Linda Knoll of Modesto, and non-fiction writer Angelica Carpenter of Fresno. They will each receive a grant of $750 toward their LA conference fees. Upon their return, each recipient will share what they learned in our online ACORN. 

I'm so excited, honored, and grateful! I've already registered and booked the hotel, and now I just need to decide whether to drive or fly there.

So who else will be going? Want to meet up at the conference?