Last weekend (July 15-17, 2011), six spuds from our "One Potato...Ten" group gathered in Maryland for a SCBWI conference, "Staying On Track." David LaRochelle and his editor, Meredith Mundy of Sterling Children's Books, led the track for picture book writers. Lauren Stringer joined them for the illustrator segment of "Building a Picture Book" and then led an illustrator's track with three hands-on workshop sessions. Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen and her editor, Liz Szabla of Feiwel & Friends, led the track for young adult writers, and John Coy and his agent, Andrea Cascardi of Transatlantic Literary Agency, led the middle grade track. Besty Woods rounded out the weekend with three general creativity sessions for the entire group. What an amazing gathering this turned out to be!
I've been trying to get our spuds to Maryland for SCBWI conferences one by one or in small groups as I can afford, but we had so much fun that we decided a Spud retreat or our very own writing conference presented by all ten of the spuds is in order! What do you think, spuds?
Meredith Mundy speaking to the Picture Book Track
6 comments:
What a wonderful weekend it was! I loved meeting Edie, Stephanie, and Betsy for the first time, and traveling with my fellow Minnesota Spuds, David and John was great. Even with flight cancelations and delays I was in good company!
A gathering of ten Spuds would be fantastic~ I vote for a writer's retreat where we share writing, food, and drink for a weekend~ and each other!
Thanks for the photos Edie, love that porch of yours!
By the way... the missing four spuds were sorely missed by all.
I agree, it was a spectacular weekend. Thank you, Edie, for all the work that you and your SCBWI crew did in organizing everything. Among the many highlights for me were finally getting to meet my editor Meredith Mundy in person, being able to spend some time at Edie's incredible house (words don't do it justice), and getting to know some of the other Spuds better (all wonderful folks!). And we repeatedly wished the other spuds were there. I, too, hope that all ten of us can meet in person for a big potato gathering.
Those pictures bring me back to that great weekend and I'm grateful to Edie for making it happen. Six out of ten spuds was so much fun and I'm up for talking about how we could get ten together. I hope everybody's writing, illustrating, and thinking is going well in this season of deep heat.
Oh, the photographs carry me back to Misty Hill Lodge, the rolling hills and fields of the Claggett Center, and the pure pleasure of shared work and conversation with my fellow spuds! What a stellar conference! A weekend of ten spuds would be wonderful.
Thank you Edie and Doug for your beautiful hospitality!
I wish I could have been sitting on the porch with you all. It looked heavenly!
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