My Mini Vacation!

I have always wanted to write childrens books. I finally bit the bullet one day a couple of months ago and started to write and write and write. I finished a really cute story and was excited to take the next step with it and send it off to an editor. So I took a field trip to Barnes And Noble and spent way too much $ buying all that I could on publishing childrens books. One of the books directed me to The Society Of Children's Book Writers And Illustrators (SCBWI) where I promptly signed up to attend one of their confrences. It happened to be in Conway Arkansas which is only 2 hours away! So off I went on April 11th! All by myself. Thank goodness for the GPS!! Here is me taking a picture of me in my hotel room. Actually it was a motel room and kind of scarry. Thats what you get when you choose the cheapest on Expedia. Germ-A-Phobic me will NEVER do that again! I was so excited to be away from my children for the first time EVER. After the first nights classes I went and ordered take out and brought it back to the motel to eat it in bed while watching T.V. How fun does that sound? I was so excited to sleep a whole night without a baby crawling into bed and kicking me all night long. The sad thing is.........I only got 3 hours of sleep. Looser me was so homesick for my family. I could NOT sleep at all!!! What the heck???
I was mostly looking forward to my manuscript being read by an editor. This is a picture of the editor that read my story. Her name is Lisa Graff. She is an editor for Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She is also an author as well. Her new book is called The Life and Crimes of Bernetta Wallflower. I saw it at a book fair and wanted to get it for Jaycee. I did get it at the conference and had Lisa sign it. To get published it almost impossible! They explained that in each publishing house each editor gets around 150-200 manuscripts a day! They put them all in a "slush" pile and mabe they will read a few. Lisa's publishing house only puts out 20-50 books a year. There is a 1 in 10,000 chance of getting published! Most publishing houses are closed to writers who are not being represented by an agent. the awesome thing is that being a member of the SCBWI you get to meet the editors in person and in my case make some friends. Lisa wants me to fix a couple of things with my story and send it back to her! So I will not be put into the dreaded "slush pile." I also met a big-wig for National Geographic Kids, Jennifer Emmett, and told her of my idea for a biography, she wants me to send it in to her as soon as I get it done. National Geographics doors are closed to authors who do not have agents. And she wants me to send something to her! So the contacts were awesome!


I also met Melanie Hope Greenberg. She is an Author and an Illustrator. She has some beautiful picture books out. She and I hit it off right away! She is from the "Bronks" I noticed that she would just stare at me on and off during the day. I was a little weirded out until she came up to me and said that she likes to paint her friends in her books and to look for myself in one of them someday. How nice!
Here I am heading home after a long day. I had a great time and met alot of wonderful people. I am looking forward to this journey that I have started. I am excited to do something other than the everyday hum-drum. Wish me luck!!!