SCBWI Indiana Event!

On Saturday I attended my first local SCBWI (Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators) event at the beautiful Benton House.  I had been eagerly anticipating this event for some time and it fully delivered!  Don't you love when that happens?  I did my patented in-car happy dance moves the whole way home!  I apologize to any other drivers who had to witness them.

First of all, I had been aching to meet some other writers in person.  I've made great connections via the internet, but I was really ready to smile into some faces and shake some hands.  There is definitely something to meeting others who have walked this road before and are walking it with you now.  So, I took the time to straighten my hair, put on some real big-girl makeup and dress like member of the real world (instead of the mom uniform of workout pants & a tee-shirt).  I wanted to grab each one of the attendees and say, "tell me your story!"  Lucky for them, I restrained myself...for now.  Watch out next time!  I won't be as timid!

Second, I was anxious to see how this organization has taken shape in Indiana.  I'm excited to report that it is a vibrant organization that has obviously been on the rise the past few years and there are many plans in the works.  They were saying goodbye to their previous Regional Advisor, Trish Batey, and welcoming the new RA, Kristi Valiant.  After seeing the devotion and excitement of the leadership, I'm ready to hop in and get involved!  They even had one member, Janna (I hope I got that right) get up and play a song on the piano and sing it to us because it is a song that gives her a lot of inspiration.  I was too much in awe to remember to write down the name of the song, but Jenna did a lovely job and I was touched by her willingness to share, her grace, and her talent.

But the biggest highlight of the day was our speaker, Esther Hershenhorn.  I knew of Esther from Teaching Authors, a blog written by six authors who also teach writing.  Esther teaches at the University of Chicago Writer's Studio and at the Newberry Library.  Since I don't have any writing classes under my belt yet, I was itching for this talk!!  It was wonderful and just what I was hoping for when I signed up.

Since I try to keep my posts short (in case you only have 30 seconds of free time in any given hour - like me) I will go into Esther's talk on tomorrow's post.  In the mean time, check out her blog, if you don't already.  And look at her latest book, S is for Story: A Writer's Alphabet.  It's wonderful!

Check back in tomorrow for a run down of the workshop!  Thank you SCBWI Indiana!!