SCBWI Miami

My first Florida SCBWI event.  Books everywhere. Famous authors. Old friends and new.
So many terrific presenters.

And I got to be one. Except that I don't have a picture of me on the First Books panel Friday night. Four presenters spoke of their publication journey. Each of us had a very different story to share.

I was so excited to be there that all I snapped were pics of my book for sale. (yes, I know, total nerd.)

Like this one, at Friday night's event held at the amazing bookstore in Coral Gables, BOOKS & BOOKS.

GLORY BE was in very good company. And yes, we rearranged a bit for the photo, but we put things back and did not cover up Greg Neri's book, YUMMY.

Books & Books is what all bookstores should look like. A Courtyard wine bar. Music. And tons and tons of books, beautifully arranged.



Books & Books sold our books at the conference hotel, all weekend.

(Close-up of the sticker they put on our books.)

During the breaks, the authors sat at tables with our names in big letters so that anyone who bought our book could have us autograph them. (Big sigh here...)

Here are just a very few of the people sitting at nearby tables:
Christina Diaz Conzalez, Lin Oliver, Greg Neri, Donna Jo Napoli, Cheryl Klein. I could go on and on.

Nancy, one of my Tampa writer friends,  presented me with a little notebook of encouragement and congrats on my first Miami SCBWI conference. (Can you tell she's a teacher/ librarian?)






And on my last morning, sitting in Jill Corcoran's VOICE workshop, another writer slipped me this note. She'd bought my book the day before.
My first "charming note"! Wow!
Thanks, Aimee.

 

And now I get to sit with my note-filled pages and take it all in. The great advice. New books to add to my reading list. New friends. All the makings of a very good conference.

Congrats to the Florida SCBWI team!