Conference Goers - All a Twitter

David Richardson

There will be reviews and articles from the SCBWI Winchester Conference on the Words & Pictures blog over the next week. But to give us an early flavour of the events of the weekend, here is a compilation of some of the tweets from eager and happy conference goers.



Of course, there’s so much to do even before the conference starts. As noted by Molly Ker Hawn ‏@mollykh. ‘Frantically trying to finish a dozen things before I leave for #scbwicon. Tick tock...’ she tweeted on Friday.

Meanwhile Maureen Lynas‏ @MaureenLynas was ‘Enjoying a lovely rail journey on the way to the  SCBWI_BI conference in Winchester." Although there was a 20 minute delay!

Friday Night Pizza

Sheila Averbuch noted, the conference is an ‘Incredible opportunity to meet agents and editors in children's publishing.’

It all begins with the Friday night meal, and this time Friday night was Pizza night! “Half of us! Pizza chaos. Actually very orderly really thanks to the amazing @julietclarebell”.

Incredible opportunity to meet agents and editors

As regards the various sessions to help writers and illustrators, Jane Hardstaff‏@JaneHardstaff4h twitted “Excellent workshop by @MostlyReading and @CRALP '45% of new discoveries are made by word of mouth, bookshops and school visits.'”

Here are a couple of agent wish lists – thanks to Emma Greenwood.

First: Agent @mollykh #wishlist is contemp UK romance, cults, WW1, MG with strong literary and funny voice, narrative non-fiction.  

Second: Comm Ed Random House Natalie Doherty #wishlist - sinister ghost story beautifully written, genuinely funny MG. No direct queries.

The ‘Best thing about the conference,’ according to Miriam Craig is ‘meeting so many people all obsessed with reading and writing’.

Two titbits from the Malorie Blackman session. Miriam H Craig‏@miriamhcraig said: “For Malorie Blackman the plot comes first in development of story, but she spends the most *time* on the characters.”

And Emma Greenwood reported that Malorie said 'Write from the heart. Sell from the head'.

Malorie said 'Write from the heart

Eventually, Sunday comes and it’s time for reflection. For some, it is as tweeted by Nicky Schmidt‏@NickySchmidt14h. "@miriamhcraig: Shattered!" The conference does that! Hope you had fun! #scbwicon.

Or you may feel as did Dave Cousins when he said ‘I always thought sleep was over rated anyway!’

Gemma Cooper tweeted: Such a fantastic weekend at #scbwicon - Thanks to all the @SCBWI_BI members for being so friendly and welcoming (as always)

There were other thanks too:-  Thanks to @JoWyton @Abbietheauthor and many other brilliant volunteers for such a fantastic & inspriring @SCBWI_BI conference by Jane McLoughlin‏@JBMcLoughlin2h.

Congratulations & ENORMOUS thanks to Natascha Biebow, 15 years British Isles RA. Wonderful dedication! We're so lucky to have her! #scbwicon.

Keep a looking out for more from the Conference on Words & Pictures!

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David is working hard on his next project while awaiting the UV 2014 long list announcement. He helps with the London Professional Series Events for SCBWI and is Words & Pictures' Events Editor. In his spare time he works as an adult tutor.