Conference Blog Break

Logo by Melany Pietersen
OK, I admit it - by midday yesterday, I was beginning to doubt myself. Would anyone remember my Conference Blog Challenge? And even so, would anyone actually enter it?

Then at 12:48, the first post appeared. And they kept on coming! The lesson here being: put your faith in Scoobies and they won't disappoint you :-)


Addy Farmer was first out of the gate with her post for Notes from the Slushpile about writing friendships (although I suspect she may have cunningly written some of it in advance to avoid post-conference spongeybrainosity).

Alistair Lane - a self-described social wallflower - had a blast at the conference and came right out of his shell on meeting his son’s favourite picture book writer. (My wife was similarly star-struck when I introduced her to Philip Reeve!)

Dom Conlon has clearly been to more than his fair share of dull work conferences, which is why the SCBWI conference was such a revelation for him.

KM Lockwood found generosity, variety, charity and tolerance at the conference.

Sheila Averbuch was the big story of the conference weekend, winning both the Ten Word Pitch competition and the totally nerve-wracking live session The Hook. So hats off to Sheila for writing a great blog post all about how she got so good at pitching.

George Kirk was co-chair of the conference, so she didn't have any time to write a blog post. Oh wait a minute, she did!

Candy Gourlay genuinely didn't have time to write a blog post, but she did edit three videos out of David Fickling's excellent (and slightly bonkers) keynote speech. Here they are:





Finally, there were even a couple of blog posts in the last week that weren't about the conference! Jennie Waudby has been thinking about the process of researching a novel, and the unexpected places that it sometimes leads you. Tim Collins, meanwhile, has his mind on a loftier topic - superheroes! Of course, I mean lofty in the sense of the height that Superman flies at, although Tim makes a good argument for the value of comics in attracting reluctant readers.

Nick.


Edit: A couple of very welcome latecomer blog posts:



Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner and has recently received the SCBWI Magazine Merit Award, for his short story The Last Typewriter.

Click here to read Nick's latest blog post for Notes from the Slushpile.

5 comments:

  1. Nick thanks for this great roundup! Your deadline is what kicked me into gear. I was thinking oh, probably should write something about pitching, too tired, must eat toast, but then was like OH, A DEADLINE, I AM CAUGHT IN ITS VOODOO STARE.

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  2. Hoorahsies! What a weekend, what a round up :)

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  3. I know what I'm reading today! Thanks Nick for the challenge!

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  4. Wow, everyone has been busy! Some great posts. I've been suffering from a nasty case of spongeybrainosity, I'm glad you guys didn't catch it.

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  5. Brilliant stuff! Thanks Nick for gathering all these great bloggers together. David Fickling was something else...!

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