"I've had the time of my life"*

A few weeks ago I attended the SCBWI Eastern PA conference at the Shawnee Inn, which is this great golf resort in the Poconos that reminds me of the resort in Dirty Dancing (and little bit of the one in The Shining, but that movie freaked me out so much, I like to pretend it doesn't exist).

I first attended this conference in 2009. I had been looking for a small and close-to-home SCBWI conference and came across the Poconos one. I live in CT, so a Pennsylvania conference wasn't necessarily the obvious choice, but a little research on google maps showed me that this conference was actually closer to my house than the SCBWI New England one. Who knew?

My awesome roommate, Kimberly Sabatini, introduced me to the the Eastern PA chapter and I felt like I had truly found kindred spirits in this group. My second year at the conference turned out to be just as awesome. I reconnected with all my old buddies from last year and got to know some new ones.

(Here's Kim, Jodi, Jeff, and Shiloh hanging out on Saturday evening)

Some of my favorite moments from this year include talking soccer with Jeff (including hearing about his daughter's team and attempting to explain the elusive offsides rule), discussing our Voices homework (which we all interpreted differently) with Jodi and Roxanne, hearing Kim's stories about her boys, staying up late on Saturday night eating cookies and talking books in the lobby, checking out Elana's iPad, discussing starting our own publishing company with Gayle, and winning a gift card to the spa.

Usually when I post about conferences, I share the speakers' words of wisdom...and today's post will be no different! So here they are (all those not in quotation marks paraphrased, of course, because my short hand sucks):

• The formula to become rich and famous: Do one thing, do it well, and do it over and over. (Sandy Asher, who admits she does not follow this formula!)
• The "feeding and caring of the furry muse" is very important. (Judy Schachner)
• In a roller-coaster ride you know exactly where you're going, end up where you began, and you can a buy a ticket to go on again and have almost the same exact experience; it's thrilling, but it's not a journey. A journey takes you where you've never been before; it's pretty scary and the dangers are real. (Sandy Asher...guess which one we, as writers, should strive to take take readers on?)
• All stories are based in truth somewhere. Pay attention to those stories and write them down. (Judy Schachner)
• Voice is the most important part of a manuscript because editors cannot fix it. Voice is undeniable and is the emotional pull of the story. (Eve Adler, Associate Editor at Henry Holt Books for Young Readers)
• "My search (for an agent) was quite fruitful, but not all the fruit was edible." (Sandy Asher)
• "One man's junk is another woman's book." (Judy Schachner)
• By the time I got old enough to ask the right questions, there was no one there to answer them. (Sandy Asher)
  

For more about the conference, check out Kim's blog posts and the First Novels Club live blogging of the conference.

*Franke Previte, John DeNicola, & Donald Markowitz

"It's too far away for me to hold, it's too far away...guess I'll let it go"*

Today marks the eighth anniversary of my sister Kylene's death. This was the day the world stopped spinning and turned in a whole new direction. It was also the day I became a writer (even though I wouldn't realize this for two more years). I may be able to hack it at writing stories, but Kylene was the true poet of the family. Here is one of her poems.

Today I learned about the Math
about the Science
Today I missed out on the life lesson
24 hrs. slipped by
I got an A
I passed the Test
I lied

Days go by, I work, I play
Months go by I give I take
Years go by I live I die
Life's a circle
Life's a cycle
Life's a motion

What's tomorrow
But another day
A new life?
A Fresh Start?
New Hope?
Clean Slate?
Tomorrow's but today
Just another day
~Kylene Laraine Carroll

*Fuel

"Express Yourself"*

The party-goers have been expressing their creativity again with the magnetic poetry kit. This is how my guests showed their joy at celebrating my mom's birthday (as always imaginative use of tiles has been preserved as much as possible).

• imagine beauty which always sucks (the last "s" in sucks was actually part of the word "is," but this clever--and possibly depressed--person covered the "i" with the word "suck")
• my perfect genius monkey boy will make me drown in his sweet brain music (yeah, well my perfect genius monkey boy will kick your perfect genius monkey boy's butt...ha!)
• never investigate our skeleton in the attic (what, you keep yours in the closet?)
• spur cold tree old do nut this but we did an obedient whisper (doesn't make much sense, but good use of internal rhyme)
• they expose d my precious bald dictionary to release another inspiration spurt (it's just all too shocking!)
• give him the sex y ache ing ghost bosom (maybe this guy should hook up with the skeleton in the attic)
• use manacle s for transgress ion s by a mean electric spider puppet (that's sound advice if I've ever hear any)
• ity see lime free off as out right est er un & ness & and i work and mouth black do so ly at at (I think my four-year-old niece put this one up...at least I hope it wasn't written by someone who actually knows how to read all those words)
• a girl has the voice too break every man (too ;) true)
• must explore pleasure curse (I'll get on that right away)
• bleed translucent famous dog bone love (hopefully not all over my kitchen floor)
• drink down tremendous dead desire spark s then come holy silent night (I've heard that is the original title to "Silent Night" but over time the beginning got cut off)
• devil wine manipulate vision (oh, so that's why I was seeing double the whole night)
• her shadow soul howl e d as it was compel ed to pour from he r body like a naked chicken rhythm dance ing (I don't know about you, but my soul always howls when it pours from my body like a naked chicken rhythm dancing)
• experience elaborate prostitute between vacuum (the elaborate prostitute rears her ugly head again)
• e y r l fire of she I are why yes (maybe another one from my niece, but profound in its own way)

It was a record number of sayings on the refrigerator! Thanks to all participants. Feel free to take credit for your work in the comment section.

*Charles Wright