Bookjunkee attends the 7th Annual Pacific Northwest Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference
Reed College, Portland, Oregon July 9 - 14, 2006
Our last day. You could tell from the mood at breakfast that everyone was reluctant to see our week together end. Addresses were exchanged, words of encouragement reiterated, and plans for attending other conferences, or returning to this one next year or soon after were discussed. And hovering on the fringes, thoughts and worries over [...]
Today, Linda put on her editor’s cap and gave us her reactions to the 1st pages we’d been asked to submit. She also elaborated on what motivated her reactions: Has the writer truly found a fresh idea for or approach to their story? Did they establish a distinctive narrative (storyteller’s) voice in their opening page? [...]
Today brought another glimpse into the world of illustration. Using slides of several illustrators’ work, Marla Frazee showed us what illustration can do both narratively and emotionally for a picture book. As far as I’m concerned, every writer should have to learn at least what we did this week about the illustration process. This is [...]
Steve Geck’s talk this morning on “What’s Ahead for Middle Readers†left me with another list to add to my lists of books I need to read. I may never write a chapter book for this reader level, but I do like to read them and see how other writers approach their chosen subject. Steve [...]
Oh my gosh—what a jam packed day! We started at 7:30am with our “dorm gang†(a motley group of twelve) and all the staff, including those who weren’t staying on campus, getting acquainted at breakfast and pretty much went the whole day until a “Meet the Staff†get-together in the dorm courtyard at 8:00pm this [...]
Though the scenery through the Columbia River Gorge was as beautiful as always, the drive today seemed long. Then again, I guess five and a half hours spent, for the most part, behind the wheel of my Subaru is a fairly long time. At least traffic was tolerable and finding Reed College was no problem. [...]