The Conference

The Austin SCBWI conference went great!

I met with David Caplan of Harpercollins and we had a great critique of my work. He really loved my animals, especially Little Bunny Kung Fu. He gave me a good tip about background space and how to promote yourself when you're wearing so many hats (illustrator, writer, designer...). He also gave a talk about the behind the scenes craziness of a children's publishing house. He said people hear what he does and think he must skip down the halls and pick flowers, when really there's blood, sweat and tears on a boardroom table over a book cover.

Another big surprise was that they nominated me for the Illustration Chair of our chapter. This was something I thought I might want to do, but I really didn't pursue it, thinking I'd need more experience (that was before LBKF). I accepted and they'll announce it at the meeting next month. I've started working on some ideas already to get the illustrators more involved.

And today Mike and I went to the Wildflower Center and joined their membership. We got a free plant (a coral honeysuckle), and we can go there anytime we want for free.

Another surprise was our new digital camera. Finally we've got a real camera again, and Mike took some great photos.