SCBWI Weekend Round-Up

mood: exhaustamicated
pandora/ipod: "perfect day" by lou reed

Let me preface this by saying that I didn't actually attend the 2010 SCBWI Conference in Los Angeles. Not because I have anything against it. I just couldn't afford it. Thankfully the conference was literally in my backyard. Like I'm staring at the hotel through my office window while I type.

By virtue of my proximity I got to spend a lot of time around the conference - eating at the mall, drinks at the hotel bar, crashing the gala. And I got to see old friends, meet new friends, and generally bask in the blinding sunshine of all things kid lit.

The weekend started on Thursday with my agent, the amazing Ginger Clark. We hit a taping of the Craig Ferguson show, with David Duchovny as the guest (*swoon*). We had a fantastic time (you can see that episode when it airs August 10th) and I was a converted The Late, Late Show fan from that moment on.

We followed that up with dinner at one of my favorite Hollywood hot spots - Bar Marmont. If you ever go, get the Gougeres. You'll thank me.

Of course there was a conference going on through all of this. Or about to be. I ended up spending my entire Saturday basically at the hotel. There was the Enchanted Inkpot breakfast where I got to meet fellow Inkies Lisa Gail Green, Mike Jung (who thinks I'm stalking him), Wendy Delsol and my old friend Amaris Bennett. And just as they were all shuffling off for a keynote speaker, lo and behold - Ginger arrived for breakfast. Cue Gretchen's second meal of the day at 9:30am.

Next up, lunch with my old pal Cindy Pon - who is absolutely one of the most amazingly energetic and vibrant people I have ever met - and the afore mentioned Mike Jung (yeah, pretty sure it's a stalking event at this point).

(Amaris, Mike, Gretchen and Cindy)

Then there may or may not have been drinking, petting and shopping in rapid succession before we ended up back at the hotel where I got to meet yet another member of the YARebels - Hannah Moskowitz! She is every bit as fun, exciting and intelligent as she appears online. At her age I was a total trainwreck. Oh, and I'm insanely jealous of her hair. And THEN I got to have cocktails with amazingly intelligent and fun Kassia Krozier of Booksquare from whose company I always leave feeling smarterer.

A disco nap was in order if I was going to crash the gala that night.

(someone really needs to keep me from making kissy faces in front of the camera...)

So glad I did, too because there were so many fantastic folks to meet up with that night! Old friends Lia Keyes and Debra Driza, and new friends Vania Stoyanova and adorable super agent Michael Bourret. And then there were the ladies of the YA Highway who made me an instant fangirl with their matching Dia de los Muertos costumes.

(Kate, Michelle, Kristin, Emilia, Kirsten, Kaitlin and the other Kristin (hee), you guys rock!)

As if that wasn't enough, I had dinner with more writerly peeps Sunday night. Shelli Johannes-Wells and I have been online friends for awhile now and it was so wonderful to finally meet her. I dragged the vivacious Christine Fonseca with me and Shelli invited some truly amazing women to join: Kimberly Derting, Lindsey Leavitt and Kiersten White. I was truly thankful to be included in such a gathering. Lovely ladies who were so down to earth and sharing with me, Miss Newbie. I was humbled. :)

So there. I didn't hit a breakout session or a critique group but I had a fabulous, fabulous time on the periphery of SCBWI. Maybe next year, I'll actually register!