SCBWI Conference

Our big Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators conference was in mid April. I had a blast reconnecting with my writer/artist friends as well as meeting famous authors and agents and illustrators and art directors. And drinking with all of them. Here are some to the sketches I did while I was supposed to be taking notes.

This is how author Rachel Vail describes that first attempt

Bruce Hale is an excellent speaker (and singer!). He urged us all to think about what we do, even noble causes, that get in the way of our work. Like blogging, fr' instance.

When I started drawing Eddie Gamarra, manager and producer at the Gotham Group, I realized he looks an awful lot like my character Doorstop, from "Max and the P.O.O.P. Patrol." They both give good advice, too.

Author Rachel Vail's son Liam was there. When author Matt de la Peña spoke about staring at the awesome scalp of a girl in high school, I realized Liam has one, too.

Lucy Ruth Cummins is the art director at Simon and Schuster. She and Scott Magoon gave an awesome critique of some of our work. In a later session about marketing yourself, she said that if you have an iPhone, you have no excuse not to tweet. Great. We'll see how that goes.

Andrea Welch, Sr. Editor at Beach Lane Books, gave me a pretty favorable review on "Kay Kay's Alphabet Safari." It might have been because my breath was minty fresh.

Matt de la Peña came from a pretty macho family and neighborhood. He said if he were hit by a truck, his dad would look around for his head and make sure it wasn't crying.

Illustrator Melissa Sweet is true to her name and unrelentingly encouraging. She is a brilliant artist, writer and speaker. I took her fantastic collage class. She uses both painting and collage in her work, which you can see in "Balloons Over Broadway."

Illustrator Scott Magoon and author Tammi Sauer gave a monastery mashup session about "Mostly Monsterly" written by Tammi and illustrated by Scott. They are both hysterical.

Not to mention game.