Last Week at the Boise SCBWI and Idaho Reading Association Conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last week was the Boise SCBWI and Idaho Reading Association Conference. I pulled up Friday to the Boise House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rooms were beautiful. I had the upstairs room across the hall from Karl Jones, the editor from Penguin Young Readers. He warned me not to hit my head on the slanted ceiling. I told him I would be careful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Sara Megibow, the literary agent with Nelson Literary, arrived, Neysa Jensen the regional advisor of SCBWI Utah/Southern Idaho walked us down to the Fork Restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked right through the Boise Capital Building. Neysa wrote the poem that was put to music when the building was renovated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the picture of the capital dome. At Fork Restaurant, we were treated to home made potato chips and fried asparagus, mmmmmmmmm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Across the street was Rediscovered Books.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anne Osterlund, Miriam Forster and I signed books and met some lovely people who were going to attend the conference the next day. It was a fun signing.

 

 

 

 

 

After the signing, we walked back to the Boise House where I went upstairs and hit my head on the slanted ceiling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The morning of the conference, I was greeted with sunshine through this beautiful stained glass window

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and deer eating breakfast next door.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s one last picture before we head to the conference

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and to rival the stained glass window, here are Karl’s shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a nice group at the conference.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I sat with Kristiana Gregory and Gloria Skurzynski, both Golden Kite winners. I did a quick sketch of Gloria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gloria told me to watch for a mystery coming soon from Gloria and her daughter Alane Ferguson at mysteryscenemag.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Neysa introduced the conference and

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sherry Dismuke started us out with a feather activity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Karl Jones gave a keynote on “Allowing Yourself to Be Creative – and Where That Might Take You”. Here is Karl from my sketch book.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sara Megibow talked about “Your Publishing Options”. I didn’t get a chance to see Miriam Forster and Anne Osterlund because I was presenting “A day in the Life of a Children’s Book Illustrator or When I Woke Up This Morning, I Never Thought I’d End Up Here”. It was a great conference and a wonderful opportunity to meet people who create children’s books and people who love to read them (and look at the pictures).