I’m honored to be up in Monterey, California, today, on the faculty of this year’s Big Sur Children’s Writers Workshop. Hosted by Andrea Brown Literary Agency, this three-day workshop “brings top tier professionals together with both beginner and seasoned writers.” Writers mingle and discuss their works with editors, agents, and published authors and attend small group […]

If I’m not listening to audiobooks, I’m listening to podcasts. The How Writers Write podcast is a fabulous one, and I was honored to be interviewed on it. We talked YA fiction, establishing productive writing routines, and getting yourself unstuck when writers block strikes. What fun to dig into the at-your-desk (or not!) details of […]

I’m pleased to be on the faculty of SCBWI-Southern California’s “2019 Spring Writer’s Retreat” for Middle Grade & Young Adult fiction at Tahquitz Pines in Idyllwild on April 12 – 14, 2019. I’m really looking forward to getting away, both as an editor (my role during the day for the writers I’ve been brought in for) […]

I’m pleased to be presenting two sessions at the Society of Children’s Books Writers & Illustrators‘ Annual Summer Conference in L.A. August 3-6, 2018: “Up-to-the-Minute Market Report: Industry Updates, Submissions, and New Imprints” “Subplots & Subtext: How to Deepen and Energize Your MG/YA Fiction” I’ll also critique manuscripts one-on-one, which is something I particularly enjoy doing. Conference registration opens April 17th @10am PT. […]

I’ve had a lot of plates spinning in the last few months, but they’ve been fun plates to spin. A big one was prepping for and attending SCBWI-Southern Breeze’s 2018 writing-and-illustrating for kids (WIK) conference at the beginning of March. I presented sessions on non-rhyming picture books, revising young-adult and middle-grade novels for submission, and the state of the […]

I’m so pleased to be joining the faculty of SCBWI’s 2016 Summer Conference in Los Angeles July 29-31 (there’s an optional craft intensive a on Aug 1). I love this conference and am honored to be a part of it this year. I’ll be presenting “An Up-to-the-Minute Market Report” on the main stage on Sunday, the 1-hour breakout […]

As the San Diego weather vacillates between hot-enough-for-the-beach and dark-and-stormy, I’m putting my summer together. Workwise, it’ll be a fun one, with the  SCBWI 2012 Summer Conference in L.A. Aug 3-6. I’ll present a breakout session on writing dialogue, an intensive on revising your MG/YA novel, an intensive on creating youthful narrative sensibility, and the […]