KidLitCon Wrap Up

OK, I'm going to try and make this super quick, but I just want to say that KidLitCon was ah-mazing. Allison and I had such a great time presenting on podcasting, meeting authors and fellow bloggers, and just seeing Seattle. Let's bring out the good ol' bullet points for some highlights.

• I MET KAREN CUSHMAN! My mother-in-law (who was my elementary school librarian/media specialist) gave me her books when I was in 5th or 6th grade and I fell in love. I have had my copy of "Catherine, Called Birdy" forever. It's totally been beat up, but I just haven't had the heart to part with it because I love it so much. I now happily own a new copy, autographed to me by the amazing author (and a copy of "The Midwife's Apprentice, another childhood favorite of mine). She was so sweet and dealt so well with me fangirling like crazy. I also got my mother-in-law a signed copy of "The Midwife's Apprentice" too! I showed it to her over Skype on Sunday and she was so excited.
• I met Scott Westerfeld. Here's proof!
  
  His key note was fabulous - entertaining and so informative. I cannot wait to dive into his Leviathan series.
• I seriously met so many inspiring authors. I came home energized about my own book ideas and cannot wait to get back to it. (Stasia, Holly, Amber, Deb, Karen, Scott... gosh. I could fill half this blog entry with the names of all the inspiring people I met!)
• And with inspiring authors, I also meet inspiring bloggers. There were a lot of thought provoking panels on topics such as using the SCWBI's resources to Diversity in kid lit!
• Presenting on Podcasting definitely also makes my highlight list. Despite the fact that I was losing my voice, the crowd was great and we ended up creating an awesome podcast from the active learning portion of our presentation. It'll be up on Authors are ROCKSTARS! later today or tomorrow morning.

If you are interested in the world of childrens and teen literature, then KidLitCon should definitely be on your list of "to do" conferences. Next year, it'll be in NYC! FUUUN! I know I cannot wait to do it all again soon.