Observations, personal, SCBWI

Recap from the Book Fair, SCBWI evening and congrats to Rebecca!

On Friday, I went to the book fair with Carolin (if you don´t know her, you should totally follow her on Twitter). The goal was to roam the Frankfurt Book Fair before our SCBWI reception.

And wow…The amount of people at the Book Fair, the atmosphere, the books everywhere: impressive…Here is a recap of my afternoon/evening in pictures:

Arriving at the fair

The Book Fair also happened outside

Look at this display of Across the Universe in German…

 

That´s where the agents hang out and work

Some facts

  • The amount of foreign publishers at the Frankfurt Book Fair is amazing, ranging from Mexico, Slovakia, Greece, Turkey…the stands of the French publishers is biiiiig and I loved cruising through them. There was a lot of daydreaming going on that afternoon on where my books could end up one day.
  • Not everything around the Children/YA books is Children/YA related…I ended up with a condom which said “Save the bitch” as someone handed me a goodie and I thought it was some candy 🙂 I´m still laughing about it.
  • Being around that many books and professionals is humbling.
  • Some books only had covers. Carolin and I thought we had a scoop with the sequel of Veronica Rossi but nope, there was a cover and blank pages.

After strolling around and taking some breaks for fresh air (it was hot in there) talking about books and writing, Carolin and I headed to the SCBWI reception, where apparently I proved that my clumsiness can show up at the most random places. (Kirsten, if you´re reading this, I´ll take the sippy cup for my wine next time :-)).

There, I got to talk to fellow writers, re-connect with the people from the area of Frankfurt and meet new people. It was great. It´s really wonderful to just be around other writers/illustrators. The energy, the discussions, it´s a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

Plus, I got to see and hold an ARC of Level 2 (and didn´t even put it in my bag :D), no really Lenore´s book sounds amazing. And yes, I may have gaped while listening to her experience with publishing in a restaurant after the reception.

The ARC and a magnet (I got to keep the magnet :D)
Gaping at Lenore….

So yes, basically, it was an AMAZING afternoon and evening…

And…something else which made me VERY happy last week was to read Rebecca´s announcement about her book selling . The story sounds wonderful and Rebecca is amazing, sweet and talented.  You can read all about her and her writing here (and if you haven´t yet, maybe you can pass by to congratulate her :-))

 

Tell me, how was your week? How about your weekend?

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Books, Happy Friday, reading, SCBWI

Happy Friday #12: A magical number and other stories…

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!

Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

100 blog followers: WOW! 😀 Thank YOU all so much for following my blog, your comments and your support. You, ladies and gentlemen, are WONDERFUL! I’d like to throw a proper party, you know one where we can chit chat about books, YA lit crushes, Stephen King’s ON WRITING  around a glas of red wine but I’m already really thankful for the fact that we can share those moments in the virtual world!

A little something something:  I’ve received a small package  from the Society of Children´s Book Writers and Illustrators. And before continuing, please tell me I´m not the only one who just thought about this movie/scene when reading (or in my case writing) the word “package”.


GIFSoup (Legally Blonde, Bend and Snap)

I´m really the only one? ok then 😀 moving on….I joined SCBWI last month and already had a fantastic lunch with other writers in the area and yesterday, I received my official membership card and some other goodies.

I am so excited about being part of this and I promise myself that I will go to the next SCBWI conference in NYC – anybody already thinking about it for 2013?

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE: I finished this book this week and luckily I could dive right away into A MILLION SUNS because I just could not wait to know more about Elder and Amy. I love the story, the concept and I can´t believe I´m saying this but the way Beth Revis can make me feel claustrophobic as if I was on the ship with them is incredible!

Blog comments: I am trying a new way to respond to comments on my blog – by replying directly to the email notification I receive when somebody adds their thoughts to one of my posts and I add the email of that person if he/she doesn´t have a wordpress blog since if she/he does have one, he/she gets a little notification when coming onto wordpress.com. If you´ve been receiving these emails from me, hope it´s ok 😀 I just enjoy being able to answer and knowing the person actually can see what I wrote back to them

A to Z challenge: I am not doing it this round but can I just say I am loving the fact that a lot of you are? Lots of great posts to read!

Rock the drop: I haven´t done it either…but I really think it’s an AMAZING way to spread “book love” and your stories are very funny/inspiring! YA Confidential will feature some of them on Saturday… Can’t wait to see the pictures 😀

So tell me, what made YOU smile this week?

Beta, Giveaway, Happy Friday, reading, SCBWI

Happy Friday #10 – Connecting, Reading and Yoga-ing

Yay! It´s time again for Happy Friday!  Looking forward to knowing what made YOU smile this week!

Giveaways: Today is the last day to enter my “I love reading” giveaway (more details here ). And in case you haven’t seen: Sarah is having a “Moving Giveaway“, Colin a “Birthday Giveaway” and Rebecca a “Spring Break Giveaway“…

Lunch with other SCBWI members:  On Wednesday, I had lunch with three other SCBWI members and it was great! I am very happy I got to meet them. Talking about books, the craft of writing, writing in general or just about our life experiences was fun and enlightening. I am thinking of organizing this type of small get-togethers regularly and look forward to seeing them soon again!

Beta-reading:  I started beta-reading this week  and feel very lucky for two reasons: 1) I really enjoyed the book and 2) I realized that by helping her, I’m also helping me…Reading somebody else’s draft while keeping an open mind enabled me to go back to my own draft and know where I could improve. Her strengths showed me where I could better my own writing, some questions I had hinted at some I have on my own novel.

Yoga: I started up yoga again this week. None of the complicated poses yet, I am concentrating for now on the breathing exercises and the restorative poses since I have been having some pains otherwise. It helps me get more grounded, more “in the moment”. As I mentioned before, while my imagination helps a lot when it comes to writing, it can be a little frustrating when it turns into stress or anxiety…Yoga, cardio and more exercising in general help a lot.

ChangeWriteNow: I cannot believe the first week of ChangeWriteNow has already gone by. Once more, my teammates are encouraging and I set myself more realistic goals this time. While I am super organized at work, at home…I’m a tad more…hmm…messy and hubby is very happy I’m tackling this issue one way or another 😀

Now tell me: what made YOU smile this week?