Hands-down, the absolute best thing for me about the Rutgers Council on Children’s Literature one-on-one conference was the one-on-one itself. Of course, I was super-lucky, and got assigned to the best possible mentor ever: Jim Murphy. Read more about him here:
I know, couldn’t have gotten a better pick, what say?
But other than that, it was also great meeting such an amazing group of editors, agents, and authors, and running into ones I’ve met before. It was also wicked cool to meet all the Blue-Boarders (including my cool roommate Jean). Such a nice bunch of people, and such a dedicated bunch of writers.
Yeah, and one last thing that sticks in my mind. The words of the morning speaker Kay Winters (I am not quoting exactly, but from my shoddy memory): “I don’t know anyone in this business who really wanted to make it, kept at it, and didn’t make it.” So, keep at it, keep trying, get to work!