Teen Writer's Conference 2010

Hello, hello, hello! I hope your summer has been off to a great start. Mine certainly has. Saturday was the second annual Teen Writer's Conference and I'm so, so, SO glad I got to go. The moment I walked in it was like I had entered a writer sanctuary. 'There were teen writers all around and of course there were books. And authors, lots and lots of authors, Karen E. Hoover ("The Sapphire Flute"), Lisa Mangum ("The Hourglass Door"), Dan Wells ("I Am Not a Serial Killer"), and Julie Wright ("My Not-So-Fairy-Tale Life") just to name a few.
I took Karen's morning class about getting ideas and it totally rocked. I will be reviewing her book on her later. During the lunch break I got to hang out with Lisa Mangum and a few other young, aspiring writers in what came to be called "The Circle of Cool." She is sooooo nice and funny and awesome, I'm so excited to read her book (which I will be reviewing as well). And then I had a fan-girl moment when I looked up during my editing to see that it was Bron Bahlmann ("Bone Warriors") I had sat next to. After lunch there were more classes to partake in, including one about preparing to submit to publishers, followed by the question and answer session. And then the most anticipated part of the entire conference-- the announcement of the contest winners. Just like last year they had seven places, but there was a slight change in the scoring scheme and because of that three people tied for first and four tied for second. Unfortunately, I didn't win anything this year. The first place winners all had 87, second place all had 86. I got an 85. I was off by one point. One. Stinking. Point.
Don't get confused, I wasn't too disappointed and for one main reason. We got to see our score sheets this year. The judges for the competition were published authors. Down at the bottom of each of the three score sheets was a space for comments. I had comments like: "Awesome! Would love to read this as a book!" "This piece totally rocked. I would DEFINITELY keep reading!" and "Loved the beginning of this piece. I would definitely want to keep reading. Well done!" Published authors, published, in print, go-buy-their-books-at-bookstores authors were saying this about my stuff. How cool is that!!!!! Overall, a very productive day and I can't wait for next year.
Be sure to keep an eye out for my review of "Princess of Glass."