SCBWI Whispering Pines Retreat, 2014

 

I am blessed to be co-director of the annual SCBWI-New England Whispering Pines Retreat. I mean I could do a whole post on just THAT! Love the retreat. Love the venue. Love the people that attend. Love it all.

This year, our uber-talented and generous editor mentors were Regina Griffin, Executive Editor at Egmont USA, Sarah Dotts Barley, Editor at HarperCollins, and Christine Krones, Editor at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Our fabulous author mentor was Audrey Vernick and our Marketing Extraordinaire expert was Kirsten Cappy of Curious City in Portland Maine.

Truly. These ladies were phenomenal. If only they could have heard the chatter after they’d left about how inspiring, intelligent, generous everyone thought they were. How grateful everyone was. It was a memorable year. One for the books 🙂

Since a picture is worth a 1,000 words, here are some–you guessed–pictures 🙂

 

The beginning…

 

 

Where we break bread…

 

 

The weekend Gang!

 

L to R: Lynda, Regina Griffin, Executive Editor of Egmont, Christine Krones, Editor at Houghton Mifflin, Kirsten Cappy of Curious City, Sarah Dotts Barley of HarperCollins, Audrey Vernick, Author, and Co-director, Mary Pierce

 

Our wonderful First Page Readers, Mary Pierce and Jenny Bagdigian

 

If it hadn’t been raining, we would have done s’mores here. 🙂

 

Instead, we made s’mores in the fireplace. Which was still pretty great 🙂 As evidenced by the experts, Sarah and Jean.

 

With my Maine girls, Julie and Cameron 🙂

 

The incomparable Carlyn Beccia brought this hat and got a picture of everyone in attendance wearing it.

 

My corny thank you. 🙂 When a Transformers kaleidoscope speaks to the transformative nature of SCBWI – adding color to our lives.

Moi with dear friends–and talented ladies–Mary Pierce, Laurie Murphy, and Jennifer Thermes

 

Awesome ladies–Kim Savage, Cameron Rosenblum, Annie Cardi, and Caroline Webster

 

The fabulous Kirsten Cappy and her red hat picture.

 

Circle of friends. Me, Penny Piva, and Jenny Bagdigian

 

This year’s get-up as Kid-lit Jeopardy emcee. Obviously serious business…

 

Kid-Lit Jeopardy teams trying to win points for fabulous prizes and world wide prestige.

 

Lovely Eisenhower Lake

 

With Nancy Tandon 🙂

The stylish and wondrous Jill Dailey

Penny Piva rocks the red hat shot!

 

Jill Dailey, Kristin Russo, Nancy Tandon, and Holly Howley 🙂

Jennifer O’Keefe puts down her paint brushes to do the hat a favor. Thank you, Jen, for the lovely art work you did for people on the fly 🙂 BEST nametags we’ve ever had!

The amazing Audrey Vernick. She spoke to picture books, but there was wisdom to be had for writers in any genre. Just wonderful.

 

The extraordinary Kirsten Cappy of Curious City imparts tremendous marketing wisdom. *mind blown*

 

 

Christine Krones of Houghton Mifflin teaches us about herself, writing, and the business. Lots of fantastic info–and her visuals were awesome!

Love this picture of Sarah Dotts Barley, Editor at HarperCollins. It’s just “so Sarah” – full of joy and affection for literature. And sweetness toward writers 🙂 She spoke to us about revision – the rest of us scribbled wildly.

 

Regina Griffin, Executive Editor from Egmont was our final mentor to speak–and what a way to wrap up. I wish I’d been able to record it–such phenomenal wisdom-laden points laced with clever humor.

 

Group shot during evening portion of first pages. Mentors were awesome at this!

 

 

THANK YOU again to our wonderful mentors. This was a year for the books, as they say. 🙂

 

 

Now to start planning next year so that we may return…