February 25, 2009

Summer Writing

Although summer is still many months away, it's time to start making plans for my annual summer writing conference. For the past two summers I've attended writing conferences in Oregon and in Northern California, and it's a tradition I'd like to keep up.

Right now I'm just collecting information about dates, faculty, cost, and locale--a nice location, preferably near a beach, is essential.

3rd Annual Book Passage Children's Writers & Illustrators Conference, June 18-21, 2009. I went to this conference last year and it was great. Book Passages is a wonderful bookstore in Corte Madera, CA, across the bay from San Francisco. Small workshops by notable middle grade and young adult authors like Ellen Klages, Gennifer Choldenko, and Marissa Moss were chock full of writing exercises and valuable information. There were a lot of terrific guest speakers about picture books, self-publishing, agents, and editors...plus Isabel Allende. The hotel I stayed was right next door, and Nora was just across the Bay. A perfect combination. (July 30, 2008 post)

The Oregon Coast Children Writers Workshop July 13- 17, 2009. This workshop is held in beautiful Oceanside, Oregon, a tiny town right on the coast. The locale is fantastic, although a bit of challenge to get to. I combined this workshop with a visit to Corvalis, OR for my nephew George's wedding. I attended OCCCWW in 2007 and enjoyed it very much. The faculty is smaller than Book Passages, but it also included authors, editors and agents. Lots of great personal contact with professionals in the field. The weather was cold and rainy and I loved it. A nice change from my usual warm climate. (July 17-21, 2007 posts)

A new conference I'm considering is The Tenth Annual Pacific Northwest Children's Book Conference. This conference is also being held July 13-17. It's organized through Portland State University but is held on the Reed College campus. The faculty seems good, including Linda Urban whose book, A Crooked Kind of Perfect, I liked when I read it last year. I like her blog, too. It seems like this program focuses a lot on the act of writing, as well as other aspects of the publishing field. It might be fun to stay on a college campus--it's been a few years.

The Pacific Coast Children's Writers Workshop
is held at Pajaro Dunes, August 21-23. "This is a Team-Taught Seminar for 30 Middle Grade and Young Adult Novelists Specializing in Character-Driven Realistic Fiction." The focus of this year's workshop is Vision and Voice. My friend, Laura, went to this conference last year so I will get a critique from her. It's a little hard to figure out how exactly the conference works from the website, but I'm still intrigued. Also, I love Pajaro Dunes. Great beach--I still have sand dollars Nora and I collected there when she was a little girl.

I think these are the front runners for my summer outing. My writer friend, Patty, might be interested in sharing this adventure. We went to the Big Sur Children's Writing Workshop, at Pfeiffer State Park, in late November 2007 and had a great time.

Well, I clearly have things to think about. So many choices--wish I had the finances to indulge in more than one.

2 comments:

Sherrie Petersen said...

I didn't realize there were so many! We visited Oceanside a few years ago so I agree that it's a great locale. But, yeah, the finances make it all complicated. What about the SB Writer's Conference? Is the rumor true that it won't happen this year?

Maggie said...

Sherrie--I have heard the SB conference won't be held this year, but I'm not totally in the loop. It's fun dreaming about all the writing workshop options.

See you Tuesday--Maggie