Friday, September 21, 2007

Yay for SCBWI!

I've written plenty in praise of The Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators, and here's another "yay" story. (Click HERE for the original version.) Amber Matthews, who is a blog friend who I got to meet in person in San Diego and Los Angeles this summer, just won runner-up in the SCBWI work-in-progress grant, and got the congratulatory email from a Very Prominent Editor! How often does a writer get an email from a Very Prominent Editor telling them s/he likes their work in progress? Not very, I'm guessing! Yay, Amber! May this be magical writing adrenaline for you to finish the book!

And p.s. She has a one-year-old, which explains her blog name "Naptime Writer," and let's all cross our fingers that Amber does not get deployed to Iraq -- for many reasons, including, so she can finish her book faster!

It was the wonderful feedback and encouragement of an editor I met through SCBWI that inspired me to keep working on Blackbringer. And I know Jay Asher won a grant from them, and at the various conferences I've heard other stories of books that won grants and went on to publishing success! It's a phenomenal and RARE opportunity to get your manuscript into the hands of editors!

Northwesterns (and beyond), be informed: Arthur Levine will be speaking in Seattle next April at the regional WW SCBWI conference, along with an amazing roster of others, including Chris Crutcher, Mo Willems, the Newbery triple threat of Susan Patron, Kirby Larson & Cynthia Lord, five editors, four agents, an art director, the fabulous Betsy Bird, and moi. (And others too!) Don't miss it!

6 comments:

Amber Lough said...

I <3 SCBWI!!!

Heather said...

I was on their website yesterday and was pretty excited about it!

P.S. Thanks for the linky love!

Anonymous said...

I just finished reading Blackbringer and I LOVED it...just couldn't put it down. The story was amazing... it was a world I could really "see", when I was reading. Your characters are so easy to fall in love with...I can't wait to see what will happen in the next book! btw...loved this book so much I posted a review on it on amazon...I've never posted a review before, but had to with this one! :)

Laini Taylor said...

Christina -- thanks so much for the Amazon review!! It means a lot to me that you were inspired to leave your first review for my book! Thank you!!

Amber said...

Wow! That is SO cool for her! Thanks for letting us know, so we can pat her on the back.

:)

Anonymous said...

Just realized I hadn't commented here earlier, because I clicked on the links and got lost in cyberspace the other night. This is so cool - I hope she doesn't get deployed, and can finish her book. Wow, now I really feel like a slacker - she's doing this with a one year old?!? Yikes. She really is a warrior writer woman!