Blogging live from the national SCBWI conference - got home after midnight, so I'm blogging this morning before I take off for another long and crazy day! Keep reading...

Above are two pictures: Me waiting along with the other faculty while SCBWI co-founder Lin Oliver gave the opening remarks. We walked in to the music of "Superman" and then we had to introduce ourselves and give one word for everyone to think about for the conference. For example, Lisa Yee gave the word "REVISION" because she's doing a panel on how to revise your manuscripts. My word was "SPAM" and I explained that my novel GOOD ENOUGH not only has SPAM recipes but felt like a metaphorical can of SPAM because I crammed everything I learned at SCBWI into that novel.

During her opening remarks, Lin Oliver revealed the following statistics about this year's conference:

-- There are more than 900 attendees this year, a record!

-- The attendees are from more than 90 countries!

-- There are 746 women!

-- There are 145 men!

-- 442 of the attendees are published authors!

Above: Me taking a photo of myself and YA novelist RACHEL COHN waiting in line. Rachel's giving several panel talks this weekend, including today's "Embracing (And Resisting the Urge to Throttle) Your Inner Teen." And here's a great shot of the legendary BRUCE COVILLE who gave the opening speech on "The Art of the Heart: Writing True for the Child."

Bruce Coville's talk dealt with how we as adult writers can best "speak to the hearts of children." He asked us to dig deep inside ourselves and ask why we chose to write for children and teenagers. He said kids need heroes and role models, and books are pretty much one of the last places they can find their heroes, and it's our responsibility to make sure we write stories that ring true for these young readers.

Coville listed what he considered the "Seven Deadly Sins of Authors" - 1) Dullness 2) Repetition 3) Cliche 4) Sloth 5) Inattention 6) Perfectionism 7) Clumsiness

He said a writer should start as late as possible in a story, during the most conflict-ridden part of the story. This is also known as "in media res." When a writer begins a story with a character waking up and going downstairs for breakfast, Coville said that was a sign of "the writer clearing his or her throat." He said if you start your story off dull, go back and liven it up!

Coville also told the audience, "Don't repeat what was done by others." He said a great book should be great by itself - it should be original and not a copycat of other books. He cited "A Wrinkle In Time" by Madeleine L'Engle as an example of a great, original book. That novel has sold more than 10 million copies and won the Newbery Medal but yet received 29 rejections before it was published!

Coville then listed the "Seven Shining Virtues of Writing" - 1) Passion 2) Sensuousness 3) Wisdom 4) Guile 5) Humor 6) Courage 7) Joy

Among his descriptions and explanations of these "virtues," Coville said we should live inside our stories through descriptive original and sensuous details that push the story forward. He also gave us an exercise to do - to sit down and write our strongest memory from the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grades. He said we would notice how most of these memories would be painful. He described how a child in kindergarten is eager and excited and unafraid to do anything - sing, dance, run. But as the child gets older and experiences pain and rejection and fear, by the 6th grade, they're not as willing to sing, dance, and run. "Every day doors to children's hearts close and we have to open them," Coville said. Coville received a standing ovation.

Afterwards, I met and chatted with several author friends before attending Little, Brown editor Nancy Conescu's panel on "Up Close at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers." They are a "boutique"-styled publisher which only publishes about 150 books per year. The advantage is that they spend more time with each book but yet have a large publisher's financial resources to keep up with the bigger houses. She discussed how books are acquired at this publishing house - the editor likes your book, but then has a series of several steps to do before your book actually sells. These steps include putting together a proposal for the other editors to read and discuss, then once those editors approve, you then attend the monthly acquisitions meeting to pitch the book as well as its "profit/loss" numbers to the marketing and editorial staff. If everyone approves, then the editor can call the lucky author to say his/her book sold! Conescu then talked about books coming out this year from Little, Brown that they were excited about and what books they are looking for (including a need for more middle grade series featuring main boy characters).

I had lunch (pizza!) with good friend and award winning children's book author LISA WHEELER whose 25th book BOOGIE KNIGHTS (Richard Jackson/Antheneum 2008) just came out and has already received many starred reviews.

Then Lisa, KELLY DIPUCCHIO (Grace For President/Hyperion 2008), DEANNA CASWELL (First Ballet, 2009), BEN ESCH (Sophomore Undercover/Hyperion 2009), and STEPHANIE HEMPHILL (Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath/Hyperion 2007) attended a panel by our literary agent Steven Malk of The Writers House. His talk was on "Career Management 101: Strategies for Long-Term Success." So we were all curious to hear h ow we can have long-term success!

Here's what our agent looks like:

(Okay, he doesn't really look like that. He collects bobble-heads. For real. Keep reading to find a real picture of him. And yes, that is his real hair. )

Steve's advice?

-- Slow down, be patient. (The way you debut in the industry with your first few books is crucial to setting the tone and pace of your long-term career.)

-- Become an expert in your field. (Research your market and genre by reading the trades and the classica and new books in the genre you're interested in writing for. He recommended THE WESTING GAME, HARRIET THE SPY, FROM THE MIXED UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER, I'LL FIX ANTHONY, A HOUSE IS A HOUSE FOR ME, MISS RUMPIUS, BLUEBERRIES FOR SAL, and anything by LEONARD MARCUS).

-- Don't dabble. (Don't treat children's book writing like a lark or silly hobby - that's insulting to real children's book author who study the craft very seriously.)

-- Have a career model. (Do you want to publish every year? Every six months? Every few years? What kind of books? Do you want to do a lot of school visits? etc.)

-- Take ownership of your own career.

-- Understand the market and where you fit in.

-- Don't overextend yourself.

-- Be flexible and have a good attitude.

-- If at first you don't succeed, don't abandon ship. (A client, Melinda Long, author of the bestselling HOW I BECAME A PIRATE/Hyperion '03, had her first book not do very well. Same with Sara Pennypacker, author of the acclaimed CLEMENTINE (Hyperion '08).

-- Slow and steady wins the race. (He mentioned SARAH DESSEN as an example of an author who slowly developed her audience over the years with modest sales but consistent books and who is now one of the top-selling and acclaimed YA novelists today.)

-- Enjoy the ride!

Us Malkians enjoyed our agent's talk. Here's some pics of us looking quite enraptured:

(L-R: Deanne Caswell, Kelly DiPucchio, Jill Corcoran, Stephanie Hemphill, me, Ben Esch)

Finally, it was my turn to talk! Myself, JAY ASHER, JOHN ROCCO, YUYI MORALES, and LISA YEE had a panel at 5 p.m. with moderator Aaron Hartzler called "SCBWI Success Stories." We talked about how we all started taking classes and attending conferences at SCBWI, endured many rejections, and struggled before finally selling our first books. We also talked about the danger of wanting to be published more than actually writing - the importance is to write. I talked about how I was originally greedy and wanted to get published and was frustrated by why my manuscripts kept getting rejected. I then learned to write the truth - to mine my own life for stories and find my own voice - and from there, that's how I sold my first novel. Afterwards, a lot of very, very nice SCBWI members came up and said how much they enjoyed the panel. Hopefully one day I'll see them onstage at a future conference!

Above: (L-R): Lisa, Jay and Peepy on our panel; me, Peepy, and SCBWI founders Lin Oliver and Stephen Mooser; me and Jay being silly before our panel. Jay Asher is the author of the NY Times bestseller YA novel THIRTEEN REASONS WHY (RazorBill 2007).

Afterwards, I browsed the SCBWI book table and bought, as per my agent's recommendation, Leonard S. Marcus' MINDERS OF MAKE-BELIEVE: Idealists, Entrepreneurs, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature (Houghton Mifflin 2008). And then I spotted my books! Yippee! And oh look, YA poet novelist SONYA SONES bought my book!

I also ran into fello LAYA and amazing illustrator DAN SANTAT. He proudly showed us his new book, THE GHOSTS OF LUCKLESS GULCH (written by Anne Isaacs/Antheneum 2008). We also ate free Dove chocolate ice cream bars, which were being handed out as a free snack by the hotel!

I later went to dinner with authors KELLY DIPUCCHIO, LISA WHEELER, CAROLYN CRIMI, APRIL YOUNG FRITZ and her daughter, and AUTUMN CORNWELL. Autumn just returned from a trip to Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma helping orphans, refugees, and cyclone victims. (A moment to reflect - Autumn is one of the most spiritually cool people I know and has a giant heart.) Check out Autumn's debut novel CARPE DIEM (Fiewel & Friends, 2008) which is based on her life growing up in other countries as an MK (Missionary Kid).

Then I came back and met with - surprise - a good friend whom I haven't seen in many years! Guess who it was?

JEFF LIN, guitarist for the amazing band HARVEY DANGER! HOW FREAKIN' COOL IS THAT???!!!! We knew each other when I was an intern at The Seattle Times in 1992. He and the band are on a brief tour in Los Angeles, where they are playing Largo on Saturday night. It was so great to catch up with Jeff after all these years (the last time we saw each other was in 1995 or '96!). He told me some amazing stories about his experience with Harvey Danger and the crazy chaos of overnight success when their song "Flagpole Sitta" became a huge radio hit. One day, I should have him as a guest blogger - I could have listened to him all night, he had such incredible stories to tell. He's also a talented writer, journalist, computer science guy, and yes, he too plays the violin! My agent and editor Alice Pope joined us for a bit too. Here's some pics of us: (L-R) Jeff Lin, me, Alice Pope, Steve Malk

If you're free on Saturday August 2nd, go see Harvey Danger at Largo in Los Angeles. They'll play an acoustic set at Largo, located on 366 N. La Cienaga Blvd. Tickets are $15. Here's the link to the club: http://largo-la.com/largohome.html

For more info, check out Harvey Danger's website at:

http://www.harveydanger.com/

And here's a youtube link to the video for "Flagpole Sitta" - enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xzxDRA93Nk

Rock on, guys!

Well, it's almost 10 a.m. on a Saturday and I gotta get ready for another long and crazy day at SCBWI, not to mention tonight's annual SCBWI dance party (theme: Paint the Town Red). Hmm, what should I wear? Stay tuned for Day 3's blog!