EXPANDED SATURDAY SCHEDULE WITH SESSION DESCRIPTIONS

(Green Center, Colorado School of Mines)

8:45 - 9:45

Voice: How to Get Heard - Donna Jo Napoli
Donna Jo will explore how to use your ear to your advantage, the value of orality, the nuts and bolts of point of view and person and how that interacts with developing a voice, the advisability and effectiveness of mixing more than one voice and/or point of view and/or person in your story.

10:00 - 11:00

Editor Panel with Yolanda LeRoy, Cheryl Klein, and Michele Burke (moderated by Co-RA Denise Vega)
Editors will briefly describe their houses and their acquisitions process before answering questions about what manuscripts catch their eye and what makes them groan in a manuscript. The panel will be opened up to questions from the audience at the end.

Manuscript Makeovers - Claudia Mills
Claudia will provide detailed case studies of the "before" and "after" of many of her manuscripts, focusing on exactly what was changed, and why, after the extensive critique by her Boulder writing group and by her editor of twenty-five years, Beverly Reingold at FSG, including: her first five tries at a successful first chapter for Alex Ryan, Stop That!; problems with pacing in Makeovers by Marcia; radical pruning of picture book text for Phoebe's Parade; and working toward a more satisfying ending for 7 X 9 = Trouble! She'll also distill some helpful guidelines for how to tackle -- and triumph over -- your own revisions.

Developing Your Craft - Wendell Minor
A session on how you can go beyond your present ability. If you don't move forward with your work, you'll get left behind. Wendell will challenge and inspire you to take your work to the next level. Wendell's cover illustrations have enhanced over 2000 works and his awards are too numerous to list here - this is simply a must-attend session for anyone seriously interested in an illustration career. Please visit Wendell Minor's website to see the magnitude of his work: www.minorart.com

11:15 - 12:15

Journey of a First (Published) Novel - Denise Vega
Walk through the evolution of a first published children's novel from idea to manuscript to finished book, including editorial letters for revision, copyedited pages and galleys. The workshop will include why the author believes this book sold and her other five have not (yet!) and what it means to persevere for a dozen years to make that first novel sale.

Writer Beware! How to Avoid Common Mistakes and Get Out of the Slush Pile - Laura Backes
The bad news: you have 10 seconds to impress an editor with your submission, and editors are experts at spotting common mistakes beginning writers make over and over. The good news: if you know how to avoid these mistakes, your manuscript will rise to the top of the slush pile in record time. Laura Backes, who has critiqued hundreds of manuscripts over the past 15 years, will show you how to avoid pitfalls common to all manuscripts, and will also point out specific mistakes writers make with picture books and novels.

Digital Files: Help! The Printer is Speaking Geek! - Danlyn Iantorno
Today’s printer is increasingly digital and this can leave traditional illustrators wondering why the printed piece doesn’t resemble their original artwork. This session will shed some light on the mysteries behind digital printing. Learn how to select the correct DPI, the differences between various digital color palettes, why to use different file formats and how they affect your printed illustration. We will also look at the available methods for getting your proofs and finished work to the printer digitally. This session will be presented in a beginner format so NO question is too simple.

1:45 - 3:00

First Pages with Associate Editor Cheryl Klein
Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall as an editor reads that crucial first page of your manuscript, cover letter, query or synopsis? In this session, you will see and hear an editor's initial reaction to actual first pages submitted by conference attendees.

First Pages with Assistant Editor Michele Burke
Wouldn't you love to be a fly on the wall as an editor reads that crucial first page of your manuscript, cover letter, query or synopsis? In this session, you will see and hear an editor's initial reaction to actual first pages submitted by conference attendees.

Author-to-Author: A Networking Session
This is a free form session for authors interested in sharing ideas—marketing, writing, promoting, revising—whatever questions or solutions you may want to share.

Group Portfolio Review with Executive Editor Yolanda LeRoy
Yolanda LeRoy will present a 10-15 minute talk on what she looks for in illustration submissions and how the process works. She will then review portfolios brought by illustrators in the remaining hour.

3:00 - 3:30

Bookapalooza
Take a break, buy a book, have some refreshments, and enjoy the fabulous art by illustrators in a public portfolio viewing. Also, authors and illustrators will be available in Metals Hall to autograph books purchased at the book table.

3:30 - 4:30

When and How to Rewrite - Donna Jo Napoli
Donna Jo will cover how to get and recognize useful feedback, how to grow thick skin and big ears, and what to do with family’s, friends’, and editors’ comments.

Using Photoshop as a Sketching Tool - Lori Kiplinger Pandy
Though she doesn't hold herself out as a Photoshop guru, Lori does find the program invaluable in the sketching stages. She will show how she uses Photoshop to scan in a sketch or import a digital photo, how to cut off arms and distort faces and re-arrange to make the composition that you want. She will provide specific examples from her own work, including how she "cut off the arms of a teacher and stuck on my husband's arms and made them skinny....and then morphed the whole thing later to turn the hybrid man into an old African American man!"

7:00 pm Saturday After-Banquet Talk

Inch by Inch, Row by Row - Claudia Mills
Claudia will share humorous and inspirational tips drawn from her experiences of writing close to forty books while working full-time and raising a family. Nobody has cut more corners with less guilt than Claudia has! Her secret: patiently and ploddingly trudging along "inch by inch, row by row" -- and knowing which rows you can skip over without (almost) anybody noticing....

Lunch and Dinner Menus:

The Saturday lunch will be a plated lunch, your choice of the one of the following:

Saturday buffet dinner at the Golden Hotel, additional $28. 6:00 - 7:00 PM. Open to a limited number of registered participants on a first-come, first-served basis. The buffet this year will be the Italiano Buffet, which includes Penne Pasta with Marinara Sauce & Pesto Cream Sauce, Meatballs, Sausage, Caesar Salad, Anti-Pasto Platter & Italian Breadsticks, with Tiramisu for dessert.