2012 Working Writer’s Retreat

            For the second year in a row, I attended SCBWI-LA's Working Writer's Retreat. Here's a pic from last year's retreat:

            Luckily, this time I did not get laryngitis from singing too much karaoke. As I mentioned in the previous post, I had just begun a total rewrite of my book, which meant I was reading some pretty raw stuff to agents and editors, but also it afforded me the flexibility to make some fairly drastic changes in between sessions, rather than being a phrase hoarder (people usually say this as "Kill Your Darlings," but I'm a nonconformist). Though frustrating at times, it was definitely a learning experience to be that fast and free with my words.
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            In the meantime, I’d been dragging my picture book dummy with me to every focus group, and finally one of my group members told the editor who was faculty to take a look at my book. (I was so averse to being seen as shoving it in her face, I couldn’t work up the nerve to do it myself.) After the final readings on the last day, I approached her with the picture book and she took a look at it. 

The working cover:

 
            She laughed at it and kept saying it was cute, but we were in the middle of the hallway and I felt terrible, like I had basically done the "hand the manuscript under the bathroom stall" move. She recommended I send it to a particular agent, who I came to find out is like one of the best agents for picture books in the business. Whoa. She also said I could send her the new draft of my novel when I was done with it. *choke*  

           Post-edit: So Julia, you ask, did you query the agent she recommended? Did you send your novel to the editor right away after finishing the rewrite? No. No, I did not. Because I am chicken. This has got to change. And it will.