fannywrites

This is my second winter conference. They have good writer speakers, but I also enjoy the illustrators speakers.  The highlight on Sunday was the talk by Julie Andrews and her daughter Emma Walton Hamilton. Don’t call her a celebrity author, she detests that term because writing is hard, she said. Anyway, she is not a celebrity writer.  She wrote children’s books twenty years ago before co-writing with her daughter. Emma teaches writing L.I. and she lives on the west coast, so they write every word together by Skype. I have not read her books. Her most recent one is on the NYtimes best selling picture book list.  She freely admits that her name recognition sells books. We can be sure that her daughter, writing on her own, will not sell as many books.I have not read Madonna’s books or Fergie’s, but they surely are celebrity writers.

This year, I got more from  he breakout workshops than from the main speakers. It’s great to know that Charlesbridge accepts unsolicited submissions. It’s too bad my nonfiction book exceeds the 30 page maximum guidelines for nonfiction. But I can send in a picture book manuscript.  The Harper -Collins’ editor is interested in YA, so she’s not for me at this time.

I am not good at meeting people and talk shop at the social afterwards.  This time, I was rewarded with the assurance by one writer in the NYMetro area that it’s worth while to pay for an intensive on Friday. I will sign up for a session next year and do it early because it sells out fast.

The conference is expensive at $388.  I commute by subway, so without the cost of a hotel, it’s within my budget.