Wrapping up the Chapel Hill Retreat

In addition to the great sessions on Voice, Point of View and the Pitch and Purpose of our work, we also had time to lounge on the back porch, join small critique groups, or work on our own.

On our last night we had a chance to read for 5 minutes. This picture is of my critique buddy, Janelle, reading from her YA MS. I was brave and read from my current WIP also.

Alan Gratz was one of the attendees. Let me tell you, he's a super nice and talented guy! He was kind enough to answer our endless questions about his writing journey to publication. He's the author of Samarai Shorstop and Something Rotten, with three new titles coming out in the near future. I feel honored to say I was at the conference while he was working on his current WIP, which sounds absolutely fantastic and fresh! If you haven't read any of Alan's work, you need to get out to the library or book store and pick one up!

This is a picture of Maggie Moe taking a picture of me taking her picture.

Some parting words of wisdom from our editors, Martha, Krista and Sarah:

MS's that are easy for them to pass on: 1) Bad writing; clumsy or obvious 1st draft. 2) Not knowing the Genre. 3) an unauthentic voice

What makes them want to see more:
1) solid writing
2) Good concept of voice

Also:
1) When submitting, keep editorial assitents in mind. They are just starting to build up their career and are more likely to have time to read more and work with new talent.

Sunday afternoon. Time to leave with lots of things to think about, digest and apply. I've found that blogging has been a great way to help me internalize what I learned, and hopefully some readers have learned something along the way too.
If you've never been to a writing retreat, I think it was worth the time and $$$.

Happy Writing!