Voice quest

So this was Asilomar - magic, where I attended a SCBWI writing conference, met lots of new friends and drank with old ones and learnt loads of inspiring new things and heard awesome speakers like David Wiesner and Cynthia Lord and tried hard to imagine who Fred Farr was apart from obviously a hugely influential figure in children's literature - or at least Pacific Grove.





I came back full of determination to write and cocoon and write some more and lots of things happened that tripped me up, mini hurdles as life goes, but I managed to get through so now I'm on a roll except I am having voice angst. Yes I am losing my voice due to a nasty hesitant sneaky kind of cold but I'm also having difficulty finding Lottie's voice.

Meanwhile...on this quest for her voice other minor characters are rebelling and claiming much large parts for themselves than I'd originally planned for them so, even though this is not a rough and I feel like I should be more serious and not playing but absolutely sticking to some kind of rough outline, this story is having none of it. It does make for an interesting journey though!

Meanwhile...also on this voice quest I am reading loads of YA right now Will Grayson Will Grayson - such fabulous voices.
Before I Fall - so compelling - a non-stopper even at over 500 pages (ish!) and Turtle in Paradise - Middle Grade - a lesson in finely crafted story telling.

So daytimes are spent plugged in to my play list wrestling characters to the ground and evenings are spent curled up with a YA.

And there's my life on the horizon -- SCBWI Beyond the Bay this weekend with Deborah Underwood , Wondercon in San Francisco April 1st-3rd, Spring Break, and quite possibly
NEW ZEALAND - YEAH!!!