writers' retreat on the beach!

I should have posted a beach photo after writing that title, but I had to show that instead of luxuriating on the beach all weekend, we did actually work! Last weekend I attended the MG/YA Writers Retreat in Fort Lauderdale organized by the fabulous Allyson Levitt of editandgetit.com. I highly recommend any event she plans...she works hard and does whatever possible to provide the info and opportunities that writers need. She even added skypes with more editors at the last minute, just because she wanted to...how many people would do that, and not charge any more money?

Above is a photo from the Agents and Editors panel, including Jess Regel, Heather Flaherty, Krista Vitola, and Julia Maguire. Also pictured is me with Allyson's dog Lucy, who was the unofficial conference mascot, and me with Gary D. Schmidt, award-winning author and keynote speaker for the weekend.

The best part of the retreat, besides meeting so many great people, was my critique with Gary D. Schmidt. If you ever get the chance to have him critique your work, DO IT! I left his critique more motivated than ever. In fact, I'm going to quit writing this post and go work on the book I discussed with him...