Betty Birney’s Blog

I just want to say a special Valentine’s Day thank you to Humphrey’s devoted fans … and to those who write to say they love Sassafras Springs and Princess Egg.

Those of you who take the time to email or write are very generous and I appreciate it.

Thanks from the  bottom of my heart!

If you want to read about Humphrey’s Valentine’s Day, read FRIENDSHIP ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY.

Friendship According to Humphrey in Dutch -smile!

I’m sticking my toe back in the water – here’s a link to an illustrator’s blog with a very sweet interview with a fan of SURPRISES ACCORDING TO HUMPHREY about what makes a book good.

Now it’s back to working on Humphrey’s seventh book – hope it will be a good one!

Me at the Faculty Party

I may have only been staying 20 minutes from home, but for my five days at the SCBWI Conference in Century City, I might as well have been on another planet – all populated by people who are passionate about children’s books! It’s a lovely place to live, at least for a little while.

Thursday night’s faculty party got things rolling and it was fun to hang out with Marietta Zacker, from the Nancy Gallt Literary Agency (Nancy is my wonderful agent), Michael Reisman and April Halprin Wayland, also clients. And there were new people to meet and a chance to rub elbows with the likes of Linda Sue Park and Richard Peck.

There were too many highlights to mention them all. Sherman Alexie (The Absolutely True Confessions of a Part-Time Indian), started the conference with a hilarious and heart-rending speech. Now that’s hard to pull off. Knowing I was giving the closing keynote of the day, I was about ready to turn tail and go home. But first, I had to present a workshop on School Visits – a difficult subject and I had a lot of information to cram into an hour.

Humphrey and Me on the big stage

Late that afternoon, with great trepidation, I stepped onto the giant stage in a humonguous ballroom with an audience of hundreds and hundreds and one of those 20 foot screens behind me. SCBWI President and co-founder, Lin Oliver, gave me just the kind of introduction I needed to present a lighthearted look at creating a humorous series. Once I started talking, all fears melted because (as any speaker at this conference will tell you), the conference attendees make the most generous and responsive audience a person could dream of. With their support, we all had fun, I think – and I could relax a little for the first time in many days!

There was a wine and cheese reception where published authors and illustrated displayed their work (and I stood in two different lines for cheese but somehow never got any) and then Marietta, Michael, April and Scott Bly -whose first book comes out in 2010 – walked over to the nearby food court for sustenance and fun.

More highlights to come (including the amazing Blue Moon Ball)  ….. but let me just say if you want to write children’s books, are trying to write children’s books or already write children’s books, come to an SCBWI Conference. Your creative spirit will thank you!

I’m leaving home for five days and going to the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) annual conference! I’m going all the way from my house in Studio City to the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza in Century City – it should take me about 20-25 minutes to get there! It seems odd to be packing my bags when I’ll be so close to home but these conferences are jammed pack with events and it will be nice to have a place to put up my feet, work on my presentations … and I can have a glass of wine at the parties and dinners because I’m not driving!

I’ll be giving the School Visit workshop tomorrow at 11:45 … then a keynote on Committing Serial Fiction with a Smile at 4:30.

Tonight – it’s party time for the faculty which includes, agents, editors, all kinds of experts and, in no particular order, Richard Peck, Sherman Alexie, Linda Sue Park, Ingrid Law, Holly Black, Dan Yaccarino, Karen Cushman,  Kathleen Duey, Ellen Hopkins, Marla Frazee to name a few…. the mind reels!

I’m going to try really hard to blog every day (emphasis on try).

Last night, Amy Goldman Koss (The Girls) hosted an awesome farewell party for Kerry Madden (Harper Lee) who is leaving L.A. to teach at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. It’s a wonderful opportunity for Kerry, who is a born teacher as well as writer, and a great boon for Birmingham,  but we’ll definitely miss her smiling face at our LAYA events. (She’ll come back to L.A. as her family is temporarily divided.)

Kerry and me at Mrs. Nelson's

Lisa Yee and Kerry Madden at Kerry's signing at Skylight Books earlier this year.

I took my camera and then proceeded to have such a good time, I didn’t take any pictures of the folks my husband Frank and I hung out with: Kerry’s husband, Kiffen,  Lisa Yee (Absolutely Maybe) and her husband Scott, Michael Reisman (Simon Bloom, Gravity Keeper), computer guy Scott Bly (YA book coming out soon), Sally Nemeth (The Heights, The Depths and Everything in Between), or fellow “starter LAYA”  and future bride, Eileen Rosenbloom (Stuck Down).

Above is a picture of Kerry and me at a signing about 4 or 5 years ago. Goodness, we both look so much better now! Funny how that happens. We’ve signed together a couple of times and in fact , we met at a disastrous event (in terms of turnout) where we got to spend the entire day talking (due to lack of turnout), and had a fun time kibitzing away the day with Alan Zweibel of Saturday Night Live fame and many, many other stellar accomplishments. (Maybe he’ll become a senator one day.)

LAYA stands for Los Angeles Young Adult writers and Kerry and I were at the first informal meeting, hosted by our guiding light, Cecil Castellucci, who also attended Amy’s party last night. (But of course, I didn’t take pictures.)

There was the obligatory tour of Amy’s amazing bomb shelter – a book in itself. Amy hates it, but liked the house so much she and Mitch bought it in spite of the shelter.

So, bye-bye Kerry and don’t forget to write (more books)!!!
Weather alert: it’s HOT in L.A. – even in the shade of our patio.