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Fourteen months ago, when I first went blogging, I knew nothing, I knew no one, I scratched about and made my way. I'd fall through the rabbit hole of GoodReads, for example, and trip up against some smart reviewers. I'd find a comment on one of my postings from, say, Miss Erin, and travel over toward her blog, only to encounter others about whom I would sigh to myself, Oh, wouldn't it be nice to know a little about them.

Hipwritermama was one such force. She seemed so smart. So, well, hip. She thought a lot about books—the ones she was writing, the ones she was reading. She took her time to say precisely what she thought and how she felt. When she disappeared at summer's end for a brief vacation she returned—refreshed, rejuvenated, ever thoughtful. I noticed this.

I dared, at last, to reach out to her. She took the time to come my own blog's way. She was generous, encouraging me on with a passage I was writing, or commenting on something I'd openly been struggling with.

http://hipwritermama.blogspot.com/

I learned, about her, that she lives where I once did. She helped me locate (for my memory was fuzzy) the pond where I taught myself to skate (a memory I borrowed for UNDERCOVER). We talked about cooking, about expectations, about raising children, and recently, hipwritermama, who is also known as Vivian, took the time—she really takes the time—to read my books and to ask me questions for the Winter Blog Blast Tour.

I'm not the only one on whom she has showered such attention. I stand in the privileged company of Melissa Walker, Mark Peter Hughes, and Wendy Mass. All of us together being featured among many other wonderful writers over the course of this coming week.

I'm looking forward to reading these interviews. I invite you to take a look at the full line up, which is posted on the fabulous Chasing Ray.

http://www.chasingray.com/archives/2008/11/2008_winter_blog_blast_tour_sc.html

I left my usual life behind for a few days over the weekend, and retreated to the woods for the Whispering Pines Writer’s Retreat. The location of this event is truly remote, so it’s easy to immerse yourself in both nature and writing, or at least talking about writing. 

The retreat opened with a First Pages panel, whereby participants’ first pages of their current manuscripts are read aloud, and then discussed by the writer and editor mentors. Here they are:

That’s writer Mark Peter Hughes, Charlesbridge editor Emily Mitchell, and Candlewick editor Kaylan Adair. They did a bang-up job of critting the story beginnings, being truthful yet positive.

Someone in this group is probably sweating it out while Lynda reads their First Page…

The next morning was rainy, so the pines were not whispering (which they do on a nice day), but whimpering, maybe.

The weather didn’t interfere with the great sessions, though, or the GREAT food that gets served seemingly all the time. It is easy to get used to gourmet meals served continuously, without having to actually cook or wash the dishes. But I digress.

Emily Mitchell was up first. 

Emily reads. She chose some clear examples of strong voice, which reinforced a lot of what came up during the First Pages panel. She thinks voice is the most essential, driving part of the story.When you start tuning in to what attracts you to a book and makes you want to read more, you start hearing voices, for sure. I really feel like I have a better understanding of this concept than ever before.   

Next up was Mark Peter Hughes, author of I Am the Wallpaper and Lemonade Mouth.  He gave a pens-on workshop about dialogue, and how it can effectively move things along in a story, create tension, etc. It’s great stuff to know. After this, I definitely already had mental updates I wanted to make to my current book text.

Thinking makes me hungry.
All we had to do was follow this path back to the Lodge…

And voila! The Lodge:

The neverending banquet was inside. I didn’t get any good food pictures, but the fine folks of Whispsering Pines have never made a bad meal, as far as I can tell.
Here are some scenes from the dining zone:

Lucia, Mary, and Laurie- bon appetit! 

Kaylan, Moi, and Ilene- slainte!

These gals are a LOT of fun- they helped make it the casual, fun-yet-functional event that it is. Bravo. 

Not pictured: an evening of wild writing-induced debauchery that lingered until morning.Well, that’s what COULD have been going on, for all I know. I went to bed at midnight after a lot of chatting, laughing, and Cadbury eggs.

Morning came early, but the sun was out!

Kaylan Adair from Candlewick presented first on Sunday morning. She gave us an excellent overview of how things run at Candlewick, which seems pretty different from most of the other publishers out there. Different in a good way. It reminds me a bit of the Highlights company, which also operates on it’s own terms and manages to put out well-regarded work.

That’s a picture of her box o’slush behind her.I like this picture- it looks like Kaylan is channeling the angst-ridden spirit of the slush pile!

Next up was my pal Ilene Richard, the illustrator mentor. I have known Ilene for years now, but I still found out lots of new fun facts about her (like, I didn’t know she did jewelry design for 15 years!). I also hadn’t seen a bunch of her art pieces. She’s a prolific gal, and I think she’s on the verge of some big stuff. She read one of her dummy books (which I believe began at last year’s WP), and it is lookin’ GOOD! Best of all, she was not defeated by her own PowerPoint presentation!

Here’s a nice, formal picture of Ilene, Mark, Kaylan, and Emily in front of the fireplace. How rustic!

Mark clearly doesn’t know what to do with his hands.

And then, it was over. I went home with a splitting headache, but after it cleared, I was left with a clear case of inspiration!

Here are some lovely parting shots of the property:

If you are feeling nostalgic for WhisperingPines 2007, click here! 

You know how you won't spot a trend for a while and then before you know it it's everywhere? I mentioned recently that a book presented at the Random House preview had some book jacket similarities to Lisa Yee's titles. Compare and contrast for yourself.

There was this:


As opposed to these:





Brendan Buckley does so well because not only do we have half a child's face staring upwards, but the title itself contains the main character's first and last name. So when bookshelves of doom presented a new entry, I was thrilled. Shown here:
Ideally Storky's last name would be in the title and he'd be looking up, but I think it's a fine new entry into the Lisa Yee Lookalike Contest anyway. Good show!