Los Angeles Summer Conference was...awesome!

Hi all,

Sticking my nose in this here blog to do a quick update. This past weekend, I attended the SCBWI's 40th Annual Summer Conference her in Los Angeles and had an absolute blast. I don't have much time for a long post detailing ALL of the great stuff I learned and was inspired by, but here are a few of the key things that happened and impacted me:

1. I got to hang out with ADULTS...you know, people that aren't one year old. Or four years old. And those adults were awesome!!! It was a like a weekend of "Author/Illustrator Housewives" mixed with "The (Kidlit) View" and "Dancing with the (Children's Publishing) Stars" all rolled into one! Here are just a FEW of the people I had fun giggling/dancing/talking shop with. Go check out their amazing art:

-Erin O'shea

-Kim Dwinell

-Jennifer Gray Olson

-Jessica Lanan

-Julia Collard

-Angela Matteson

-Kelly Light

-Casey Girard

-Diandra Mae

There are way more people that I should add to the list and there's a ton of people I really wanted to hang out with more, but never got a chance to. Sometimes, since there was a MILLION people there, a wave across a sea of people was all it could be.

2. Laurie Halse Anderson's breakout session flipped a switch in my brain when she said (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Not taking the time to fulfill your dreams is teaching your children--especially your daughters--how NOT to fulfill their dreams." I never thought of it that way. She is awesome and I wish I could have a direct line to call her when I'm feeling sorry for myself or feeling "mom guilt" for time spent following my dreams. I'm seriously going to somehow hang that quote above my computer and maybe on the ceiling above my bed so I see it every morning when I wake up. I'm serious.

3. Oh, and there was this. Yes, I won an award! I was one of four picked for the "Mentorship Award". It was awesome and I'm, like, "whoa" and I'm ecstatic and even today, five days later, I'm still trying to sort through all the wonderful information and ideas that have been floating through my mind since meeting with our undeniably awesome mentors. Yes that was a total run on sentence, I know. But that's how it sounds and feels in my brain.

The big take away from the weekend is: Spending time on myself, my dreams and my craft will pay off in SO many ways not only for myself, but for my children. It is so important for all of us to nurture our God-given talents and to not stuff them away for a later date. This idea was a running theme throughout the weekend and it came up and punched me in the face quite a few times.

My main goal for next year? I need to work on not being such a chicken!!! There's no reason that I shouldn't just go up to that big art director waiting behind me in the Starbucks line (i.e. Laurent Linn) and say, "Hi! I'm Christina Forshay! An Illustrator!"

Maybe I should join Toastmasters or somethin'.

Okay, I'm rambling. Time to go!