Well.  School starts today!  I love the rhythm of the school season...  Anyway, I thought I'd put more up about the SCBWI LA conference.  One of my favorite quotes came from a writer's workshop, from a woman named Karen Cushman who wrote The Midwife's Apprentice, among other things.  She had such quotable things to say; very inspirational and funny.  My favorite was,

"Write, and Keep Showing Up."  Wow.  That's pretty much it, isn't it?  She also said, "Write, don't fantasize."  I got that one loud and clear, as I'm often dialoguing in my head, and it really does need to get put on paper to be of any use.  I also liked, "Inspiration often hits when my butt is far from my chair."  I write as well as draw, but I think the advice applies very easily to both.  I have put in my posting today a very silly thing, but I'm realizing that staying connected to the very silly thing is an important thing to me.  If you're an artist, you may understand this- to take in a lot of audio information, I have to doodle.  Not just take notes, actually draw.  Teachers get kids in trouble for this, but it holds true for me, and I'm sure those arty kids in detention, that letting the brain drop into that swimmy vat where doodling frees up the thinking (like listening to jazz) really does help the information land and sink in.  So here are the backs of heads I doodled while at the conference.