Post Conference Wrap Up--Day One

The first day of the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshop is the intensives.  These are an extra expense, and limited in attendance, so I find they can be better craft-wise than the regular workshop days.

This year, I attended the Novel Intensive, which was presented by Gaby Triana, Nancy Werlin, and Josh Adams.

Some great takeaways from the Intensive:

Gaby Triana did a presentation on Writing With Character, using the Storysaurus.  I had actually heard of the Storysaurus before from Jamie Harrington (link).  However, Gaby uses the Storysaurus to plot her character arc, in the same way.  She had us mark our manuscripts with our character arc, and it was very enlightening.

Then we listened to First Page Critiques, which is when  the panel reads first pages out loud and critiques them.  Some things that stood out to me in the critiques were: inauthentic dialog, too much description, and not having the protagonist on the first page.  The panelists also noted that a good title can be an attention-grabber.

Next Nancy took us through Storyboard plotting, a technique she adapted from Carolyn Coman's WRITING STORIES.  A storyboard is a map to your story and ensures that you have action driving your plot.  We storyboarded our novels, and it was fun and interesting.  I suggest you check out Ms. Coman's book and try it yourself!

Then Josh talked about today's YA market.  This was a fascinating presentation.  He talked about trends and the market, and about what his agency looks for.  I loved his enthusiasm and obvious love for books in general, and the books he represents, specifically.

Nancy and Gaby then presented on The Art of Time Management (or in other words, how do you find time to write?).  Nancy suggested scheduling appointments for yourself, but the bottom line seemed to be--make it a priority.  And stop wasting time on the internet--lol.

Overall, I had a wonderful day at the Novel Intensive.  Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a signed copy of Nancy's book IMPOSSIBLE and some RENEGADE swag.

You get extra points for commenting on today's post. :)

Come back on Tuesday for my Conference Wrap Up of Day Two--The YA Track.

Post-Conference Giveaway!

Hi there!

I know this post is, like a week and a half overdue. I am so sorry about that.



I have been trying to complete a draft of my WIP to send to betas while I'm out of town (and will probably get NO writing time *sigh*).  And then, TRAGEDY STRUCK.




I had one of my BEST WRITING DAYS EVER and wrote 3,000 words.  And when I saved, something went wrong.  When I tried to open the file the next day, it WOULDN'T OPEN.




*shakes head* *cries*  At least I have most of the manuscript, but those 3,000 words are gone. *moment of silence for lost words*

ANYWAY, I am finally done mourning and ready to work some more, and ready to post this GIVEAWAY!

I have a signed copy of Nancy Werlin's IMPOSSIBLE

PLUS, some awesome sekrit RENEGADE swag.

(RENEGADE is a SUPER AWESOME book coming out in November from Tor Teen--you want this swag, I promise.)

Enter via the Rafflecopter below. Extra points for commenting on my TWO upcoming blog posts with Conference tidbits. ;)


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Keep being awesome!

Winner, signings, hot models, and a conference! (Oh my!)

Almost a week later, (sorry!) I have chosen a winner! (Actually, Random.org chose her, but you know what I mean).

Medeia Sharif!

Congrats, Medeia! Email me your physical addy at lchardesty at yahoo dot com and I'll send you THE DOWNSIDE OF BEING CHARLIE. YAY!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of going to the #daemoninvasion signing for Jennifer L. Armentrout's Lux series.  The cool part was that she brought her cover models with her.

After the signing, I went to dinner with everyone, and then I got to see my great friend and critique partner, J.A. Souders, open her very first box of ARCs. I think I was *almost* as excited as she was.

This weekend, I'm heading to the SCBWI Florida Mid-Year Workshops, and as usual, I'll be back next week with tips from the conference, and at least one signed book from a presenter!

See you next week!

GIVEAWAY: The Downside of Being Charlie

A couple of weeks ago, I attended the book launch for The Downside of Being Charlie, a contemporary YA debut from Jenny Torres Sanchez. 

Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Charlie is handed a crappy senior year. Despite losing thirty pounds over the summer, he still gets called “Chunks” Grisner. What’s worse, he has to share a locker with the biggest Lord of the Rings freak his school has ever seen. He also can’t figure out whether Charlotte VanderKleaton, the beautiful strawberry lip-glossed new girl, likes him the way he likes her. Oh, and then there’s his mom. She’s disappeared—again—and his dad won’t talk about it.

Somewhere between the madness, Charlie can at least find comfort in his one and only talent that just might get him out of this life-sucking place. But will he be able to hold his head above water in the meantime?

Though the  signing was local, it was still about 45 minutes to an hour to get there, and we missed her speech. *sadface*  But I was so happy to see that Jenny had QUITE the line going for the signing.

I went with Jessica Souders and Christina Farley (from whom I stole borrowed all of these images--Christy is the BEST at getting lots of great pictures).  Here we all are with  Jenny!

And guess what? 


Okay, so it's really not a surprise since I titled the blogpost "GIVEAWAY", but I bought a copy for you, too!  And even nabbed you some swag!

Just comment with your email address to enter, and you can get an extra entry for anywhere you spread the word (twitter, blog, facebook, tumblr, etc.).  Just leave a link.


Contest closes Friday, June 8 at 6pm EST.