Retreat! Retreat!

I tried to express how helpful the Kidlit community was when I wrote this post. But, it is extremely difficult to quantify how great the writers, illustrators, editors, agents, and everyone else in this community is. I spent last weekend running towards people yelling, “Retreat! Retreat!” at the Eastern PA SCBWI Pocono retreat. They were not all amused. In any case, I had a ton of fun.

Fun. You remember that, right? It’s what happens when you do something you enjoy. Well, I enjoy being creative and this retreat was all about that. From the Friday peer critique group through the Sunday goodbye lunch we were talking about writing, story ideas, books to read, and ways to improve our writing. I learned something new from everyone I talked to. I made some great new friends, and I look forward to the next event.

This is the type of environment that I thrive in.

I love to create things myself, but I also enjoy helping other people. Sometimes, my skewed perspective is just what they need to see their idea through a new lens. Of course, sometimes it isn’t. Yes, I was off base on the Space Moose Warrior idea, but there’s a good nugget in there. It just needs to be developed.

I’d like to send a huge thank you to all the great people I met this weekend. My creative juices are overflowing. I’ve been coming up with new ideas too fast to write them. I will though. Some will be great and some not so good. One thing I know, I will have a lot of help when I need it.