Well, thank you Colorado!
The conference was one of the best I’ve ever had the good luck to attend. The organizers were organized (yay!) and the conference-goers enthusiastic and really nice, in a Mid-West kind of way, but this was Colorado, so they were nice and ecologically sound all at the same time.
Along with my pal Kimberly Willis Holt, I got to hang out with Chris Raschka, Jaime Adoff, his dad, the poet Arnold Adoff, and illustrator Steve Jenkins. They are all funny, fascinating people and we had a great time. It felt more like sleepaway camp than a conference.
They do things in a very hip way in Colorado. The food for example: chicken fajita wraps and black beans for lunch. One of the author signings/receptions was a cookies and milk reception. (I kid you not.)
And then there was this.
The dessert spread for the other author signing. But check out the close-up.
That is a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!!!! They had bowls of fruit and cookies to dip in it.
I wanted to put my whole face in it. But that would have rude, so I didn’t. But I sure thought about it long and hard.
Me and Hilary, my author wrangler for the weekend.
If you get the chance to go to next year’s conference you should. Rumor has it that Richard Peck will be there. I don’t know about the chocolate fountain, but you should go just for that alone, if you ask me. It is held in Greeley, CO, which is up near Wyoming and Nebraska, and only an hour away from Denver.
This is a short week for me because I leave Friday for Orlando, for the Florida English Teacher’s Conference. (No, this is not autumn, this is Conference Season.) I spent most of the day catching up on paperwork. Tomorrow I dive back into the next round of revisions of my WIP. My editor liked what I sent her, and we agreed on which areas need expanding to even out the pacing issues. We’ll be making some website updates, stay tuned for those.
BH is calling… the chili is ready.