{"id":1807,"date":"2008-09-30T02:37:00","date_gmt":"2008-09-30T02:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1807"},"modified":"2018-11-20T05:29:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-20T05:29:57","slug":"kidlit-conference-08-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/?p=1807","title":{"rendered":"Kidlit Conference ’08: Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been looking forward to this for ages. Since last year, actually, when I just didn’t have the travel funding to go to the first annual Kidlit conference. (We were saving up for a trip to the Venice Biennale last fall.) So I was really eager to meet fellow bloggers and represent for FW and RR at Kidlit 08: Bridging Books and Blogs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Friday evening, I arrived in Portland, and had the opportunity to try to transport myself to Deschutes Brewery downtown to meet up with kidlitosphere folks, but I was tired, and also feeling shy, so I didn’t make it out of the hotel. Instead, I treated myself to a late dinner in the hotel restaurant and went back to my room to relax. I figured an early night was not a bad idea, since the day of conference fun was going to kick off around 8:00 a.m. (I am not a morning person. Not a bit.)<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251639611178827090\"<\/a>Shortly after 8:00, our lovely hostesses Laini Taylor<\/a> and Jone MacCulloch welcomed everyone to Portland, and the day kicked into high gear. The first session was “Bridging Books and Blogs: A panel discussion about the Kidlitosphere,” with Mark Blevis<\/a>, Betsy Bird<\/a>, Alice Pope<\/a>, Dia Calhoun (our fellow Mills alum)<\/a>, and Lorie Ann Grover<\/a>. I did take actual written notes, but as I have a tendency to do, I also doodled little pictures of the people who were presenting. Pictured at right: Lorie Ann Grover and Alice Pope. Pictured below: Mark Blevis. <\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251642367958405090\"<\/a>I feel compelled to offer the following: Please do not be offended if I didn’t doodle your picture. It probably means one of three things: a) I did not have a good view of your face from where I was sitting; b) you were moving around (which is not a criticism); or c) I was so rapt by what you were saying that I was too distracted\/busy writing stuff down to draw you. Or, d) I did draw your picture, but I didn’t like how it turned out so I don’t want to show it to the public. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Anyway, one of the ideas that stuck with me from the opening session was the example of the Readergirlz, whose online and offline success seemed attributable in part to having a well-defined mission–a driving interest and a unique purpose. I don’t know if FW has that–or needs it, since we’re basically just two writers and readers talking about stuff we like–but it’s something to ponder. Do we need a mission? Is FW really a project, or is it more of a pastime?<\/p>\n

\"\"id=\"BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5251644699855226114\"<\/a>In any case, it was so exciting to get to meet such a great group of writers and bloggers in person–I can’t emphasize that enough. Then, at 9:10, Colleen Mondor<\/a> and Jackie Parker<\/a> (over there on the right) spoke on “Making the Most of the Community: Blog Tour Events.” I was especially looking forward to meeting Colleen, since we’ve communicated so often due to the SBBT\/WBBT and working together on Guys Lit Wire<\/a>; and I’d already met Jackie over the summer during a trip to Seattle, along with Alkelda the Gleeful<\/a>, so I was super happy to see them both again.<\/p>\n

It’s funny, but when I met you all in person it was like we already knew each other, even though we kinda sorta didn’t. I imagine that’s what it’s like when you think you knew someone in a past life (if you believe in that sort of thing, which I tend not to, but it’s fun to think about). More on past life friends tomorrow, in Part II…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been looking forward to this for ages. Since last year, actually, when I just didn’t have the travel funding to go to the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2,18,10,73],"class_list":["post-1807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-af","tag-happenings","tag-views","tag-world-o-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1807"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5193,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1807\/revisions\/5193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writingya.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}