Post NYC SCBWI Conference :)

I just got back home from a wonderful, inspiring, stressful & fruitful trip to NYC.  If I don't count San Francisco, I'd say it's my favourite city.  I was there for a whole week, which is way longer than I normally stay in NY (and probably the reason why I'm still suffering from a jet-lag). 

I attended the SCBWI Winter Conference and it was all that I hoped for and more.  Brilliant speakers, massive information, fun colleagues and an overall inspiration and encouragement to keep going!  

I was honoured to be invited to be one of the correspondent illustrators, which basically means that I shared my thoughts, drawings and doodles from the conference.  You can see it on the SCBWI Official Blog here and on my official blog here below!

Ok, so sometimes I felt a little bit like this girl...overwhelmed, excited and clueless, all at the same time...

...but the speakers were encouraging to say the least.  I especially admired Anthony Horowitz's speech about writing for children and not giving up.

...and Hello! My new idol; Hervé Tullet!  He performed one of the most lively lectures I've ever seen.

The conference then ended with a powerful and moving speech by the recent Newbery Award Winner, Kwame Alexander.  

I was lucky to meet former classmate from the AAU and fellow illustrator Santiago at the conference.  So lovely to see a friendly face in the crowd :)  Here we are enjoying coffee at the Grand Central St.

I then used the days after the conference to have a few meetings with publishers.  To name a few I was lucky to meet with...

...Simon & Schuster

...Penguin/Dial Books

...Random House

...and I also met with Sterling Publishing and Clarion Books when my camera was out of batteries.

I am so, so grateful to have been able to meet with these wonderful people.

...and we met with dear friends that flew all the way from San Francisco to say hi! and have drinks with us.  This is me and Sara.

...and Sara and Kate (sorry Scott, I didn't take a photo of you)

...and my brother also came (on the left) and my dad came also and flew a few hundred people over on an Icelandair jet (sorry dad, I didn't take a photo of you, although you really deserve your picture here).  And on the right is my hubby, my P.A., my lover, my precious and over all such a swell guy, Eggert.

I saw a lot of pretty books and bought a lot of pretty books...

...and I also bought knobs for my kitchen and couldn't decide which pattern to go for 

(so I just got all of them and my kitchen will be like crazy mix&match, which is fine)...

...and I'll admit, I was pretty beat up the last day, as I'm sure you can tell by that horrible photo I shamelessly put here on the internet.

Now back to reality and back to the drawing table!