SCBWI New England Conference Coming Up!

The New England regions of the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators have opened registration for their conference on 18-20 May 2007 in Nashua, New Hampshire. Registration forms in PDF format can be downloaded here.

This year's keynote speakers are agent Stephen Fraser, author and audiobook producer Bruce Coville, Newbery-winning author and humorist Sid Fleischman, and adult and young adult author Cheryl Zach. There will be at least two panel discussions, and a whopping 46 workshops offered over three days. (More about those later.)

Because SCBWI New England combines the resources and membership of three regions, and because we're close enough to New York to bring in a plethora of publishing professionals, this is one of the largest regional SCBWI conferences.

As for those workshops, one is my own, to be offered as part of the Sunday program for novelists:

Beyond ‘He Said, She Said’: The Do’s and Don’ts of Dialogue

Dialogue is a powerful tool for fiction writers, but it’s a big challenge to depict conversation clearly yet unobtrusively. This workshop offers a systematic approach to the mechanics of dialogue, addressing tags, punctuation, interruptions, distinctive modes of talking, mixing speech with action and thought and how to say goodbye to common mistakes.

Mistakes like designing a workshop for sixty minutes, and then agreeing to expand the topic to fill 105 minutes. Still working that one out...