Hello New England Writers and Illustrators!
Yesterday, all of the RA's and ARA's from the New England came together with the Conference Co-Directors to review all the fabulous events and programs that are in the works and to discuss how to best serve the membership. These meetings tend to happy every six months or so. One big one a couple months before the big annual NESCBWI conference, and one a few months after.

The conference plans are cruising along under the enthusiastic and well-organized eyes of Kathryn Hulik and Joyce Johnson. They are working closely with volunteer coordinators, editor/agent recruiters, critique and quick query coordinators, and the registrar to plan a fabulous conference. Remember that all of us who work for SCBWI are volunteers. If you'd like to get involved, follow this link to get more information. The deadline for conference workshop proposals is this Friday, September 16th and the committee reported that they already have over 100 proposals for conference workshops. (Click here if you'd like to know more.) The competition to present will be tight this year but our new venue won't. This year's conference, "Keeping it Real: Reality and World-building in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Illustration" will take place April 20-22, 2012 at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel, Springfield, MA.

The competition to present will be tight this year but our new venue won't. This year's conference, "Keeping it Real: Reality and World-building in Fiction, Nonfiction, and Illustration" will take place April 20-22, 2012 at the Sheraton Springfield Monarch Place Hotel, Springfield, MA. The ballroom is so big that the directors are planning a sit-down lunch. There are also plenty of break-out rooms for great workshops!
 
I’d love for all of you to take a moment to go to the SCBWI site and look at the top menu. You’ll see a pull down tab labeled “Regions.” Click on “Regional Chapters” and find your state in red text in the “United States of America” box. When you click there, you’ll see five tabs. The first is “Basic Information.” This shows a basic blurb about us and our website. Next you’ll see that I’ve uploaded a current copy of the NESCBWI Newsletter. That means that you don’t have to go through a variety of hoops to get it. (It’s also available under the “Regional News” tab.) I’ve also uploaded some of the bigger NESCBWI events that are in the works. (More details on these are on the “Upcoming Events” tab.) Finally, information and links about the annual conference, including volunteering info is located under the “Regional Conference” tab. When the registration link comes out in January, I’ll post that too.
 
The meeting was very productive. Newsletter Features Editor, Francine Puckly is working on a way that you all can share news and events through a Google Form that will get published in the newsletter. We are all working on how to share information from SCBWI national with all of you. And here is some BIG news.

New England SCBWI welcomes Casey Girard as our new Illustrator Coordinator. Casey will work with all three New England RA's to better serve the needs of our illustrator members. Casey and I will be working on establishing an Northern New England ENCORE! program of the best illustrator workshops from our annual conference. We are hoping she can revive our "Illustrator Day" with speakers and demonstrations, and plan sketch crawls and retreats.  Congratulations, Casey and thank you for all the work you've already done to coordinate the conference Illustrator's Academy for the last two years!
 
Keep writing and drawing!
Anna