Gary D. Schmidt is giving the keynote. That’s right, author of one of my favorite YA books: ‘The Wednesday Wars’. You’ve probably already read it, but here’s the SCBWI GDS Interview from 2/16/18. I especially appreciated this part: “I really don’t have any advice on productivity other than to say this: Don’t waste time…Focus on a specific, given set of tasks that are very well defined, and get those done.”
This advice resonates with me. Lately, I’ve surprised myself by morphing from my Organic Crunchy-Granola writing methods (many cups of coffee spiked with coconut milk, scratching chins of cats sprawling around my computer, Alexa blaring my Bent/Sigur ros radio station) into: Taskmistress. Effective! (Although the cats aren’t happy to be kicked out of the office and I’m not that wild about kicking Alexa out, but it’s better, it’s just better). Also, I follow Susan Orlean on Twitter and she tends to tweet word count goals for her writing day. Inspiring. And brings out the Competitive-Taskmistress in me, a whole other writing animal.
GDS will deliver the keynote at the Skirball Cultural Ctr, one of the most beautiful venues
The exquisite Skirball Cultural Center
for any writers day, anywhere. As long as brush fires aren’t concurrent.
There are colors involved with this Writers Day. I’ve chosen the Green Level, but 2 other color levels are also offered. If you’re going, you know what that means. If you’re still in the throes of procrastination, the colors mystery can easily be solved by clicking this link:
I am not getting paid to cheerlead for SCBWI. I’m just excited about showing up (as I did last year), sitting in the esthetically lit theatre and listening. And eating what I hope is a comparable lunch to last year’s, which was Wolfgang Puck-ish in caliber (IMO).
I’ve only just recently learned what IMO means. I have no excuse for being late to the IMO party as I have known for years what LMAO means.
See you there. I’m a volunteer this year, so say hello!
Yours in important hilltop events,
PB
PB Rippey Writes 
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