Tim Gilner & Molly O'Neill

2008 Spring Conference

“Spring Thing”
April 25-27, 2008

Thank you to all who attended this spring’s successful event! We gathered on a mostly sunny weekend on the shore of Lake Simcoe near Barrie, Ontario at the Kempenfelt Conference Centre to learn from Tim Gillner, Art Director of Boyds Mills Press; Molly O’Neill, Assistant Editor of HarperCollins USA’s the Bowen Press; and Elizabeth MacLeod, formerly an editor at Kids Can Press and author of 30 books. Topics included how to build more convincing characters, what is expected of a picture book illustrator, and the essentials of a query letter. Participants had the chance to meet one-on-one with speakers to discuss their own work.

We send out a huge heartfelt thank you to the speakers for their informative presentations and for being so available for questions and conversation throughout the weekend. Mealtime tables featured lively topics of discussion, and the evening’s camaraderie kept us all up late into the evenings. And we couldn't have done it at all without the generous help of our volunteers. Thank you to Michelle Jodoin, Christine Tripp, Caroline Pattison, Peggy Collins, and Stephanie Rainey.

We all came away as wiser writers and illustrators, and we came away with new friends.

Special thanks to Page & Turners Bookstore for sponsoring our book sale, and to Quill & Quire, and Writer’s Digest Books.

Lizann Flatt, Regional Advisor
Alma Fullerton, Assistant Regional Advisor

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