Bologna Children's Book Fair!!!

As you read this, I will be in ITALY!! That's right. April 2nd through 8th I am finally off to the Bologna Children's Book Fair - something I've wanted to do my entire career as a children's book creator. Now that we live in Scotland, it finally became doable! Add to that, the SCBWI only has a presence every other year, and this is the year! I can't WAIT!
     I've been busy preparing everything I'll need. I have my postcards. I made my own portfolio. It's small enough that it will fit in my backpack, with an acetate cover to protect it (orange!). And I bound it using the tortoise shell Japanese stab binding design with thread I dyed hot pink. It's a cultural clash, but so is my life right now! I mentioned SCBWI... I am the official SCBWI twitterer (tweeter? twit?). At any rate, if you follow at https://twitter.com/SCBWIBologna or #bol16SCBWI, that'll be me trying to keep you up-to-date on all the happenings. Wish me luck with that! Meanwhile, I've been busy planning meetings and lunches and dinners and such. Some big ones are:

1) I will finally meet Rana DiOrio, my publisher at Little Pickle Press
2) I will participate in TWO drawing challenges at the SCBWI booth on Tuesday
3) I'll have a table from which to share my wares within SCBWI on Wednesday
4) I'll have dinner with Erszi Deak and Susan Eaddy the first night there
5) I'll hang out with writer and illustrator peeps throughout

I cannot WAIT! And of course, I'll share with you guys on FB, twitter, and HERE on my blog! I hope you'll follow along - wrap-up blog posts coming soon.