Two Announcements!

It's been a while since I've done a personal post. I thought I'd better update you on the two AWESOME things that happened yesterday:

Exciting news one:

Have you joined SCBWI yet? I thought nah, it's more an American thing. I thought nah, I'm in a teeny tiny isolated city - it's not worth paying money for conferences I can't attend.

And then I joined.

And there's a branch in my teeny tiny city.

And better than that, there was a callout to meet with Sarah Foster, managing director of Walker Books.

And I got in.

I get to meet with Sarah Foster and talk about my latest WiP for twenty minutes. She will read and crit my first ten pages and synopsis. Some people have snagged publishing contracts this way.

Now I'm not looking specifically for a publishing contract, but wouldn't you say this is a mighty fine opportunity? Wouldn't you like a similar opportunity?

Get out there. Join SCBWI. It's worth it.

Exciting news two:

I am now officially an intern at Twelfth Planet Press, a boutique Australian publishing company run by one of the most successful, hard-working women I know. I found out yesterday, and by this morning I was swamped with emails of things to do. Not a lot of it makes much sense to me (there may have been panicked tears for a bit there), but I'm going to sit down today and go through it slowly, googling the terms I don't understand.

My first jobs involve making up a sales kit for a distributor and writing a feature article for a blog. It's so great to see this side of the publishing world, and while I'm slightly terrified, I'm also really, really excited. I hope to do the best job I can, and I'm looking forward to the learning experience that comes with it. I think this will definitely make me a better, more worldly writer.

And that's the news!