Sadly the SCBWI Conference is over for another whole year. It really is my favourite weekend of all time. It's hard work but really fun. It was more difficult for me to take pictures this year, but I did catch a few brilliant moments that I would like to share with you.

The first is seeing my new book, Thirteenth wish, on sale with all the other SCBWI members books. I just love that. 

The second is a picture of Kathy Evans and Natascha Biebow (The Co-Regional Advisors for SCBWI British Isles) judging the Ten Word Pitch competition. The entries were through the roof this year and they couldn't decide between two so they both won prizes! . 

The other photos are of the party. This is when we all get to dress up, do the Mass Book Launch and announce the winner of the Crystal Kite Award (Video for this is at the bottom of this blog post)

I was lucky enough to be the judge this year for the fancy dress costumes. It was really tricky, because they were all so amazing. The theme was Travelling Through Time which was a good topic because it was really open to interpretation. Unfortunately I don't have a photo of the winner who was the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland - forever late!

The cake this year was probably the best yet. Following the design from our Key Note Illustrator Speaker, Benji Davis the designer did a fantastic job. If you want the link their website it is: http://www.reillycakes.co.uk

If you look really closely you might see my book there!

That's it, but I know I'm not the only writer that has come away from the conference with a real sense of belonging. Writing (and illustrating I imagine) can be a lonely thing to do, but when you are a member of such an amazingly supportive, warm and encouraging organisation such as SCBWI it feels good. 

I am proud to be a member and a volunteer and I hope that the organisation goes on getting stronger. I'll leave you with the Crystal Kite video and BB Taylor's video from last year's conference. 
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