Coming Soon! SCBWI-C Conference!

On Friday, I'm off for the SCBWI-C Conference! I am very excited...like borderline need-a-paperbag excited. For your info, here's my schedule. I plan on updating the blog with info I learn during the conference while there, but who knows what will actually happen in real life.

Friday:
-Wake up at the butt-crack of dawn and drive 4-5 hours to get to the conference. Love living on the wrong side of a long state.
-First event: Critique session on the first 10 pages of my upper MG fantasy, The Amnesia Door, with agent Alyssa Henkin! Talk about going straight to the big stuff!!
-Speech: Pam Zollman-- "Jump Start Your Writing Career"
-Pitch practices on an open mic
-Red-eye critique session--I've exchanged the first three pages of my work with two other writers, organized through the conference, and we'll be meeting and exchaning ideas.

Saturday:
-Speech: Anita Silvey-- "Our Greatest Children's Books and the Stories Behind Them"
-First workshop: "Voice: What is it? Why does it make editor go gaga?" by Martha Mihalick, who I hope to have the chance to accost and throw my book at.
-First pages critque session
-Second workshop: "Tension: Where the Story Begins" by Mark Johnston
-Third workshop: "Scouting Locations: Using Research to Bring Your Fantasy Setting to Life" by John Claude Bemis.
-Speech: "A Talk with Stephanie Greene and Martha Mihalick"

Sunday:
-Fourth workshop: "MG vs. YA" by Alan Gratz (which, for those of you who've been reading my blog for awhile, know this is a big subject for me)
-Speech: Alyssa Henkin-- "Show Me the Sunny, the Money, and the Funny" (on what attracts an agent to a manuscript)

I promise to have notes and posts up as soon as I can. Maybe not during the actual conference--as you can see, I'm going to be tight on time!!--but I will be doing quite a bit with the information I gain here (including writing an article on one of the workshops for the SCBWI-C newsletter!).

Any tips for conference, pitches, and/or critique sessions? Any questions on one of the subjects that you'd like me to ask?