Oklahoma City conference update

It's day three (well, two and a half) in Oklahoma City. Kate's taking pitches so I hijacked her Mac (this is saying something cuz I'm a PC girl and it usually takes prodding to get me to use her computer.) But! We did our editor/author panel yesterday and I think it went well. :) I had a speech early this morning and Kate's is this afternoon. Don't know yet what the rest of our schedule is, but we've barely seen the inside of our very nice room. (Thanks, Embassy Suites!)

Our flight leaves...hmmm...don't know when tomorrow and I've got to run down to the biz center and print our boarding passes. I love that I got pulled aside at LaGuardia (I was scaaared!) and had my suitcase searched. The item that set off the detectors? A book in my suitcase. Yes, really. TSA...*shakes head*

But we've met a lot of lovely people and it's been sooo warm and nice here. Everyone's superfriendly and the conference has been a blast.

Conference craze

After an *insane* weekend of work, I've got a zillionish errands/things to do before leaving for Oklahoma City on Thursday morning with Kate. We're speaking together and separately at the Oklahoma Writers Federation Conference in OK City. Never been to OK, so should be fun!

I took the day off from work today and am doing so tomorrow except for a few minor things. Big huge thank you to Team Canterwood for sending e-mails, Tweets and Facebook messages about HOME SWEET DRAMA. You all ROCK! :) :) Tons of hearts!

Had a fun girls' night with Kate tonight. We took a gamble and dyed each other's hair. Turns out that we actually rocked it and we have a fun new color! It's still dark brown, but it has a hint of red and it feels very summery. People always think we're sisters and now we're like, "Yep. Gonna be getting that even more."

Time for Chinese food and a new GLEE episode!

Tallahassee Writers Conference pics part 2

Finally getting around to sharing pics from the Tallahassee Writers Conference. It was a great event and I had a lot of fun going with Editor K and showing her the Florida State University campus. (Go, Noles!)

I think I'm giving the audience the tip of when writing for tweens, "Don't use outdated slang aka 'get up in my grill foshizzle'". :)


More of my PowerPoint about writing for tweens.

And finally, I'm holding onto that clicker. I kind of loved it and want one. Thanks Editor K for snapping the shots! I'm still booking conferences for 2010 and 2011, so if interested, shoot me an e-mail at jess_burkhart [at] hotmail [dot] com.

Tallahassee Writers Conference pics!

Finally have a second to post about my awesome trip with Kate to the Tallahassee Writers Conference! Here are a few pics of the trip--Kate's got more of my actual events on the camera, which is, um, still packed.

First up--the room. Loooved it!

The second pic is signed stock at the Tallahassee Barnes & Noble. I love them and they were so gracious and sweet!

The next pic is Kate checking out the killer kitchen. We were in shock that there was an actual kitchen in our hotel room. #majorwinhello

I fell in love with the pool/whirlpool area. The pool was FREEZING so I opted for the whirlpool. So. Nice.

Last pic is another room shot.

Thank you so much to Donna Meredith and the fab gang at the Tallahassee Writers Conference. We had a fab time!

Bye, NYC!

Conference day is finally here! Kate and I are grabbing an early flight and leaving chilly NYC for warm, sunny Florida. I'm speaking at the Tallahassee Writers' Conference (check my Website for details on a free event open to the public) and Kate's attending the conference with me. She'll be front row at my talks, no doubt, probably making faces to get my attention or make me laugh. (If she heckles me--security is free to remove her from the room.) ;)

Our hotel looks amazing and I can't wait to hit the whirlpool since it'll be a little chilly to swim. Look for pics and possible vlogs to come when we get back.

Book Expo America in NYC '09--anyone?

Everyone online is chattering excitedly about BEA in LA and damn, I want to go! :) It sounds like soo much fun and since I've never been, I'm dying to see what it's like. I keep hearing the words free books and that just grabs my attention. :)

So, I'm marking my calendar for BEA in NYC in 2009. The dates are from May 28-May 31 at the Jacob K. Javits Center.

Is anyone else looking ahead and planning to go? I hope nothing pops up for me between now and then, but I'm definitely looking at booking it as soon as tickets are available. If you're going or thinking about it, let me know! It would be so much fun to meet people from the online writer communities.

It would be a great time for me since it would be right before the release of Chasing Blue.