And the Un-Birthday gift goes to....

Because there wasn't a whole lot of entries in the Un-Birthday giveaway, I went and did a double-randomization drawing whereby I first printed out a list of the entrants:

Then, I snipped the names into strips and tossed them into a heap. Without looking, I drew out names one by one and numbered them by the order in which I drew them out:

Oddly enough, #10 remained #10...

Lastly, the fun geeky part, I went to Random.org and asked the site to choose a number between 1 and 10. It picked....(click to enlarge photo)

So, that meant the prize goes to...

Woohoo!! Sylvia Liu, come on down! You're the next contestant on The Price is Right!!

Ooops, did I just let slip how much time I spent watching that show when I was growing up? I blame my mom who watched game shows to learn English (I was rather shocked at how many of the dirty jokes she understood on Match Game!), so I had to watch them with her. ;)

I'm glad these contributor's copies

that have been sitting in my file cabinet will go to a new home. Hope you'll like them, Sylvia!

Have I been promising to tell you about the Wild, Wild Midwest SCBWI Conference I attended that first weekend in May, which now seems like forever ago? I think I mentioned it was fabulous, didn't I? Well, it really was. I thought my head was going to explode with information, and new faces and names to memorize, and trying to fight off Morpheus, the powerful god of sleep.

Some of my favorite talks were given by the one and only Lin Oliver (co-founder of SCBWI), the incomparable Jane Yolen, and the uber talented Peter Brown, of whom I am now a huge fan-girl.

It was great to connect with old friends like Alina Klein, Kristi Valiant, Cindy Kump, and my lovely critique group partner, Jo Branham. And it was equally great to meet new friends like Sheralyn Barnes and Troy Cummings, who are both fabulous illustrators (you should check out Troy's new book, Giddy-Up, Daddy!), plus fellow 12x12'ers like Lori Mozdzierz, Susan Halko, Val McCammon, and Shannon Abercrombie!

There are some gems in those talks too...but I've still not gone through my notes yet, so can't share any interesting tidbits. Maybe next time?

Hope your week is a good one; I have grand plans for an extensive Spring cleaning. Woohoo.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams