Hello!



Happy New Year! 2008 looks like an exciting year for our chapter. There will be at least four Mentoring workshops, three first page sessions, the launch of our new Sprouts Magazine and our annual June conference. Many of you requested a two-day conference. We listened. This year’s conference will be held on June 6th and 7th in Princeton. It will start on Friday with lunch, enabling you to interact with more of the faculty and obtain more information by attending the two days. Newbery winner Jerry Spinelli and his wife Eileen, who has published over 50 picture books, will join us on Friday. Please take the time to view all the details by going to www.newjerseyscbwi.com/events.htm. Make sure you click on the registration form at the bottom of the page to see how the two days will run. Remember, the early bird gets the worm. So sign up early and be rewarded. First page sessions, speed pitching and one-on-one critique fill up quickly. Again, check the website.

Last year’s Mentoring Workshops proved to be very fruitful. They opened doors for our members, sparked new friendships and resulted in five book contracts. In October, we had two agents attend our workshop and three people secured representation by attending.

It seems that many of you are looking for critique groups and I have not been able to keep up with all the changes you would like to see. Laurie Wallmark has volunteered to take over this job and other website updates. So, if you have e-mailed me and I have not come through for you, please e-mail Laurie at laurie@newjerseyscbwi.com and she will take care of it. If you want to start a critique group in your area, you can have Laurie post it on the critique group page, too. Also, Yvonne has been collecting a list of people who would like to participate in an online critique group. She will match up people according to genre and experience, so e-mail Yvonne at Cyventres@aol.com.

I will be contacting people in January who volunteered their time for the June conference to let you know what you will be doing. We are looking for donations for our scholarship raffle, so if you can contribute that way, please e-mail Connie Colon at colon102@verizon.net . Natalie Zaman and Connie are the chair people for this committee.

Our first issue of Sprouts will be mailed out in January. Thank you to all who supported this endeavor. Anyone who hasn’t subscribed and would like to do so can find the details on the website or e-mail Karen Haaz at karendowiczhaas@optonline.net . Karen is heading up this position. Don’t forget you can advertise a new book or business, etc. At a low price in Sprouts.

Leeza Hernandez is looking for illustrations for the second issue of Sprouts. This is a great way to get your artwork out for people in the industry to see. We are also, looking for articles. Please send in any articles and illustrations to both Leeza and me at leeza@leezaworks.com and kathy.temean@verizon.net.

SOMETHING NEW: I have just added 2008 Marketing News that you can find on our website under the Sprouts button.

I expect 2008 to out do 2007. I see more contracts for our members, more agent representation, more artwork published and writing skills developed. Take advantage of what the New Jersey Chapter of the SCBWI has to offer and make this year, your year.

Look forward to seeing you,

Kathy – Regional Advisor