This Saturday May 16, I will be at the Hudson Children’s Book Festival at the Hudson Middle School in Hudson, New York with over 50 authors and illustrators. From noon to 12:30, I’ll be presenting a workshop entitled “How Many Times Did You Write That Book?” and talk about going from a draft to publication.

The Festival promises to be a lot of fun. Admission is free. You can check out all the authors and illustrators who will be there, as well as the schedule of events. Hope to see you there!

On Saturday April 25, I gave a workshop at the New England SCBWI conference in Nashua, New Hampshire titled “Dealing With White Default.” In the workshop I discussed ways in which to bring to life characters from many different cultures. It’s not complicated: make each character real. That isn’t to say that it’s easy — making any fictional character come to life is work. Hard work. But it’s entirely doable.

At some point I’ll summarize my talk and post it. In the meantime, I gave a hand-out during the presentation which I’ve uploaded (with minor changes, plus links) onto my website. You can see it here.

The conference, by the way, was terrific! The folks at NESCBWI know how to put on a great event.