Attending an @NESCBWI event and @armyvet5 just said "Editors don't know what they're looking for until they see it." So true! That's why you send your work out. Yes, I know I'm looking for middle grade + YA fiction. But I'm not looking for a formula. Just send out your best work.

At @NESCBWI, @ArmyVet5 just said, "I'm from a tiny island. We don't have the word coincidence. You [writers] are here because you're supposed to be. You're doing what you need to do, what you're supposed to do. Keep writing. Have seven stories, pick three for an agent."

We were talking in my session today about a book that was too descriptive about the child and not from the kid's POV. So I guess I would say I like books FOR children and not about them, maybe. At least in some cases.

I need @ArmyVet5 to give me a pep talk every week. I wish everyone could have heard her empowering keynote at @NESCBWI today. She quoted Langston Hughes "Start to do it, then keep on doing it, +finally you'll finish it, even if in the beginning you think you can't do it at all. ”