Star gazing storytime

My story, Philippe's Wish, is now available in the app store for the iPad and I'm so excited I could pop! Just had to share the cool news! Creating this story has been such fun and like no other experience. It is about Philippe and his journey into the sky to catch a star and make a wish. There are animations, interactivity, games, narration and music that create an almost movie-like experience.

So if you have an iPad, check it out! Let me know what you think of it, as I've just finished a second story, "The Hungry Elephant", and I'm working on a third.

Above are a couple screen shots and here is a link to it in the app store.

SCBWI LA conference

So it was a long, and very fast 4 days of knowledge, inspiration, insight, meetings, meet-ups, and of course, more knowledge. The SCBWI summer conference in LA. Here are a few of the speakers that I really enjoyed:


Of course the one, the only, the first (and former) ambassador of young people's literature and author of "The Stinky Cheese Man" and "The True Story of The 3 Little Pigs", among other books; Jon Scieszka. A very funny guy, but also very smart and not afraid to tell it like it is.


The very prolific Paul Fleischman, who had some very good tips on working on a project more involved and longer than you may be used to.


Priscilla Burris (right) and David Diaz (left) were awesome as the illustrator team heading up the artist portion of the conference. David had some great things to say about the modern world, and how nothing perfect goes away (books), but the design and style may change to reflect the times.



Gordon Korman, a great speaker with some witty, funny insights into the mind of a 14 year old. Author of 2 of the "39 Clues" books which sound very interesting... here I come library!


And finally, Loren Long. What can you say about such a cool guy? His art is incredible and he is just such a great guy. He had great things to say about keeping it simple when working on books. "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Just do one drawing in one day, one piece at a time. Super fun guy with great art, great stories, and an inspiration.

All in all, an amazing first conference for me, met lots of cool people (send me an email or facebook me if we met!), learned bunches, and got inspired. Looking forward to next year!