Guess who I met last night????

Guess who I met last night?

The lovely, talented Cynthia Leitich Smith spoke at our SCBWI quarterly meeting last night. What a treat! She is hilarious and a fantastic speaker. She talked to us about cultural context in stories. I've read JINGLE DANCER and RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME. She pointed out some examples of culture in her own books. It was interesting to hear an author talk about all the thought that went into the books--even a tiny picture book! I can't wait to read her upcoming releases. They sound awesome.

I am always amazed by how much she knows about the industry. I wonder if I'll ever know 1/10 of what she does.

Four things Cynthia and I have in common:

1) We were born in the same year.
2) We both are J-school grads from universities in the Midwest.
3) We both have very cute husbands. *
4) She lived in Kansas. I live in Kansas now.

But, I think that's the end of the similarities...unless you count that we both have brown hair and that she's not exactly tall either :-)

It was great to meet her in person after all these months of reading her blog. I did have to tease her about all the money I'm spending because of her. Who knew being a writer would be so expensive? So many books to read; so little time!

* Edited to add that I've never met Greg, but she calls him her "very cute husband" on spooky cyn. When I first met my husband, I thought he looked like Donny Osmond. He cringes everytime I say that. Now, he has grey hair, but still has a very cute smile :-0