Whoo-hoo! for the Southern Breeze Poetry Retreat

I was NOT disappointed with the Southern Breeze Poetry Retreat last weekend! Just as I had hoped it was an enriching experience in many ways.

Rebecca Kai Dotlich was fantastic...stupendous...and a really nice lady, too.

The weekend was a big success for me. Why? Let me name a few reasons:

•  The Center for New Beginnings is gorgeous. Rustic looking but with all the modern conveniences. Our hostess and her staff were friendly and helpful.
• The food at the Center was delicious. No "camp food" here. No sir-eee. They have a gourmet chef (who cooks at a local high-end restaurant when she's not at the Center) who prepared beautiful, nutritious, and deee-licious meals for us. Soup and Salad never looked so grand or tasted so good.
• I had time for some much needed rest, and time for prayer, too.

• The Southern Breeze writers were gracious and friendly. They made me feel very much at home. I met some wonderful writers including those pictured here: Jo Kittinger, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Robyn Black and Heather L. Montgomery (the leaders for this event.)
• Hanging out with other writers of children's literature was revitalizing.
• Rebecca's sessions were stimulating and entertaining. She answered several questions that have been nagging me for a while. She was warm, friendly and helpful.
• The critique I received was truly useful. I think I can make my PB manuscripts much more marketable by following Rebecca's suggestions.

• I was able to spend time with two of my Write2Ignite! buddies - Linda Andersen and Janet Evans. Hi, Y'all!  
• I spent a couple of hours re-working the manuscript she critiqued (plus another of my PBs). It's already a much better manuscript, I think.
• I was able to take an early morning stroll on Sunday and capture some beautiful foliage (complete with dewdrops) with my camera. I'll share some of those in another post.

I came away from the weekend with a long list of poets to read. I've read oodles upon oodles of picture books. Now I'm headed for the juvenile poetry stack at my local library.

I learned some important details for preparing a collection of poems for publication. We looked at many such collections in our sessions. Beautiful, beautiful books.

Rebecca gave us her own process for writing poems--step-by-step.




 The Poetry Goddesses!



She showed us key elements in PBs whether they are rhyming or not.

She explained several poetic forms and devices most often used in children's literature.

We spent one entire session listening to and evaluating YA poetry. Very interesting. (I have a list of poets and book titles in case you are interested.)

And--as a bonus--Rebecca led an hour long session on creating I CAN READ early reading books. She gave us several handy little tips for breaking into this market.

I am SOOOO glad I attended last weekend's retreat. It was just what I needed.

Now, to get these re-visioned stories off to publishers. Maybe THIS will be the little edge I've been praying for. Maybe the things I learned from Rebecca Kai Dotlich will be just the "kick" my stories need to make it through the submission process.

I hope so, Lord. I sure would like to see my name on the cover of a beautiful picture book. But I know that is all in Your timing, Your will.

Now--it's off to my local library. They just LOVE to see me walk in because they know I'm going to ask lots of questions and walk out with a huge bagfull of books. I'm one of their most satisfied customers.