Countdown: Reach for the Stars!
Posted By Vonna on February 8, 2010
In just two weeks, the Houston chapter of the SCBWI will be having our annual conference. Besides the great speakers we have lined up, one of the great features of our conference is the amazing number of local authors who will be participating in the conference bookstore. For those of you who will be joining us, I want to give you a preview of some of our authors and their books. For those of you who can’t be here in person, I have linked many of these authors’ websites so you can check them out from afar.
First up is one of my critique partners, Varsha Bajaj with her award winning picture book, How Many Kisses Do You Want Tonight? I’m excited that Varsha has a new book coming out later this year. I’ll do a post on that as we get closer to her launch.
Carmen Bredeson will be there with her book, After the Last Dog Died: The True-Life, Hair-Raising Adventure of Douglas Mawson’s 1912 Antarctic Expedition.
Shirley Duke will be bringing her playful picture book, No Bows! 
Kathy Duval, another of my esteemed critique partners, will be there with The Three Bears’ Christmas and Three Bears’ Halloween. Next year Kathy has another book coming out with Disney Hyperion: I Think I See a UFO. I can’t wait to do a post on that book launch!
Laura Edge is presenting Locked Up: A History of the U.S. Prison System, along with her biographies of Andrew Carnegie, Stephen Spielberg, and Laura Bush.
Dotti Enderle will have Gingerbread Man Superhero, as well as her heart-wrenching novel, Man in the Moon.
Doris Fisher will have two picture books to present: Happy Birthday to Whoo? and My Half Day.
Debbie Frontiera will be showing Living on Sisu in addition to three books in her Eric and the Enchanted Leaf series. 
Sherry Garland will have In the Shadow of the Alamo, The Lotus Seed, Children of the Dragon, and Voices of the Alamo.
Writer Illustrator Warren Hanson will be bringing his beautifully illustrated picture books, The Next Place, Kiki’s Hats, and Bugtown Boogie.
Illustrator Layne Johnson will have his newly launched picture book, Off Like the Wind as well as another book that launched last month, The Declaration of Independence A-Z, along with the School Library Journal’s Hot Pick: Farmer George Plants a Nation, and Damon, Pythias and the Test of Friendship.
Margaret McManis will have her local favorites, Ima and the Great Texas Ostrich Race and Wild Texas Stampede.
Jenny Moss, who has an upcoming release from Scholastic Press, Shadow, will be there with her debut novel, Winnie’s War, which is set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.
Anna Myers, who is visiting from Oklahoma, will have her latest novel, Time of the Witches, which was released in September. Several of her other novels, including Stolen by the Sea, Assassin and Tulsa Burning, will also be available.
I was fortunate to see Joy Preble when her novel, Dreaming Anastasia, debuted. In her blog, Joy has been teasing us about impending news. Maybe by the time the conference gets here she’ll be able to spill the beans!
Vicki Sansum will be signing her charming picture book, Grandpa for Sale.
Pam Van Scoyoc will be selling her picture books Ballerina with Webbed Feet, Sparky and the Comet Caper, I Could Catch a Whale and Angel Wings. Check out her website for audio recordings of some of her books.
Mary D. Wade will have her latest books, David Crocket: Creating a Legend, David Crockett: Hero and Legend and Sam Houston.
Kathy Whitehead is bringing two of her books, Art from her Heart and Looking for Uncle.
We will also have books written by three special guests. Books available from our Central Texas celebrity and prolific author Cynthia Lietich Smith include Tantalize, Eternal, Jingle Dancer, Rain is Not My Indian Name, and Indian Shoes. 
Books from Lisa Ann Sandell, a senior editor with Scholastic, are Map of the Known World and Song of the Sparrow. Alexandra Cooper, a senior editor with Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, will have her picture book, Spin the Dreidel.
All of these great authors will be available to autograph your purchases. This is going to be a great conference, so don’t forget to bring a pen and notebook, your camera and your wallet! Blue Willow Bookshop will be running our conference bookstore, but if you can’t be with us, look for books by these great authors at your local Indie Bound bookstore.
ps. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out!
Thanks Vonna for doing such a great job organizing the conference bookstore. I love this listing of books that will be on display!
Hi Vonna,
The excitement begins – can’t wait to see everyone at the conference! Your listing of books is helpful – thank you.
You’re welcome, Kathy and Kathy!
I just received an update on the authors who will be at our conference, so later this week I will add a post highlighting four more authors.
Stay tuned!
Vonna, thanks for posting. I know I’ll be writing a really big check.
Lucky you that you have Varsha and Kathy Duval as critique partners!
Jenny Bailey
Me, too, Jenny. And yes, I am lucky to have such a great critique group!
I wish I lived in Texas! Sounds like you have an awesome SCBWI there.
Yes, we do have an awesome SCBWI here! So awesome, in fact, that I will be highlighting six authors here tomorrow in stead of just the four that I promised earlier.