Wowee zowee, what a great weekend! I'm sure there are about fifty people in the greater Northwest that have new rockstar children's book idols in the forms of Denise Fleming and Darcy Pattison. I'm so proud to be a part of SCBWI Western Washington. Our first ever fall retreat was this weekend in the Cascades at a lovely lodge and it totally kicked butt.

Denise Fleming led the picture-bookers and I'm sure we all have crushes on her now and want her to move to Seattle and wear a toga and spout children's book wisdom to us.

The best part about meeting someone you admire is discovering you share similar behaviors, like making fake boogers.

We did the coolest art exercises and all of the materials and techniques are available at Denise's lovely website. But woe to those that didn't attend -- you missed Denise's amazingly generous critique sessions and workshops on the art and writing of picture books. If you ever have a chance to attend something done by Denise don't hesitate -- it will be totally worth it!

Here are two of the two ladies and the squirrel that made this event a reality, thanks Sara and Jolie and Nuts!