• The World Trade towers were still standing.
• E-books didn’t exist.
• I hadn’t met the Gotham Girls yet.
• My teenager was an infant.
• Picture books were king.

Still, I came away as inspired and educated from Conference #13 as I had from Conference #1. I learned all about transmedia, love V’s, and mashtinis.

“Transmedia” is the new buzz word. In a nutshell, transmedia means multi-platform storytelling. With Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, apps, and more, cutting-edge writers are going beyond print books and e-books. I'm intrigued by this idea. For example, with my current project, TANABATA WISH, I could take my readers on a virtual tour of Japan and let them see what my characters are seeing. Because music is so important to my writing process, I’ve been saying for years that I wish I could somehow embed a soundtrack into the text. Looks like this is about to become a reality. Though I am a little technophobic (my daughter is slated to give me ANOTHER lesson on the making of power points this weekend), I am looking forward to grabbing onto this YA-friendly idea of transmedia and seeing where it can take me.

Secondly, anyone who reads YA knows that love triangles are a very common device. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want two hot guys competing for their attention? What I learned this weekend though, is how different the situation can be depending on how you weight the triangle.

• Do Guy X and Guy Y know each other? (If they don’t, it’s not a true triangle but a Love V instead.)
• Are they on the scene at the same time or sequentially?
• Are Guy X and Guy Y teammates? Best friends? Mortal enemies? Brothers?

For some extra fun, take a scene out of your manuscript and play around with the weight of the points of your triangle. You might be able to take your manuscript to a whole new level just by switching the weight of your points.

Finally, I was majorly impressed by the mashtinis at the cocktail/dinner party on Saturday night. The main character of TANABATA WISH wants to be a chef like her dad one day, so my “Inner Skyler” found the simple act of putting creamy mashed potatoes in a fancy martini glass and offering a selection of upscale toppings (caviar, anyone?) genius. Of course, I had to sample them in the name of research. It really is hard to be an authentic writer sometimes, but I do it.

If your writing has hit a dry spot, I highly recommend going to a writing conference as a way to recharge your creative battery and light a fire under your behind. I’m looking forward to attending the SCBWI conference in Los Angeles in August like I usually do. If you want something a little closer to home, I have two events this month. On Saturday, February 11, I will be teaching my new plotting workshop “Creating a Treasure Map to Your Story” for Gangplank Junior in Chandler. At the end of the month, I’ll be at the ANWA conference from Thursday 2/23 through Saturday 2/25. I’ll be teaching workshops on writing for magazines and how to write creative, Chicken Soup-like essays. (See sidebar for details)

The highlight of this inspiring, informing, entertaining weekend was getting to spend it with Gotham Girls Terry and Emily (Betsy, unfortunately, couldn’t attend this year). Here’s hoping that this year you find your writing partner or group, too. My journey with these incredible ladies started almost a decade ago with a simple “Hi” in an elevator at the SCBWI-LA conference. So don’t be afraid to open yourself up. Kid lit writers are very friendly and fun!