SCBWI-NM Illustrator's Meeting, January

Our local SCBWI-NM Illustrator's group kicked off 2014 tonight, with several events. 

At 5pm, we started with dinner and socializing at a local cafe. Our SCBWI Schmooze is held on the same night (a new schedule that gives writers and illustrators have more options), so writers and illustrators got to mingle a bit while we noshed and hung out. 

At 6pm, the illustrators headed over to one of local indie books stores, Alamosa Books, for our first official meeting of 2014. It was informal; illustrators brought recently finished pieces or works-in-progress. We're hang a group show called Enchantment this year, and pieces are due at the end of the month—many members brought their already finished show pieces. It's going to be an amazing show!

At 7pm, a couple illustrators stayed to chat at Alamosa, while several of us headed over to Alamosa's Reading Room (another location across the parking lot—where they sell YA and cross-over adult books)—for our monthly Schmooze meeting. Former SCBWI-NM RA, Chris Eboch, did a lovely presentation on voice in anticipation of a voice workshop she has coming up on Feb 1st.

Overall, I was super excited by the evening. Being the SCBWI-NM Illustrator Coordinator AND the Newsletter Editor for our region, I've been a bit back-logged—I'm still finalizing our illustrator calendar for the year and I only sent out a reminder for this meeting yesterday! We had 8 illustrators in attendance, that is excellent for our group!