Tags
Abrams, Jennie Palmer, Jessica Sinsheimer, Mary Ann Fraser, SCBWI community, SCBWI members, Summer Conference, Writers Day
The book industry is filled with tales of people who toil on a story for years before being published. Author and illustrator, Jennie Palmer, isn’t one of them.
Palmer had taken classes on the art and craft of picture books at the Rhode Island School of Design, where she was an illustration major. After graduating, she put that knowledge aside when she became a production designer whose credits include work on the television show Blue’s Clues and 12 years designing floats and balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
And then came the idea for a picture book about witches – a glimmer of an idea that solidified as she was cleaning up after her family’s weekly pizza night.
In 2014, she attended her first SCBWI Summer Conference with an outline. She didn’t have a dummy or a portfolio, but three years later that story, The Wompananny Witches Make One Mean Pizza, would be published by Abrams.
Since they met during a UCLA writing class in 1979, Stephanie Gordon and Judy Enderle have led prolific careers as writing partners, publishing more than 20 picture books, middle grade, and young adult novels like 
Samantha Swank is an assistant editor at Scholastic, where she works on fiction and non-fiction for ages zero-eight. She is a faculty member for the 
So you’ve written a book – devoted countless hours (hopefully you weren’t actually counting) toward its creation. Bravo! Well done! But wait, how do you know if your book reads as you imagined, or that you’re on the right track? Critique groups, baby.
Steve Ross has worked at Vroman’s Bookstore in Pasadena since 1989, but chances are good that if you call the store and ask for him by his first and last name, the employee on the phone will think you have the wrong number.
Here’s what Sally Jones Rogan, SCBWI-LA co-regional advisor, said when presenting the award: 
Author and story coach 
Author and SCBWI member Lynn Becker reports on this year’s Writers & Illustrator’s Day.
Kite Tales 