The Ice Breaker...

After the sessions ended for the day, SCBWI held a wine-and-cheese event during which published authors could showcase their work and others could mingle. To help move the mingling along, we were all assigned the same task as the conference faculty for their morning procession: come up with a word, which were were then to write on a sticky name tag below our name and post said nametag on our person.

I picked moxie. Here are the reasons I planned to give should anyone ask why I choose this word:

• It's pretty much the favorite word of my best bud Megan without whom I would never have figured out how to do this blog. She's smart, and I trust her judgement when it comes to words and most other things.
• Moxie is good trait to possess on many occasions and it can even come in handy whilst one is mingling.
• There's an x in it, and that's a most excellent letter.
• It rhymes with Roxy which is a very cool name. (It's no Candie Moonshower, but it's right up there.)
• If you change one letter it sounds like foxy.

In another attempt to promote mingling, SCBWI gave out bright green buttons that declare: Kiss Me, I'm Published. It's a good thing there was not an open bar at this event, because, you know, with free drinks and these buttons--heaven knows what could happen! I'm happy to report, however, that I observed no public conference-goer-on-conference-goer smooching. (I feared for the adorable author/illustrator/faculty member Jarrett Krosoczka, what with the out-of-whack female-to-male ratio at this conference. I observed him removing his button and stuffing it into his bag.)