Writers and
illustrators living in the Stuttgart area have started meeting on a regular
basis. It's not easy to find a meeting point that suits everybody but we have
finally found one, the new library in Stuttgart.
 |
| SCBWI members from left: Linda, Suzanne, Dan, Jenny, and Catherine |
The library
is very easy to get to from the main station, it's a short walk or one stop on
the U Bahn. We also saw free bicycle carriages that take you from the station
to the shopping centre next door to the library. If coming by car there is
plenty of parking.
On Saturday
we headed to the children's section where we worked on our own individual
projects as well as critiquing and reading each others' work, browsing the
stacks and discussing all things writing. Discussions included #PitMad and
#MSWL on Twitter, where we can find information about writing contests and
submitting to children's magazines such as Highlights. Time to concentrate on
our own work and sharing information was useful as was the feedback that we
received on our work. It really was up to each person to choose what they
wanted to get out of the session. The library did get busier and noisier as the
morning wore on but there are quiet rooms where you can also work away from any
disturbance.
After a
couple of hours work we had lunch at a fantastic Asian restaurant, GinYuu,
which is in the new shopping centre next door to the library. Then several of
us went shopping!
I
personally enjoyed the opportunity to write in a different location and found
feedback from others on my work really helpful and useful. On this occasion we
were all writers, mostly picture book, but it would be lovely to be joined by
some illustrators next time. If you would prefer to just join us for lunch at
12.30pm that would be fine too. Our next meeting will be on May 16th
at 10.30 am.
Stuttgart
Library - http://www1.stuttgart.de/stadtbibliothek/
GinYuu
restaurant - http://de.ginyuu.de/GinYuu.html
Mianeo shopping
centre - http://www.milaneo.com
Thanks for organizing this, Catherine. It was great to finally meet the other writers. Looking forward to the next meeting in May!
ReplyDeleteSuzanne