Sunday 21 August 2011

Pyjamas and toothbrush...


...but where’s the bed?

I’m going to the SCBWI Conference in November. SCBWI stands for The Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators. I’ve never been to one of their events before. Their annual conference is held in Winchester, quite a distance from Leicester and I’m such a reluctant traveller but two friends from my writing critique group are going and I wasn’t about to be left out.

We booked our places. We even chose the sessions we wanted to attend [I’m going for Picture Book writing] and we thought we were sorted. Wrong!

Two days later a kind writing friend pointed out that the conference doesn’t include accommodation... but... I assumed... *sigh* I volunteered to book us into a nearby Bed and Breakfast.

There are a lot of B & Bs in Winchester and they all said the same thing.

“We can do any other weekend but that weekend’s fully booked.”

‘Any other weekend’ was not an option.

Mr A. gallantly offered us free use of his tent. He was once a boy scout [many years ago] and he still has an old tent in the loft. He really believes that one day I’ll go on a camping holiday with him and his tent... 

...Dream on, Mr A!

Having disregarded the tent and exhausted my list of B & Bs I contacted the Winchester Tourist Information. Had I tried local pubs? I’m just a bit girly and local pubs can be just a bit scary but they suggested a ‘nice’ one. I rang the pub and snapped up their last two rooms.

So if any of you are planning to go to the SCBWI Conference and you haven’t yet booked your accommodation we have a perfectly adequate tent in our loft that you are very welcome to borrow.

I’m now having a recurring nightmare. Three of us in a car with pyjamas, toothbrushes and nowhere to sleep! Aaagh!!! 
...oh yes, and I promise to blog about the conference when I get back.