SCOTT WESTERFELD! Is the Keynote Speaker for Kidlitcon

Registration is now open for the 5th Annual Kidlitosphere Conference, better known as Kidlitcon, to be held at the Hotel Monaco in Seattle on September 16 and 17. The keynote speaker has been confirmed: Scott Westerfeld, author of such books as Leviathan and the Uglies quartet. How cool is that?

Yours truly will definitely be in attendance, possibly as part of a panel (though nothing's set in stone yet on that score), and I can hardly wait. Although it's a conference that caters to bloggers, not a writing conference, it's still one of my favorite conferences of the year, for so many reasons:

• it's small and intimate--making it much easier to mingle and talk to people, especially if you're intimidated by strangers and large groups (erm, like me)
• it's got a diverse mixture of attendees--writers, librarians, illustrators, publishing folk--and, because of the small group size, it's much easier to get to know people
• you get to meet people in person who you might only have "met" online, through blogging
• the panels and talks change every year, and cater to a variety of audiences who blog for many different reasons, so I (so far) haven't felt like it's rehashing the same subjects each time
• because of all of the above, I always leave feeling like I've made a real connection with people.

This will be my third Kidlitcon, and, if you can't tell, I'm really excited about it, and really want all of YOU, my blogging friends, to go. Hint, hint...