Golden Kite for Illustration: K. G. Campbell

Lovely speech by the charming K.G. Campbell who thanked SCBWI and others for his success with Lester's Dreadful Sweaters.

K.G. ended with words of encouragement to all of those out there in the audience as yet unpublished:

"As you can probably tell, I'm not originally from here, I grew up in Scotland. Those that know us know the Scots are usually dour and pessimistic, we're happiest when we're congratulating ourselves that things turned out as miserable as we expected."

A Scotsman being decidedly undour

"When I first thought about being an author/illustrator I was bracing myself from the very beginning for failure. For the bitterness of undiscovered genius and boxes of unsold books. But now I feel like Matt de la Peña, like I'm an impostor here, why me? How did I succeed?"

"Just years ago I was sitting where you are sitting now, attending conferences, listening to great creators like Marla Frazee and trying to make the most professional work I possibly could."

"If it can happen to a pessimistic Scotsman patiently awaiting disaster, it can happen to you, too."

And holy buckets! K.G.'s next books out include one with Kate DiFreakingCamillo

and Ame FreakingDyckman