My longtime friend Jack Enyart is teaching a course in how to create and pitch animation projects. If you're in L.A. and you want to learn that side of the biz, I can't imagine anyone who could tell you more than Jack. Details can be had over at www.gnomon3d.com.
Another of my best pals is a brilliant cartoonist named Carol Lay, who produces the pithy weekly feature, Story Minute. You can read it online at www.salon.com and at her own website. And if you go to her website, you can see other Carol-created goodies and you can order some Lay Goodies that you will want and love and treasure. So here's a banner ad for Carol's site. Click on it. Go there. Spend money. Laugh.