Home From Conference

I am back from the writer’s conference and all I can say is WOW! I had a really great time, met lots of new friends, and learned a lot. The classes that I took were:

1) How to Develop a Speaking Ministry to Women with Vonda Skelton

2) How to Write Thrillers, Action and Suspense with Steven James

3) How to Make an Editor Sit Up and Beg for More with Dan Penwell

4) Gotcha! With Cindy Kenney

5) From Idea to Story with Al Gansky

In addition to these classes I had a private appointment with Dr. Donn Taylor, poet and novelist. In this session I got the biggest surprise. He looked over some poetry I’d brought with me. I was very nervous, I mean, here I was sitting in front of a poet with a PhD in Renaissance literature and 20 years of experience teaching poetry and I was, well, I have never taken one class specific to poetry in all my college years and I was presenting some things that popped into my head during my quiet times that I just happened to write down, type up and bring with me. To be honest, I was expecting the worst. While he was reading my work, I sat there in silence trying to read the expressions on his face for a clue as to what he might say, and preparing myself for the let down I was sure would follow. He looked up at me and told me that he liked my work, not only that but, that he felt they were ready to publish WITHOUT any editing! I was speechless, really, I don’t remember how much time went by before I realized I had been sitting there with my mouth and eyes wide open in utter shock. It must have been a while because he said “your next question is what do I do next?” He then went on to give me information for places I should send them. WOW

Look for more conference recaps in my next post. Thanks for reading!