Post-Conference: A Week to Reflect

It's been a week since I attended the DFW Writers' Conference in Grapevine, and the challenge to utilize what I learned looms as large as the above shadow. Jodi Thomas, keynote speaker, regaled us with her life story - the twists and turns on her road to become a New York Times bestselling author. Like most author talks I've attended, her message is one of perseverance. To be a writer, you have to sit in your chair and write. And then ...

It's a balancing act. Yes, you have to write, but then your genius isn't immediately discovered. I attended talks on queries, synopsis, and if there'd been a class - tap dancing. You have to grab an agent or editor's attention. The biggest buzz, of course, is social media.

In the olden days, you sent your handwritten manuscript via pony express and hoped for a return letter. Now you enter the tunnel to build a platform - blog, website, facebook, twitter. All promotion, all the time until someone sees your light. It's daunting, time consuming, and hard work.

Writers juggle day jobs, market themselves and their writing, keep abreast of media changes, and attend conferences to mingle with word nerds. Then it's time to hunker down in one's nest and write. Peer out once in a while to absorb nature, sunlight, fresh air, and fill the eyes, ears, and nose with material to splash onto the page. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite and begin the process all over again.

See you at next year's conference -2/26 and 2/27/2011 - American Airlines Conference Center - DFW Writers are expanding the vision and hosting writer dreams.

(pictures once again from Morris Arboretum - my vacation glow only dims slightly)

Dangit, dangit, dangit!

I should have a beautiful post here with amazing pictures from our trip to Baltimore! But I forgot my bad-ass birding bag there!

It's in the mail somewhere, so I will soon have some cool pics -- though I think they're all of little flowers! We didn't see many birds, but we DID have some amazing food and fun and friends so stay tuned!

Travel Treats

Had an excellent week in PA to visit my father, enjoy Easter, and embrace spring. The time flew - walks, laughs sitting at the kitchen table, and hours spent with friends and family. All too soon, Dad dropped me at the airport for the return flight and the reality bell gonged. One hour delay. Vacation was OVER.
That was all right. I still had images in my head of fun times and good meals. The flowering trees inspired me to scribble some haiku (still tweaking them, David (my brother) ) and despite the annoyances of travel, there is a positive: permission to purchase magazines, books, and tic-tacs at the airport newstand. AT FULL PRICE. Hey, I'm captive, I'm delayed, and in theory, I was desperate.
I had mismanaged my reading during the week. Jeffrey Deaver's An Empty Chair proved riveting so rather than pace myself, I greedily finished it without a backup plan. Oops - hence the need to purchase reading material in case I was trapped at the Philly airport for days. True readers understand - at home I have a stack of books at the ready. I just didn't pack them.
An abundance. A plethora of print presented itself and I chose the latest Vanity Fair with Grace Kelly on the cover (her memory lives on in To Catch a Thief and Rear Window - yummy movies), a National Geographic Travel magazine featuring Italy's Amalfi Coast (hey, I might want to go there instead of back to DFW), and the book Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane (haven't seen the movie, but he's a great writer. How did I miss this one at the library?). Thus the return flight was painless. I could escape (except during thirty minutes of turbulence - can't read or write when we're bumping along) into others' words. Travel treats are worth every penny. When's my next trip?



Note - Pictures from the University of PA - Morris Arboretum. Glorious place to wander.