Posted by Christine on Oct 22, 2007 in Publishing |
This past weekend I attended the Surrey International Writers Conference. It was, in short, an amazing weekend. But of course there is never a “short†version for an author. So here we go… I spent Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the conference. On Thursday I attended a Masters Class on revision with Barbara Rogan. I took three pages of notes and got a lot of good ideas in the workshop. After that hubby and I – I dragged him with me since I was getting an award and all – went out for Sushi… yummy. Friday was an incredible day. I got to attend workshops with writers Nancy Warren, and Jacquelyn Mitchard, as well as having author and Agent interviews with Rachel Vater and Kelley Armstrong. After all that I went to my room and changed clothes for my big night. At dinner I was given the Storytellers award. The Contest was judged by Jack Whyte and Diana Gabaldon, of all the entries these two wonderful writers chose my story “A Decade of Scottsdale” as the winner for the 2007 storytellers award. This is such a huge honor. I am flattered that my story made such an impact on these two writers. During the course of the conference I was able to get both writers to sign my copy of the anthology. Also kc dryer was kind enough to sign it as well, she is the conference and contest coordinator as well as an author… I am not sure how she gets it all done. Saturday was just about the perfect day. I don’t think my feet actually touched the floor all day. As I floated onto the elevator to begin my day I was offered congratulations and complements on my story from people I had never met. Throughout the day I was enriched by attending workshops with Diane Duane, Jacqueline Mitchard, Kelley Armstrong, Diana Gabaldon, Wendy Roberts and I met Vicki Pettersson at the Blue Pencil Cafe. I really enjoyed talking to Vicki and she gave me some great advise and ideas at the Blue pencil cafe. At the banquet that night I had the honor of eating dinner with Kelley Armstrong. She was friendly and personable and I was privileged to be able to share a meal and conversation with her. Throughout the entire day people came up to me and offered congratulations on my story winning first place. I felt like a minor celebrity. The beautiful crystal book sitting on the dresser of my hotel room only heightened my sense of surreal bliss. Sunday began with a funny and insightful keynote address by Bruce Hale. His take on rejection letters had me laughing but at the same time gave me encouragement to stick with my goals. Since I was in Query mode I went to the panel on Fiction Queries that work with agents Sorche...
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Posted by Christine on Oct 19, 2007 in Publishing, Scottsdale |
I won, I won, I won… oh and did I mention I won? What you ask did I win? I won the Surrey International Writers Conference Storyteller’s award. Yup, that’s right. That contest I posted about way back in July – I won it. Right now at this moment I am so in awe I can hardly describe what I feel. It is so amazing to know that people are reading and enjoying my story. Enough to give it an award. Wanna see.. There a four categories: Writing for Young People, Non-Fiction, Poetry, and The Storyteller’s Award (fiction). They had a group especially donate this engraving just for the Storytellers award, and I won it!!!! How cool is that! I was the only one of the winners to get this crystal engraving!!! The story “A decade of Scottsdale” will be available for sale online after the conference. It ends Sunday and I will post a link to where you can buy it as soon as it is up. Outside of that the conference is going great. I have learned a tremendous amount and I got to meet an author I really like. I will post more when I am not so tired, but now I need to rest so I can be awake for another day of conferencing tomorrow. Good night...
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Posted by Christine on Oct 17, 2007 in Randomness |
Tomorrow I am leaving to attend my first writing conference. I will be attending the Surrey International Writers Conference. I am excited to start the whole conference experience. What will the Masters class be like? What will the sessions be like? Who will I meet? What will I learn? I will try to update my blog while at the conference but if not I will certainly have a very long detailed post to share when I return. I hope you all have as exciting a weekend as I am...
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Posted by Christine on Oct 15, 2007 in Randomness |
As an author I am learning a great deal about writing and publishing by reading the blogs of several agents. I am learning more then just about the world of writing though. For example last month I learned about International Talk like a pirate day. And I got to celebrate it. Fun fun fun. Today I learned about something more important from Bookends Blog. Today is Blog action day, a day when people all over the blogosphere are writing about the environment and issues that affect it. I want to contribute my two cents to this issue. Ok ready it’s going to be profound… Trees are good. See, told ya, profound. Ok seriously, I remember the day I learned that trees are invaluable resources. I was in third grade. We were learning about the human body and that people breath in Oxygen and breath out Carbon dioxide. As I processed this information I came to a startling conclusion. We were going to run out of oxygen! My hand shot up and I fidgeted in my seat waiting for the teacher to call on me. No sooner had she said my name then I blurted “So why don’t we run out of air?” “Excellent question.” I basked in a moment of third grade pride at having asked an excellent question, then waited impatiently for the answer… why weren’t we running out of air! I remember the teacher explaining to me that God had designed a perfect system (I went to a Christian school) and that while people breathed in air and out Carbon dioxide the trees all around us used Carbon dioxide to “breath” and they gave off oxygen as waste. Whoa! My third grade world was rocked. I still remember that day clearly. Even then I was confused that I was the only one who raised my hand. Didn’t everybody wonder why we weren’t running out of air. Surely my entire class was not so far ahead of me that they already knew this special secret. Trees make Oxygen. Today I am still confused. Why do we destroy so much of the Earth around us, especially the trees. Don’t people know the secret? Trees make clean air. We need trees. Trees are...
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Posted by Christine on Sep 25, 2007 in Publishing, Scottsdale |
I am having one, right now. What has awed me? Today I posted my first story on the web site This is by Us. You can find a link to it in the box on the right hand side of my sight. Please go check it out. I will be posting more over the next few weeks. The stories I am posting are “news” articles written by the fictitious character Chelsea Cole. The central character of a short story currently entered into an international writing competition. So why am I awed. Well, you see, six months ago I was an aspiring writer. Today I am a writer. So here I sit, in awe. Happy...
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