General

Heading to Surrey

Posted by on Oct 21, 2009 in General | 0 comments

I am leaving tomorrow for my annual pilgrimage to Surrey for the Surrey International Writers Conference. The first year I went I got one piece of advise from a writer that made a world of difference to me.  The writer was Vicki Pettersson. The truth is she probably gave the same advise to a dozen different writers but it meant a lot to me that she took the time to encourage me and elicit this particular commitment from me.  That and she recognized the color nail polish I was wearing, I will never forget that. :)   Because I always do my best to keep my commitments I did. So what did Vicki tell me to do, and what did I silently promise myself I would do? Well see that year was very special, it was my first conference and I won the writing contest.  I was so excited, I never wrote a short story before and I never won a contest. Vicki while very kind was also serious with me, she told me not to come again next year unless I was bringing a manuscript with me to pitch.  She told me not to become a conference junky.  Just going from one conference to another for the high of it and never finishing a project I started. The advise made sense – the experience really was a high.  I loved every minute of SiWC.  I met incredible people, learned amazing information and was treated like a real writer. Not to mention no one teased me about my pen fascination.  I could easily imagine doing it again and again.  It was so much fun to be surrounded by writers. Still I took her seriously.  I went home committed not to attend SiWC the following year unless I was ready to pitch a manuscript. So last year I took a completed manuscript with me to SiWC and I pitched.  I even had a request for a partial.  And got a very nice personal rejection.  It was awesome. This year I am taking another manuscript with me to pitch.  This one’s different from last years.  I was already writing this one last year at Surrey.  I even gave my teaser pitch about this one to the agents I pitched to last year and they encouraged me to contact them when it was complete.  Now it is – and revised – twice. I love this story, and I am ready to pitch it. So for the third year in a row I’m attending SiWC, the one and only conference I attend each year.  And it really is a high each and every year.  I come away recharged and ready for the rest of the year.  I look forward to it and plan for it all year.  I learn so much each year. Thank you to those who put SiWC on each year for...

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Daring to Dream

Posted by on May 5, 2009 in General | 0 comments

  Today I stumbled on two different blogs about dreaming – not the I fell asleep dreaming but the dreaming of a future dream. This is one of them. I dream, I think all writers dream. I totally get the quote from J.K Rowling in the above blog. Some of my characters I just love. They live in my head and talk to me. Sometimes they argue with me while I’m writing. Sometimes I end up going a completely different way because I have to compromise with what they want. I desperately want to share them and their stories with the world. I want other people to love them as much as I do. And yeah – I dream of a Cinderella story. I worry though, because I already got one in this life and it seems unlikely that a person is entitled to more than one Cinderella moment in a lifetime. Still I just can’t stop hoping and dreaming because I really want to tell people my stories, I want people to love my characters and I want my stories to touch people. I dream of one day seeing my name on the cover of a book, it’s a huge dream, but I’m not going to stop pursuing it because to me it’s worth dreaming. So I urge everyone out there to keep dreaming your own big dreams, who know – maybe we do get to have more then one Cinderella story in a life...

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Top Ten Reasons Spiders are worse then Zombies

Posted by on Apr 18, 2009 in General, Randomness | 0 comments

10) Zombies don’t make webs 9) Zombies only eat your brains, they don’t try to take over your house. 8) Zombies only have two legs, even if they are decomposing and slimy, there are still only TWO! 7) Zombies move slowly and moan a lot to let you know they are coming. Spiders are much stealthier they sneak up on you…in your own house. 6) Zombies can’t crawl on you. 5) Zombies can’t hide in your bed without giving themselves away (they make unusual lumps and once again with the moaning). 4) Zombies cannot descend form your ceiling to the middle of your living room and hang there – mid air waiting to strike. 3) Zombies don’t have exoskeletons, in fact, their bones are soft and worm eaten. 2) Zombies come one size fits all – unlike the spider who can range from tiny to huge and hair covered. And the number 1 reason spiders are worse than zombies: The worst a Zombie’s can do it kill you, spiders can seriously creep you out. In fact the only thing creepier then Spiders, is zombie...

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Why Conferences Work

Posted by on Oct 6, 2008 in General | 0 comments

So this past weekend I attended the WOTS (or Writing on the Sound) writing conference in Edmonds Washington.  It was a good experience and a motivating one as well.  I have to admit it didn’t top last years SIWC from last year – but last year was in my firm belief a once in a life time unique and wonderful weekend.  So I can’t compare anything to that fairly.  Anyway I got to hear some great and motivating speakers including Robert Dugoni, who’s presentation I found one of the most useful and informative. Elizabeth Lyon who’s workshop was also very useful and interesting, and Marc Acito who gave one of the most humorous presentations I’ve ever been in – which worked well since his presentation was about humor.  I found myself coming home to one single desire – to sit down and write. I began to ask myself why conferences leave me ready to write.  I mean while I was there I revised the first two chapters of my Work in progress.  Up until a few weeks ago I was feeling disappointed and discouraged by my writing.  Now I want to jump in head first and make it better. So why? Personally I think there are three reason: 1) the focus – writing isn’t like a job where you go to work for 8 hours and sit and work.  Especially not for writers who have other jobs or kids- or in my case both.  You have to make time to write.  The weekend conference focuses you and helps you cut out the time you need to focus on writing. 2) the motivation – you sit and listen to speakers, they talk about writing, and give you writing prompts to try and you actually get to write.  Fun stuff – but also the ideas help you to be motivated. In fact I was thinking of turning one of the writing exercises I was given in one of the workshops into a short story.  It was an idea I had never thought of before.  3) the dream – as I sat in session after session with successful writers with multiple books published I couldn’t help day dreaming.  What would it be like when I came to the conference as a presenter rather then an attendee. Is it very different?  Will people ask me to sign copies of my book and listen as I tell them about the years I wrote before I was published.  The dream helps keep me going to the dream that someday someone will read my work and love it. So there is my personal opinion about why conferences work.  Thank you Edmonds art counsel for the conference you put on. It was a motivating...

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