Follow Friday – Vicki Pettersson

Posted by Christine on Apr 30, 2010 in Follow Friday | 1 comment

This week my follow Friday goes to another wonderful and motivating author Vicki Pettersson.

My first year at SiWC (2007) I got to meet so many incredible authors, one of which was Vicki.  I will never forget my meeting with her for several reasons.

First off, because I was very nervous. It was the first time I was showing pages of my work with a “real author” while sitting across the table at a blue pencil.  Also, this was a published author, and I wanted to be like her when I grew up. What would I say to her? Ms. Pettersson immediately put me at ease. How? She recognized the color of my nail polish. No seriously. I had gotten a manicure specifically for SiWC since I won the contest that year and she recognized the brand and the color as soon as I sat down and complimented me on it.  I was needless to say tickled.

The other reason I will never forget my meeting with Vicki, and why I find her such an inspiration, is because of the advise she gave me.

When I met with her she was kind, caring and inspirational. She was also very honest.  We talked for several minutes and I shared how I won the contest and had come to the conference for the first time to hopefully help improve my writing. She asked me what I was pitching this year and I explained to her that I had not brought anything to pitch and did not have a finished novel ready to pitch.  She told me that conferences where great and they were wonderful for inspiring writers but she also warned me not to become a conference “junky”.  She challenged me not to come back to SiWC next year unless I had a novel ready to pitch.

I am proud to say that I did go back to Surrey in 2008 with a novel ready to pitch and with the beginning of Red and Grey. Then I went back in 2009 with Red and Grey ready to pitch.

I’m not sure that I would have had the motivation to do that if it hadn’t been for Vicki’s encouragement.  So thank you Vicki Pettersson for being a wonderful author who both my husband and I enjoy reading and for being an inspiration to me in my writing.