I am sorry that I have not posted much lately.
It is a world of worry. Or at least, I am enjoying the overwhelming experience of it. I have submitted to three agents. So far two have acknowledged receipt. The first, on my part, was a thank you for gracious treatment I have received over the years. I first met Elizabeth Evans at the 2004 Maui Writers’ Conference. The second, Donald Maass, a more recent contact who I met at the San Francisco Writers’ Conference, gave me permission to submit to him. He has acknowledged receipt. Laurie Mclean, who I talked with both at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference and San Francisco Writers’ Conference, has yet to respond on receipt of my submission.
To let you know a little more about my journey, over the next month, I will post some of my experiences since the first writers’ conference I attended.
In 2003 I attended the Thirteenth annual Maui Writers’ Conference. Terry Brookes was a keynote speaker. It was an amazing experience in more than one way. Just sitting in the keynotes and going to workshops strengthened my love of writing. I believe as writers we are students of life. Writers conferences, large and small, are great places to practice our life’s purpose. My experiences, then and now continue. At first I vacillated about the genre I would pursue. Science Fiction is my passion, but to my family I have always been a little weird. I wasn’t sure there was much of a market for it. I found out how wrong I was.
First let me give you a little of my history. I come from a blue collar family. As far back as I know, it has been expected that each family member graduate from high school. Despite this, and that my grandmother took some higher education classes, I am the only one in three generations, who has graduated from college. This makes me neither smarter nor better than any of my family members. It is simply an area where I excel. My two sisters, in their own rights have surpassed me in accomplishments in their respective fields. I have total admiration for them.
Back to my writers conference experiences (I’ll continue this over the following weeks). At the 2003 Maui Writers’ Conference I had many firsts. To begin with, and possibly the most valuable, was talking with fellow writers. In this I began to feel normal (or as normal as possible for me). You see I talk to my characters. With other writers, you don’t have to stop and explain how the personalities in your books and stories talk back to you. I also did not receive those looks of concern that I had lost my mind. It is sharing mutual experiences and talking the same language. The saddest experience of my first writers’ conference was to learn that my all-time favorite author, Andre Norton, had passed away just months before. The opportunity to visit with and talk to aspiring and successful authors is one the true treasures of all writers conferences. Every author/writer should take advantage of writers’ conferences. Here inspiration and camaraderie abound.
Currently I am looking forward to the next Surrey International Writers’ in Surrey, British Colombia, Canada. Maybe I’ll see you there.