A week from Wednesday and I’ll be on vacation. A week from Thursday and I’ll be on a plane to The Surrey International Writers Conference. I’m just as excited for this conference, as I have been for others in the past. I’m not sure why, I have less reason to believe in my ability to write a publishable novel.
Time and again, I write a short story for a contest. I have not had any indication that any of them have any valuable dimension. This may sound like crying in my beer, and, even though I prefer wine, maybe it is. Each week, I expose my heart for the critique of one of my children at my writers’ group. Everyone is kind and generous with their feedback. I hope it is not just because that is the number one rule of the group that I am their ringleader. Sounds kinda pitiful, so I’m going to stop here.
This year at Surrey, the three pages I am taking are the new beginning pages of my book “Not Too Late Forever”. I also need to do some work on my pitch. It’s very scary to put your creations out there and have them critiqued, especially by published authors and professional agents. I can only hope that this will be the time the agent will not only say send me your work, but also “I want to work with you.”
This time next week, I will start planning on what I will do for NaNoWriMo. I don’t want to start something new. There are five books that I have a good solid start with. What I’m thinking of is to work on Book 2 in The Naldo Series, “Naldo Calls”. I will just need to be very careful of how I count the new words I add. During this time I need to continue, the slow yet steady building of “Misty’s Magical Shed”. “Misty’s” is just too much fun not to work on. Add to that, I have made a commitment to write another short story for, yet another contest. Time to get back to work on my writing.
Until next week, keep the coffee flowing.
Respectfully submitted,
Jodi