This last week the registration for The Surrey International Writers Conference opened on Wednesday, June 6th at noon. By 1:30pm they were 1/2 sold out. I expected to register at 2:30pm, on my lunch break. But 1/2 sold out, can you believe it? I was scared I would be left out and be unable to participate in one of the best writers’ conferences that I’ve ever been too.
Luckily my boss let me take an early part of my lunch. However, even then I had a difficult time getting registered. You’d think that, because I work everyday to help people get their debit and credit cards freed up or at least prevent them from getting blocked, I would have had the sense to call my credit card company to let them know I was processing a transaction in Canada. But no, not me, it took three denials before it sunk into my brain.
Maybe it was not such a bad thing that it took that long to finally get through the registration process. For some reason I was thinking of Friday as the day before the conference. When I was scheduling my blue pencil (a sitdown with a published author) and my pitch (a sit down with an agent), I was scheduling it later in the day. In the final process I put in for my pitch on Friday morning with Nephele Tempest, an agent with The Knight Agency and my blue pencil, Friday afternoon with New York Times best selling author Tess Gerritsen. Doing this, once I’m finished, I can settle in and enjoy the rest of the conference.
I must admit that there is still a lot of stress and angst. However I can participate in the workshops and concentrate on polishing my craft when I don’t have to worry about pitching or sharing.
Well, now that I’ve gotten past the registration, I can now concentrate on the latest edit of my book “Not Too Late Forever”. I hope, and must admit say a prayer or two, that this will be my year. Time alone will tell if that miracle happens. In the meantime I will continue to enjoy the process.
Keep the coffee flowing.
Respectfully submitted,
Jodi