RWA Conference in Reno

Wow, am I behind.

I've been to the RWA Annual Conference in Reno, Nevada and am now at my California house for the month of August.

I have to tell you that going to conference as a Golden Heart Finalist is one of the highlights of my writing experience. Okay, I know you want the funny moments, so I'll dish. It started when I pulled that gorgeous pink ribbon out at registration and made everyone around me look at it. Luckily they were good sports and gushed appropriately. A few eyerolls, but hey, that was the moment that it became real for me. And what a great feeling.

Now I could continue with this and tell you about the joy of riding up and down the elevator and having everyone notice and comment and wish me luck, but that would be silly. But boy did I love it!

I finally felt like I belonged. Like I could really visualize my ability as a writer amounting to something great. Okay, it's my journal, I can go for greatness if I want to! And I do.

One of the highlights of the conference for me was Jenny Crusie and Bob Mayer's workshop on collaboration. Those two belong together and I can't wait to read their first book together. It's called Don't Look Down and will be out in the Spring of 2006. Wish it was sooner, but there you go.

I met fabulous writers, both published and aspiring and loved every interaction. I met editors and agents and tried my best to pitch without imploding or embarrassingmyself and seemed to do okay, so I'm now working furiously on polishing the requested submissions and hope to have them out next week.

Oh, I guess I forgot to mention the hard drive crash that happened after I got home. Got all my files back, but lost my email and contacts. It was a mess. Why I didn't archive my email is a mystery that's never to be repeated again. I'll make sure of that.

Anyway, if you follow RWA, you've probably heard a lot about the awards program. Longest in history and not the joyous experience I'd hoped for, but I refuse to allow it to dampen my experience of conference and KNOW with absolute certainty that it won't ever happen again. And look at it this way - at least everyone will remember the year I was a finalist!

So, In my final analysis, conference was great, both for the experience of being a finalist and for restoring my motivation and reinforcing my enthusiasm for the journey. It's really great to know there are so many wonderful people on the same trail I'm following.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by.

Ardath