The OWFI Writing Conference
For those of you who wanted to know how the conference went in detail, here it is:
Well, I am back from the writing conference. It was a lot of fun and I think I learned a lot. I didn't win anything, but I met a few interesting writers and making contacts is definitely a good reason to go to events like this.
I left Thursday afternoon for the writing conference. It was between a 5 and 6 hours drive. On the way there, it felt really nice to be on the open road again. (Since I live in LR now, I do not get to do much interstate driving.) Gas prices suck, though, it cost me the same amount roundtrip as the cost of driving one-way to NJ 2years ago. The drive was long (felt longer on the way back), but didnt feel as long as it was, but this is also from the person who has made a ~20 hour road trip before.lol.
Oh yeah, and Oklahomans can't say anything about Arkansas roads at all! I crosses over into Oklahoma in the middle of rush hour. The first thing I noticed was that there were hardly any cars on I-40 West at all. From Fort Smith until about 25 miles outside of OKC, there were fewer cars than from like Alma to Fort Smith. The second thing I noticed was how bad the roads were when there was a whole the entire width of the road, that was filled with tar, but the concrete had contracted or something and the patch was like a little hill in the road that scraped the bottom of my car as I went over it. And from there on (except for a few spots where they ahd actually repaved it, I was dodging holes everywhere). It's a lot like the AR highways around Russellville, but about twcie as bad. The wierd thing was when I left OK, heading East on I-40 the hole in the road were not as bad and there were significantly more cars heading that direction both times. There were also a lot of interesting city names along the way like "Chickapoo" and "Lotawatah". lol. They helped entertain me along the way.
I arrived at my hotel and crashed for the night. The conference began at 8am Friday morning with a general welcome/announcement session, then it broke up into seperate "sessions" for the rest of the day (Shedule). The first session I went to was Linda Mason's class about grant writing because it is something I have always been curious about. However, it was probably the 2nd least applicable session to me. Still it was interesting to learn more about it. The 2nd session, I heard Gordon Kirkland seak about publicizing yourself as a writer. He said a lot of stuff that was so simple but people just overlook them (like send out press releases to local/applicable newspapers anytime you do anything significant as a writer). That session was helpful and Gordon Kirkland is a good speaker (very funny)! The 3rd sessopm I was split between going to a poetry session or a session about writing good pitch letters with Daniel Lazar (a writers agent with Writer's House). I ended up going to the session about pitch letters. It was useful and really interesting to listen to Daniel talk. ^_^
Next was a break for lunch. There was a woman in each of the 3 sessions I attended Friday morning who looked really familiar. I caught her out in the hall just before lunch, but she was not anyone I knew. I wracked my brain to try to remember who she reminded me of and the closest I could figure was Annie Cluck from high school because she was friendly with everyone like Cheri. So I ended up going to lunch with Cheri and another woman she had shared some classes with, a woman named Jill. We learned a bit about eachother during lunch and stuck together a lot during the rest of the conference.
Cheri had a lot of good ideas. For example, she said she always wears a hat now because when she writes in cafes, people come up to her all the time to ask her what she is writing and she cant get anything done because of that, but if she is wearing a hat where they cant see her eyes, they dont bother her. Lol. I might have to take up wearing a hat..... if I only knew of a good place to write.
Jill reminded me a bit of my mother. She was mild-natured and friendly. Her hair has the same greying waves to it like my mom's except her used to be dark and my mom's a pale blondish/brownish red.
After lunch, I went to a session with Phillip Martin about storytelling in writing. Then I went to 2 sessions by Marcia Preston. The first one was about tricks and tips for writing good dialogue which was really useful. The 2nd was about how she got her novel published and how we should keep trying to find different angles to sell out stories, because eventually one will probably work. Next there was a reception for new members and 1st time conference attendees. Then I went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the "Famous Author Banquet" (our "included" dinner that night).
When I got back to the conference, Cheri was talking with a woman who she introduced as the speaker in one of the sessions going on the next day. The woman's name is Judyth Hill. She said hi and very excitedly told me how much she absolutely loved my dress (I was wearing a knee length spaghetti-strap pale blue dress that looked "woven" and my business suit jacket. Apparently she liked my taste in clothing, from what she said. But I only mention this incident because Judyth is important later in this story about the conference.) So anyway Cheri and I chatted with Judyth about poetry for a few minutes and then someone else came up to say hi to Judyth and she moved away to talk with them.
The "author's" banquet was long and pretty uninteresting. They served us chichken with steamed veggies and rice, and flavored cheese cake for dessert. Then they announced and honored all of the conference attendees who published books within the past year, and they had one of the original members of Romance Writers of American speak about how the business of writing really is like a box of chocolates, or at least it was that way for her. Then the banquet broke for "buzz" sessions (essentially small meetings with slect speakers who were still awake and wished to participate. I went to Robert Ferrier's session on poetry and learned how he had kinko-ized his potry books and a bit about buying isbn #s from another lady there. By then it was about 11:30 and I was dead tired because I didnt sleep well the night before. Actually the whole time I was there, I kept drifting in and out of sleep....probably because my room was on the corner by the stairs.
My sessions on the 2nd day began with one on publishing poetry by Judyth Hill. It was amazing!! Judyth Hill radiated passion for her work/poetry/life in general through her whole class. It ran over and finally 10 minutes after it was supposed to have ended the conference people came in to tell her they had to have the room for the next session in it. Everyone in the room said "awwww" because no one wanted to leave and her 50 minutes had gone by so fast. She was such a good speaker, and she said she didnt just read her poetry but she "performed" her poetry. Judyth HIll is well known for writing the poem, "Wage Peace" which was really big right around 9/11.
Anyway, Judyth offered to go to the lobby and anyone who still had questions for her could ask her there. I didnt follow because there was a session about newspaper writing that I wanted to attend next which I thought might be useful. It wasnt. The session was with the editor of the Oklahoman and ALL he talked about was book reviews. Someone tried to ask him about column writing and other aspects of writing for newspers but he kept answering all of the question in reference to book reviews. He was the absolute most boring speaker at the entire conference (slow and menotonous speaking and very stubborn and slow it seemed). If i had not been sitting in such a visible part of the room, I would have left that session after the first 5 minutes; as was about 65% of the people who were there whent it started left before it was over.
We broke for lunch and then I skipped the next session to talk with Judyth Hill about my poetry. I asked a lot of stupid questions and showed her a couple of my poems. She was very patient and understanding. She said my poetry had good subject matter but I needed to learn more about poetry froms/style. I bought a copy of one of her books and she signed it and personalized it for me! She helped me out more than she probably knows. The passion she exudes for her work by itself is somewhat inspiring.
The last session I attended was another one by Judyth Hill. I hadnt intended to spend so much of the conference on poetry, but it just kindof happened. Saturday night was the Awards Banquet. I didnt win anything, but feedback was written on our entries when we picked them up after the banquet. Then I crashed. Then I woke up. Then I drove back to Arkansas. Now I crash again because my head is killing me......................................
But the conference was a lot of fun. I think I learned a lot, and made a couple of good friends.
Well, I am back from the writing conference. It was a lot of fun and I think I learned a lot. I didn't win anything, but I met a few interesting writers and making contacts is definitely a good reason to go to events like this.
I left Thursday afternoon for the writing conference. It was between a 5 and 6 hours drive. On the way there, it felt really nice to be on the open road again. (Since I live in LR now, I do not get to do much interstate driving.) Gas prices suck, though, it cost me the same amount roundtrip as the cost of driving one-way to NJ 2years ago. The drive was long (felt longer on the way back), but didnt feel as long as it was, but this is also from the person who has made a ~20 hour road trip before.lol.
Oh yeah, and Oklahomans can't say anything about Arkansas roads at all! I crosses over into Oklahoma in the middle of rush hour. The first thing I noticed was that there were hardly any cars on I-40 West at all. From Fort Smith until about 25 miles outside of OKC, there were fewer cars than from like Alma to Fort Smith. The second thing I noticed was how bad the roads were when there was a whole the entire width of the road, that was filled with tar, but the concrete had contracted or something and the patch was like a little hill in the road that scraped the bottom of my car as I went over it. And from there on (except for a few spots where they ahd actually repaved it, I was dodging holes everywhere). It's a lot like the AR highways around Russellville, but about twcie as bad. The wierd thing was when I left OK, heading East on I-40 the hole in the road were not as bad and there were significantly more cars heading that direction both times. There were also a lot of interesting city names along the way like "Chickapoo" and "Lotawatah". lol. They helped entertain me along the way.
I arrived at my hotel and crashed for the night. The conference began at 8am Friday morning with a general welcome/announcement session, then it broke up into seperate "sessions" for the rest of the day (Shedule). The first session I went to was Linda Mason's class about grant writing because it is something I have always been curious about. However, it was probably the 2nd least applicable session to me. Still it was interesting to learn more about it. The 2nd session, I heard Gordon Kirkland seak about publicizing yourself as a writer. He said a lot of stuff that was so simple but people just overlook them (like send out press releases to local/applicable newspapers anytime you do anything significant as a writer). That session was helpful and Gordon Kirkland is a good speaker (very funny)! The 3rd sessopm I was split between going to a poetry session or a session about writing good pitch letters with Daniel Lazar (a writers agent with Writer's House). I ended up going to the session about pitch letters. It was useful and really interesting to listen to Daniel talk. ^_^
Next was a break for lunch. There was a woman in each of the 3 sessions I attended Friday morning who looked really familiar. I caught her out in the hall just before lunch, but she was not anyone I knew. I wracked my brain to try to remember who she reminded me of and the closest I could figure was Annie Cluck from high school because she was friendly with everyone like Cheri. So I ended up going to lunch with Cheri and another woman she had shared some classes with, a woman named Jill. We learned a bit about eachother during lunch and stuck together a lot during the rest of the conference.
Cheri had a lot of good ideas. For example, she said she always wears a hat now because when she writes in cafes, people come up to her all the time to ask her what she is writing and she cant get anything done because of that, but if she is wearing a hat where they cant see her eyes, they dont bother her. Lol. I might have to take up wearing a hat..... if I only knew of a good place to write.
Jill reminded me a bit of my mother. She was mild-natured and friendly. Her hair has the same greying waves to it like my mom's except her used to be dark and my mom's a pale blondish/brownish red.
After lunch, I went to a session with Phillip Martin about storytelling in writing. Then I went to 2 sessions by Marcia Preston. The first one was about tricks and tips for writing good dialogue which was really useful. The 2nd was about how she got her novel published and how we should keep trying to find different angles to sell out stories, because eventually one will probably work. Next there was a reception for new members and 1st time conference attendees. Then I went back to the hotel to change and get ready for the "Famous Author Banquet" (our "included" dinner that night).
When I got back to the conference, Cheri was talking with a woman who she introduced as the speaker in one of the sessions going on the next day. The woman's name is Judyth Hill. She said hi and very excitedly told me how much she absolutely loved my dress (I was wearing a knee length spaghetti-strap pale blue dress that looked "woven" and my business suit jacket. Apparently she liked my taste in clothing, from what she said. But I only mention this incident because Judyth is important later in this story about the conference.) So anyway Cheri and I chatted with Judyth about poetry for a few minutes and then someone else came up to say hi to Judyth and she moved away to talk with them.
The "author's" banquet was long and pretty uninteresting. They served us chichken with steamed veggies and rice, and flavored cheese cake for dessert. Then they announced and honored all of the conference attendees who published books within the past year, and they had one of the original members of Romance Writers of American speak about how the business of writing really is like a box of chocolates, or at least it was that way for her. Then the banquet broke for "buzz" sessions (essentially small meetings with slect speakers who were still awake and wished to participate. I went to Robert Ferrier's session on poetry and learned how he had kinko-ized his potry books and a bit about buying isbn #s from another lady there. By then it was about 11:30 and I was dead tired because I didnt sleep well the night before. Actually the whole time I was there, I kept drifting in and out of sleep....probably because my room was on the corner by the stairs.
My sessions on the 2nd day began with one on publishing poetry by Judyth Hill. It was amazing!! Judyth Hill radiated passion for her work/poetry/life in general through her whole class. It ran over and finally 10 minutes after it was supposed to have ended the conference people came in to tell her they had to have the room for the next session in it. Everyone in the room said "awwww" because no one wanted to leave and her 50 minutes had gone by so fast. She was such a good speaker, and she said she didnt just read her poetry but she "performed" her poetry. Judyth HIll is well known for writing the poem, "Wage Peace" which was really big right around 9/11.
Anyway, Judyth offered to go to the lobby and anyone who still had questions for her could ask her there. I didnt follow because there was a session about newspaper writing that I wanted to attend next which I thought might be useful. It wasnt. The session was with the editor of the Oklahoman and ALL he talked about was book reviews. Someone tried to ask him about column writing and other aspects of writing for newspers but he kept answering all of the question in reference to book reviews. He was the absolute most boring speaker at the entire conference (slow and menotonous speaking and very stubborn and slow it seemed). If i had not been sitting in such a visible part of the room, I would have left that session after the first 5 minutes; as was about 65% of the people who were there whent it started left before it was over.
We broke for lunch and then I skipped the next session to talk with Judyth Hill about my poetry. I asked a lot of stupid questions and showed her a couple of my poems. She was very patient and understanding. She said my poetry had good subject matter but I needed to learn more about poetry froms/style. I bought a copy of one of her books and she signed it and personalized it for me! She helped me out more than she probably knows. The passion she exudes for her work by itself is somewhat inspiring.
The last session I attended was another one by Judyth Hill. I hadnt intended to spend so much of the conference on poetry, but it just kindof happened. Saturday night was the Awards Banquet. I didnt win anything, but feedback was written on our entries when we picked them up after the banquet. Then I crashed. Then I woke up. Then I drove back to Arkansas. Now I crash again because my head is killing me......................................
But the conference was a lot of fun. I think I learned a lot, and made a couple of good friends.