Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Neat!

I went to a writing conference this past weekend. There were many authors there I was thrilled to meet. In my head I had all these questions I wanted to ask them, insights I wanted to share. When it was my turn, gone were my elaborately planned words, they disappeared like a diet in a doughnut shop. I grasped for anything to say and what I came up with was, "I really liked your book. It was neat." I cringed as soon as the words left my mouth. I've worked so hard to become an author and all I could come up with to describe a book that had me in tears because I cared so much about the heroine, was the word 'neat'.

Aside from that, the weekend was fantastic! I met some really talented people. One of the chapters I entered in the first chapter contest (the one I co-wrote with my friend Melonie) came in third place in the romance category. I giggled every night with my four roommates. My boot camp group really gave me some helpful feedback. The classes I attended were so informative and fun. I learned so much that I think my brain had reached maximum capacity. It felt so full, like it lacked the ability to absorb any new information. In the classes, I was surrounded by successful, published authors, as well as some really talented yet-to-be-published authors. The support and advice from authors in different stages in their career was amazing. I can't wait for the next one!


4 comments:

Theresa Milstein said...

I've been hearing great things about this conference.
Congratulations on your third-place win!

I lose all coherence at conferences when I speak to agents, editors, and authors whom I admire. It's sad. I'm going to one next month and hope to dazzle instead.

Lani Woodland said...

Thanks Theresa! I'm sure you'll dazzle them this time. :)

Elana Johnson said...

I'm so glad you had a great time at the conference! It was awesome. :)

Unknown said...

Congratulations on that win! I totally remember you! And thanks for dropping by my blog. It's pretty deep over there, just like me!