Search This Blog
April Reviews Link-Up
May Reviews Link-Up
June Reviews Link-Up
July Reviews Link-Up
August Reviews Link-Up
September Reviews Link-Up
October Reviews Link-Up
November Reviews Link-Up
December Reviews Link-Up
2024 Literary Escapes Challenge
2024 Build Your Library Reading Challenge
LDS Storymakers 2010
I got to Salt Lake on Thursday. My friend Robin, whom I roomed with at BYU many moons ago, picked me up at the airport. After lunch at Zupa's (yum - why don't we have these in Arizona?) and a lovely scenic drive around the metropolis of Draper, Utah, we visited with another one of our old roommates.
Then, we headed to Good Wood Barbecue for a much-anticipated dinner with the illustrious "6." Robin and I both
The 5 in attendance (Kimberly Webb Reid was the only one who managed to find something better to do that night - I think it was her birthday or something) were all wonderfully fun, friendly and just, really, so nice. It was a good time.
None of my pictures from the conference weekend turned out very well. Perhaps it's time for me to invest in a new camera, or a new photographer, or maybe just liposuction. Yikes.
Thanks again to these lovely ladies for letting us hang with them!
We spent the next two (very early) mornings doing Boot Camp, which was basically an intense critique of our manuscripts (well, a chapter of our WIPs). I didn't get any pictures of my critique group, although I really meant to. Our fearless leader was Elana Johnson, a blogger extraordinaire and YA author (I believe her first book is coming out in 2011). Including her, there were six of us in the group. Everyone was so sweet and complimentary about the very, very rough draft I toted along (the one I frantically hammered out on Wednesday night). Boot Camp actually left me feeling much more encouraged than I thought it would. It was, by far, the most helpful part of the conference. I highly, highly recommend the experience.
We spent the rest of Friday and Saturday attending classes, panel discussions and other events.
Since I couldn't scribble fast enough to keep up, here are paraphrasings of some of the things that were said in classes, panels, etc.:
"Readers are a diverse bunch, including a lot of people who are basically easy to please, and a smaller number of people who are basically impossible to please." - Aprilynne Pike
"You should nver marry yourself to a book and stay with it until it's perfect. It will never be perfect." - Dan Wells
"Sometimes you have to make writing a priority and catch up on life later." - Aprilynne Pike
"Sometimes family is the priority. When my son set the house on fire, I did get out of my chair." - David Farland
"Sacrificing your wife, children and friends is the first step in becoming a writer." - David Farland
"Write a paragraph. Change a diaper. Write a paragraph. Make lunch." - Anita Stansfield
"If you want me to willingly suspend my belief, you have to make me believe in something." - Jessica Day George
And, my personal favorite, which is a direct quote (Aprilynne was kind enough to email me a copy of her PowerPoint presentation):
"Thanks to blogs, you will get to hear every tiny thing someone hated about your book, and why they think that probably makes you a worthless person. This will be very hard!"
Every step I took around the Marriott provided opportunity to meet authors, bloggers and aspiring writers. So fun! I met the very talented bookbinder Paulette, the very fun ladies behind LDS Women's Book Review, the knowledgable Emily from Segullah, sweet Terresa Wellborn, and the very likeable and down-to-earth Janette Rallison, among many, many others.
In the next couple of weeks, you can expect to see reviews of all the books I bought, received and won because of my fabulous writing weekend.
I'm already saving my pennies for next year's conference. That's how much I enjoyed myself!
Reading
Listening
Followin' with Bloglovin'
-
Top 5 Tuesday ~ Green Books1 hour ago
-
-
Top Ten Tuesday-Spring Into Books2 hours ago
-
Top Ten Tuesday3 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
Top Ten Tuesday: Spring TBR | 20246 hours ago
-
TTT – Books On My Spring 2024 TBR7 hours ago
-
-
Daily Prompt 18 March monday11 hours ago
-
-
-
-
-
Books from the Backlog #81 day ago
-
-
Don’t Foget Me by Rea Frey1 day ago
-
-
-
Sunday Post3 days ago
-
-
Timeline by Michael Crichton3 days ago
-
33. Ferris4 days ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
Witch Hat Atelier: Kitchen, Volume 11 week ago
-
Catching up1 week ago
-
Review: Dating Dr. Dil1 week ago
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
What Happened to Summer?5 months ago
-
6/25/23 Extra Ezra8 months ago
-
-
-
Sundays with Sam – The Sunday Post11 months ago
-
-
Are you looking for Pretty Books?1 year ago
-
-
-
-
-
Grab my Button!
Blog Archive
- ► 2021 (159)
- ► 2020 (205)
- ► 2019 (197)
- ► 2018 (223)
- ► 2017 (157)
- ► 2016 (157)
- ► 2015 (188)
- ► 2014 (133)
- ► 2013 (183)
- ► 2012 (193)
- ► 2011 (232)
- ▼ 2010 (257)
- ► 2009 (211)
- ► 2008 (192)