The Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc., conference was this weekend. I came away with three great things.
1. On Friday afternoon, I had an appointment with Dan Case, editor of WritingForDollars and publisher of AWOC Books. Last year, I learned that he was doing a “Devoted to…” series of devotional books. As of right now, there are Devoted to Writing, Devoted to Cooking, Devoted to Fishing, and Devoted to Truck Driving. I wanted to pitch DEVOTED TO CREATING.
A few weeks ago, he posted on Twitter that he was accepting appointments at the conference (which I knew about) and I replied I already had an appointment with him. He asked me to e-mail 10 pages of “something” to him so we would have a more productive 10 minutes.
So, as I’m sure you’ve figured…He wants it!!
2. Also…In May, with the writers’ organization, we change officers. This year, I’m Publicity Director. I’ve already started on that. OWFI is now on Twitter.
I have ideas of other social media-type ways to promote the organization between now and the next conference.
3. My historical romance novel-in-progress, BENEN’S BURDEN, won 1st Honorable Mention in the Historical category of the OWFI contest.
The keynote speaker for the banquet on Friday night was the amazing Tess Gerritsen. I had a previous commitment/promise to help with moving some baskets, so I didn’t get to go to her booksigning afterward. She is a wonderful speaker. The crux of it, in my opinion, was her closing line: “Write from the heart because that’s where the stories are.”
Also on Friday, I hosted a buzz session on Twitter, microblogging, and blogging in general. Around 10-15 people came through (in & out). There is some interest in an actual conference session on it sometime in the future.
Who knows? It could happen.
Filed under: writing , AWOC Books, blogging, buzz session, Dan Case, historical romance, Jen Nipps, jennipps, microblogging, Oklahoma, Oklahoma Writers' Federation, romance, Tess Gerritsen, Twitter, write, writer, writers, writing, WritingforDollars
Sounds like a very productive conference! Congrats on all your good news!
Congrats on your good news and it sounds like the conference was great! I’ll have to put it on my calendar next year, before relatives make a point to visit.