Friday, April 18, 2008

The Writers Conference at the Beach


The afternoon before the conference, I stopped to visit my parents. My mother and I went for a walk on Balboa Island. We enjoyed looking at the quaint beach cottages.














On the east side of the path, we enjoyed perusing the spring gardens.










To the west side of the path...a harbor with boats.









When we got home, I peeked into the garage and there was dad...working on his giraffe.

The project is growing in complexity. He put a motor on the inside of the body. And the tongue is going to move too (I think). Today he was putting on the legs. I helped him. It was harder than it looks. He has 2 joints for each leg. And we had to get the right joints with the right leg. We got left and right mixed up...and had to re-do it. My dad is very patient!



Writers Conference Report

At 8:00 a.m. there were 150 people sitting at round tables munching on fruit and muffins. Many were signing up for appointments to have work critiqued or to meet and talk with an editor. NavPress and Zondervan were represented. One agent was present along with several authors and speakers. One of our keynote speakers was Beverly Lewis who has written over eighty books for adults and children. Among them...The Brethren, The Redemption of Sarah Cain.

Another keynote speaker, Diana Glyer P.h.D., an expert on C.S. Lewis, and J. R. R. Tolkien, gave a fascinating talk about their friendship, and their writers group, the Inklings. I enjoyed attending my friend's workshop on writing devotionals. I also attended an interesting discussion with Brian Bird, a screenwriter. There were only 5 of us in the room and he gave us insights into changing a book into a screenplay.

I made an appointment to have my work critiqued, but was disappointed because the person ahead of me went overtime. That left 8 minutes for my "critique". (Appointments are only 15 minutes long.) Oh well...I've had 7 critiques on this piece in the past...and I was just glad to be there. My friend was so kind to make it possible for me to go!

For lunch we had 3 different kinds of wraps....flour tortillas stuffed with roast beef, or a southwestern bean-type, or vegetables. I ran into a friend who I haven't seen in a few years. Interestingly, she has just published a book Praying for Your Prodigal Daughter (Howard 2008).

Quite an eventful day!




3 comments:

Jan Parrish said...

Awesome. I am going to my first conference in May. I pray that it encouraged you to keep up the good work!

Susan Skitt said...

Sounds like a great day all around!

Conferences definately are helpful. In 2004, I made a contact at the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers Conference that resulted in my first published piece in a devotional book. You never know... I went there to get my children's manuscript critiqued but God had something different planned!

Naomi said...

Sounds like you had a good day at your conference and visiting your parents Sharon. I enjoyed looking at your photos. It's quite a while since I've been over here so I'm making up for lost time!