Afterglow

See, this is why I love writers conferences.  I blogged a couple weeks ago about how I'm not a "people" person and it's an effort to come out of my shell to socialize, but every time I do, its so worth it!

I met a lot of people this weekend, people I have a lot in common with.  Went to some great workshops (special note of thanks to Jade Lee, who did a wonderful session) and some agents and editors, one of whom really liked my pitch for Epitaph!  So keeping my fingers crossed that she likes my writing as well as my pitch.

Among the people that were there, Simone Elkeles, who recently hit the NYT Best Seller's list.  My personal note on Simone - at my very first writers conference, she was the organizer and she held my hand.  She got me into a pitch session when someone else chickened out (a priceless experience) and she is one of the nicest people I've ever met.  Her success is well deserved and I couldn't be happier for her.  At the booksigning, she got as many people at her table as the headliners did.  Congratulations, Simone! 

And the beauty of these types of conferences is that in addition to the successful authors, you meet the struggling and still learning.  It's so much fun to hear their passion and enthusiasm when a group of writers gets together, and to share the journeys we all have in common.

Am I gushing?  Then you know I enjoyed the conference.  To all the people that put the conference together, kudos on a job well done.  And now I have to polish up my submission one more time, make sure I've dotted all my "i"s and crossed all my "t"s so that the editor loves my hard copy as much as she liked talking about it with me.

Anon