My First Writer's Conference

It's official.  I am signed up to attend my first professional writer's conference - April 23-24, 2010.  As a part of this I will be giving a one on one pitch of my new book Lackawanna Prophecies - CHOSEN, to Nephele Tempest, from the The Knight Agency (this is not an LDS Agency).  I had hoped to pitch to Lauran Rennert with Andrea Brown Literary Agency but her pitch session was sold out by the time I found out about this conference.  I've had her on my agency watch list for over a year now.  At least I will still get to meet her and introduce myself.

I will be attending several lectures, workshops and of course my chance to pitch my book.  It's hard to describe how excited I am for this, but the biggest thing is just an opportunity to network with other authors and publishers.  All attendees can also participate in a First Chapter contest for unpublished works for several genres.  So... it's time to hit the keyboard and to let the creative juices flow - I've got another deadline and a goal.

So I didn't make it

I am dissapointed to report that I didn't complete the 50,000 word novel in one month, but the last week of November was filled with house guests for the holiday and I did almost no writing.  I did make it to 27,000 words though and I am REALLY happy with what I have so far.  My new goal is to finish the first draft of Lackawanna Prophecies - CHOSEN, by Christmas.  This has been a fantastic book to write, and I am excited to see where it will end (although I do have a vauge idea).

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

For me, this book, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer, is my best read of 2009.  My sister recommended it and while it started just a tad slow for me, once it got going I didn't want to put it down. The style of the book (written as a series of letters) is VERY clever and it is based on actual events on the island of Guernsey off the UK coast during the German occupation.  A must read for anyone who loves great literature.  On a side note, it was Mary Ann's first and only published novel. She passed away in February of 2008.  I hope that I get to publish many books before my time comes.

Write a 50,000 word novel in one month!

I am officially in. I just learned from a friend of mine that November is National Novel Writing Month. The acronym often used for this is "NaNoWriMo." He told me about this when I informed him that in the last week I had written the first 13,000 words of my new novel. So now I am officially going to try and finish my novel before the end of the month. Just a couple of weeks to go to get to at least 50,000 words (official competition rules). I don't like trying to write to a prescribed number of words, but this book is a children's/young adult book so it should end up being right around there.

I have provided a link to my NaNoWriMo profile below. Wish me luck!

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/608798