I went to my first writer’s retreat with a proposal I wanted to finish. First off, let me say this: the word retreat is somewhat misleading. There’s no spa treatments or beaches involved. Sure it’s fun and hopefully you’ll come home with fresh inspiration, but there’s a lot of work to do. It’s the kind…
I distinctly remember the first conference I ever went to. I still to this day don’t know how I got the mailing list, but a postcard announcing the conference came shortly after I’d made the decision to pursue a publishing career. It was like I was meant to go. That turned out to be true….
I pulled onto the Turner Turnpike and merged with traffic heading from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. Beside me, Cheri Fuller writhed in guilt. “I shouldn’t be going! Melanie, why are we going to this conference? What good will it do us?” Those were valid questions, but I didn’t pretend to have the answers. I’d never…
Winning the Guideposts contest has been a dream of mine for at least a decade. I’ve made several submissions and have always anticipated the contest deadline for months prior. This year. Not so much. The deadline blindsided me. It snuck up on me like this week in Oklahoma when Old Man Winter showed up in…
On a dreary fall day almost ten years ago, I drove through my neighborhood to pick my kids up at the corner where the school children flooded into the neighborhood to go home. Even though we lived only four blocks from that spot, I insisted on picking them up instead of letting them walk….just an…
Whether you’re an accomplished writer or new to the writing world, if you’re considering attending a writing conference, it’s probably because you want to learn. You review the schedule, and see a variety of interesting topics to be presented by interesting speakers. You see places where you can sign up to pitch a project or…
