I've had a whirlwind time since my last post - both literally and figuratively.
Namely, this is spring in Oklahoma. It seems like every time I turn around the tornado sirens are going off. One of the local television stations even dubbed this "Tornado Week." It started out as a marketing plan, but I wondered if they felt any misgivings about it since there actually were tornadoes last night...
But the weather is not the most exciting news I have. Last weekend, I attended the Oklahoma Writers Federation Conference http://www.owfi.org/ We had a fantastic line-up of speakers with J.A. Jance giving the keynote. She was witty and inspiring.
Also on the lineup was Emily Mitchell, senior editor from Charlesbridge Publishing http://www.charlesbridge.com/ . She gave great tips on developing your voice as a writer. I also had a 10 minute appointment with Emily. I wasn't my most articulate, but she graciously encouraged me to send her my manuscript. Since then I've been frantically reviewing and revising. I've set a deadline for myself to get it in the mail on Saturday and I'm going to make it happen.
Namely, this is spring in Oklahoma. It seems like every time I turn around the tornado sirens are going off. One of the local television stations even dubbed this "Tornado Week." It started out as a marketing plan, but I wondered if they felt any misgivings about it since there actually were tornadoes last night...
But the weather is not the most exciting news I have. Last weekend, I attended the Oklahoma Writers Federation Conference http://www.owfi.org/ We had a fantastic line-up of speakers with J.A. Jance giving the keynote. She was witty and inspiring.
Also on the lineup was Emily Mitchell, senior editor from Charlesbridge Publishing http://www.charlesbridge.com/ . She gave great tips on developing your voice as a writer. I also had a 10 minute appointment with Emily. I wasn't my most articulate, but she graciously encouraged me to send her my manuscript. Since then I've been frantically reviewing and revising. I've set a deadline for myself to get it in the mail on Saturday and I'm going to make it happen.
The highlight for me (okay, pun intended) was the speaker I was assigned to shepherd - Judy Burke from Highlights magazine http://www.highlights.com/ Judy is very upbeat and energetic and we got along fabulously. What's more, her sessions were outstanding. One was an idea workshop where she had us make several lists and then explained how the things we wrote down could be used to develop articles. Needless to say, I'm now working on several queries for Highlights.
