Patricia Stoltey

Author

I’m Ready to Seize the Day!

By:

It was Saturday evening, and I came away from the Northern Colorado Writers Conference exhausted, motivated, energized, full of ideas and ready to tackle every project on my list with new energy.

The conference was well put together as always. Director Kerrie Flanagan and her creative team, plus all the outstanding volunteers, did a great job. Food was good, too. It’s so great having a writers’ conference of this quality right here in Northern Colorado. We have Kerrie to thank for that.

I had attended excellent sessions on fiction writing (including an outstanding idea for brainstorming I’ve never use before), writing for small presses, and a presentation on the myths of publishing from agent Rachelle Gardner. My own participation included moderating the agent/editor panel and acting as a reader for the slush pile event where two agents review one-page submissions and let attendees know at what point they would stop reading each submission and why.

But Saturday evening I went all zombie on myself and slept more hours than I would have thought possible. Sunday was pretty much a lost day. The most constructive thing I did was return a book to the library. I had so many things I wanted to do, but hitting that pillow for another good night’s sleep won out.

So now that I’m all motivated and inspired and well-rested, it’s time to seize the day. I’m going to begin by putting together the questions for three interviews I need to do. What’s on your schedule for today?

More from my site

Comments

  1. Terry, I attended LCC in Denver, and Bouchercon in Indy, and they were both outstanding, energizing, and exhausting. Loved ’em. I hope you have a great time.

  5. Karen…oh, darn, you reminded me I need to clean off my desk. 🙂

    Hi Margot. I love conferences. This year I’m only doing two, but they’re spaced about six months apart so it works out well.

  8. Jenny — yes, I have laundry today as well, and had to run a few errands this morning. Next on the list are those interview questions…as soon as I finish with these blog comments, and check my e-mail, and update Facebook and send a couple of tweets. 🙂

    Elspeth, a reviving chug of conference excitement would be very helpful from time to time. We should work on that.

    High five back, Kay. May the conference afterglow last for many, many days.

  9. High Five, Pat.

    I agree the conference was great. The NCW coffees give a venue for exchanging ideas with other writers, but conference concentrates the learning experience. Everyone is exposed to new ideas, and then, they have time to discuss them since they aren’t running off to their next errand.

  10. Good for you! I wish we could bottle that feeling so we could take a reviving chug whenever necessary. On my agenda today is figuring out a new custom mystery – I know who the characters are, but not anything else.

  11. Pat, I had R&R time yesterday, also. I didn’t even make it to the library. Today, I’m trying to be more productive. And of course there’s always laundry!

  12. Mary, I need to set a full day aside to do just that. Now that Katie Kitten is getting better, I expect to have a little more computer time and a little less kitten caregiving time.

    Hi Jemi — you’d love attending a writers’ conference. Nothing gets the writing juices flowing faster.

    Good morning, Karen. Letting a day evolve often gets me into trouble, so I do as you’ve done and set some priorities first, Once those things are done, I can relax a little.

  14. Sounds like a terrific conference. One of these days I’ll get to one!

    I’ve got company coming tonight for a relative’s birthday supper – so I’ll be cooking and baking most of the day 🙂