Road Trip Intermission

I do want to get to the last part of my trip, where I hobnob with famous author John Lescroart, attend a wine tasting, and eat burgers with Kimi and Pete.

(That's me on the right, next to my friend Marsha Toy Engstrom, John, and Marsha's sister, Sheri.)

But tomorrow I'm heading to the Southern California Writer's Conference. Okay, "heading to" the event sounds like I'm traveling a long way and will stay at the enchanting Crowne Plaza in beautiful downtown Irvine. The truth of the matter is that I live about 20 minutes from there, so I'll be coming home every night, to save on hotel costs.

After all, I have to save my money for drinks with Michael and crew in the lounge.

If I haven't convinced you in prior posts that the SCWC is the reason - THE reason - I got Freezer Burn written and published, well, then… what more do I have to do?

It's a fun conference. It's a working conference. In many ways, it's a conference that will either build you or break you. I've sat in many workshops and listened to the speakers talk about the uphill climb of writing well, of getting an agent, getting published, marketing your work, and so on. The comments from the folks around my table range from negative ("They're all biased against older writers") to clueless ("My book is already self-published - I don't want to re-write it, I just want to find an agent for it") to the quiet nods of people who got the information and know what to do with it.

Here's what I know for certain: If you've told an epic story, but you don't know whether it's any good, you need to go to the conference and let other writers lift you up. If you've told an epic tale and are feeling darn bratty about your skills, you need to go to the conference and be taken down a peg.

It runs this Friday afternoon thru Sunday morning. If you're in the SoCal area and you want to be a better writer, get your buns down there!

If you just want to hear about the rest of my trip, stay tuned. I'll be back.