Killer Nashville

Clearly, after looking at the picture above, one of two things has happened.  Either 1) I finally took out my frustrations on one of the bozos who cut me off on Hwy 280, or 2) I spent the past weekend at the Killer Nashville Conference.  Luckily for the bozos it was the latter.

My brain is so full of newly found information that I don't even know where to begin.  I got to attend several great mini-seminars led by some very knowledgeable panels of authors, agents, specialist and others deeply submersed and well experienced in all matters literary.  I enjoyed them all, but two really stood out to me in particular that I feel will be extremely beneficial to my continued journey to greatness (ha, ha) in the long run.  One focused on self promotion--basically "getting your name out there."  I'm very grateful to Nancy Naigle as well as the rest of the panel for sharing their experiences and giving me some really good insight on how to get started.

Another, which I fell I probably got the most out of in regards to improving my writing technique, focused on plot development and was led by Randy Rawls and yet another great panel of experts who have already traveled down this path. The short one hour session was packed with some of the specific information I was looking for.  I really feel like I'm going to be able to utilize everything they brought to the table.

Some other highlights of the event included activities and sessions with TBI Special Agents and Guest Speakers Donald Bain and Robert Dugoni.  (And one of the best local food finds I've ever stumbled across called the Mojo Grill.  I would seriously drive back to Nashville just to eat there.)

In summary, it was a GREAT experience and I can't wait to go back next year.  Can't wait to see where I am then.

The Big Easy

About high time for an update, don't you think? Sadly, I have barely had two seconds of peace in the last month--pretty typical these days, I'm afraid. However, I'm happy to report that I did survive my recent trip to New Orleans. As some of you may know, I've got plans for my poor, tortured main character to make a trip to NOLA. What I found in trying to plan for that particular portion of the story is that I've never actually been to New Orleans, which was making it extremely difficult to write. So, that gave me all the excuse I needed to take a mini trip and celebrate my anniversary all at once. I definitely found the inspiration I was looking for and then some. One of my favorite parts of writing is being able to incorporate my own personal experiences into my work. I certainly will be doing that with this chapter. I found so many things that seem to make the city unique that I can way to incorporate into the story in ways that I really don't think would have been possible had I not made the trip. Ever hear about a place and get a mental picture of what it looks like in your head only to discover it's NOTHING like you imagined once you actually see it in person? Well let's just say I think I'll be able to write much more accurate descriptions now that are absolutely nothing like what I'd been planning, but much better in the long run I think. I have lots coming up and lots going on in the near future, so stand by for another update soon!