A day late (okay a few days late) update on the SC Book Festival

Usually this posting goes up within a day of returning if not the day I come home from the book festival. This was a totally different year.

My daughter went to Columbia with me and visited with her sister for the weekend. When we got to Columbia, I couldn't check in (too early) and my master class had gotten cancelled so I had some time to kill. We went to see a movie - saw Confessions of a Shopaholic - and had an enjoyable time. Spent some time with Hailie that we don't get to do much of (well I spend time with her but not like this - just relaxed and no worries).

Of course when we got to Columbia, it decided to rain on us. It was a wet weekend. After the movie, we went to my hotel to check me in and get my stuff taken upstairs. I stayed at the Homewood Suites and enjoyed it thoroughly. I had a pull out sofa if I had needed it; a full kitchenette with a table for dining for two, a king sized bed, a desk and work area. It was great. (yes beats sleeping in my car like last year.) So Heather (my stepdaughter) came by and got Hailie (I was supposed to take them out to dinner but they declined) and I went on about my way doing things I needed to (had to go to Wal-Mart to get a USB cable for my new printer, so went to dinner by myself).

Saturday was a leisurely day as I had planned to attend a couple of workshops and then just hang around my friend's booth and kind of relax. I did volunteer in the SCWW booth for about an hour. I made three book sales over the weekend and that was just from casual conversations and being in my friend's booth and having my wonderful bookmarks available. Those bookmarks were a hit. I probably put a couple hundred in the hands of folks down there over the whole weekend. My friend was also helping by putting my bookmarks in with her sales. It was a great weekend as I got exposure and made a few sales.

Sunday, I came in to see one of the workshops at the beginning. My daughter and stepdaughter came to the book festival about 1:30 and they walked a bit and I chatted with folks for a bit. Finally, they persuaded me to head out since they were hungry and the weather was kind of yucky as it was - rained the whole weekend, which is a first for me in the last five or six years since starting to attend this particular festival (usually rains one or the other days but not all weekend). The three of us had lunch and we went our separate ways, me heading home and my stepdaughter heading back to her home. The S word had come up several times Sunday while I was meandering around the festival. No, it couldn't snow, it was March 1 and that means we should have been having nicer weather coming along. Well, it was raining when I left Columbia and by time I got about 20 miles or so outside of the downtown area, sure enough there were some flakes seen (it was a mix at this time). By time I had gotten about 40 miles up the road, the flakes were even larger and coming down at a pretty fast rate. The ground was starting to show signs of being covered. By time I got to about 20 miles from my home, the weather was worse - snow covered the streets and it was that slushy stuff since it had been raining. The last 8-10 miles towards my town were very slow going since I had to drive at about 30 or 35 on a 55 road - that's how bad they were becoming. By time I pulled in to the grocery store to pick up milk and bread and get over to subway, the parking lots were getting almost undrivable. I made it home in the nick of time because the whole town shut down shortly thereafter - the stores were closing, the food places were closing, although I found out a couple of days later that Hardees stayed open on Sunday, which is ludicrist as the roads were not even drivable and they put their employees in danger.

So this was a weird but good book festival. I was not a volunteer for the festival, but for the SCWW group for a short time, I attended workshops that were very good and I got to spend time with my friend and my daughter that I normally wouldn't have been able to do and it snowed on the way home. Next year, with six books available, I'm hoping that 4RV will have a booth and that I can get on as a guest speaker. Hopefully, hopefully.

I really encourage all authors to attend a book festival in their area as a volunteer or an attendee and then work on getting on as a guest speaker somehow. Books are our friends. Happy reading - see you all in the postings - E :)

I've been slushed at the SCWW writers' conference - WOW

As most of you know, I'm a member of the SCWW Greenville chapter and have been very thankful for them and the feedback I get from them. The group is very good to me and to everyone it seems but sometimes folks come one time, get their feelings hurt and never return (I did cry after my first critique but then got a good jolt of reality - I went to the group to get their feedback and they gave it to me and I needed to sit back and think without letting my tender heart get in the way and so because of them, I've grown as a writer in that I can take the criticism much better now, not that I always agree with what is said but I do not have to come home and cry because they didn't like a story or whatever it is I'm reading at the time). I also did a while back link to them as being the best conference in the state or some such wording.

Well this year's conference was great. I'm glad I volunteered and was there for the activities. I'm thankful for the opportunity to meet such great presenters and attendees. My favorite session was the slushfest - which from my busy schedule was the only workshop I attended of my choice - not that I didn't enjoy being a proctor or room monitor for the other things. A slushfest is fun - you bring in two pages of a story on transparencies and the faculty put them on the overhead projector and give some general feedback on what is there - I was in the short story/flash fiction session - we had about nine to twelve people in the room and about eight of us brought transparencies to get slushed - I was slushed and loved it. Time wsa of the essence and after the first five, Anne realized we needed to speed things up, so we ended up only doing one page of the last three - which was fine - we all got read - I got a one page reading but Anne (editor and publisher of the moonshine review, based in Charlotte, NC) did read my second page (she had my hard copy) while Beth, her co-editor, was giving comments on another story. After the session when I was picking up my copies, Anne said she wanted to read the rest of the story. So I got slushed in a postive way - I am going to submit my story to her and also think about submitting "The Cellar" to her in the future. I may have been reverted from ebook publishing but Anne does not consider "ebooks" as being published and since she only takes original, unpublished works for consideration, she said she still wanted to read the story - being that I was published but not print published and the stories are all back to me, then I may have found a home for "The Tulip Kiss".

I had a critique session with Andrea Brown (big time children's/YA agent) but my copies of my story were messed up - so the critique wasn't really necessary. What I emailed to the coordinator of the critiques and snail mailed was identical but didn't get sent that way to Andrea - Andrea received Page 1 (no header on any of my pages as was sent to Katie though) - and then pages 2 through 8 as duplicates - in other words - this is what I got back with Andrea's comments - page 1 with her comments, page 2, page 2, page 3, page 3, and all the way down to page 8 - so there were 17 pages in the packet and it should have been 16 total for the story since it was a short story anyway - and I had only signed up for the standard critique session (10 pages) - but still my title and name and the page numbers should have been on the pages and there should not have been any duplicate pages. I'm not sure what happened from me sending the story to get critiqued and the printing off from the email but since that was a story that had previously been published, I wasn't too worried about the critique. I really wanted to pitch my mystery state stories idea to Andrea and get some feedback on whether or not this is a doable thing.

I got home Sunday evening and was chilling out and got to thinking of what one of the attendees said about her critique and she had signed up for an extended (30 pages) and had sent in 24 pages and only got 12 pages back - so not sure what happened to the email versions of the stories we sent or the snail mailed ones either - because I sent mine with a cover page/synopsis between the two hard copies we were to send and I checked and the emailed version and the printed version were the same and had the header as directed on the website for the critiques - Needless to say, the critiques were good for some and not good for others. I don't really know what to make of that.

Eventually, I will find homes for all my stories and maybe something will snap like it should for the state stories -

I met some fun people this past weekend at the conference and I'll definitely be there next year - but for now - see you all in the postings - E :)

SCWW Anthology available -

I forgot to say that the anthology for the South Carolina Writer's Workshop (the writing group for our state with local chapters of which I am member) is available. Go to http://www.amazon.com/Petigru-Review-Kevin-Caruso-Editors/dp/1419676229/ref=sr_1_1/102-8007193-8466562?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192069519&sr=8-1 - to order your copy today. My story - Bride-and-Seek was accepted and I actually earned a little bit of money from that. I also get three copies at the conference next weekend - two for having a story placed and one for attending the conference which will be at Myrtle Beach and I'm looking forward to a break, although it will be a busy weekend since I'm one of the volunteers and I'll be doing everything I can to help out. So I guess that makes me a professional writer. Can't wait to get my copies at the conference next weekend. (still praying for some miracles to happen so I can get down to the beach. Had to have to back out and I think today is the deadline for backing out anyway - funds are very tight and I need to pay for hotel and gas and food - so fingers crossed that some miracle happens in the next few days).

I'm not sure how to get autographs to anyone who wants one - hahaha - like I'm that famous that I'd be autographing my stories - lol - but if you email we can work things out in that department. -- see you all in the postings - E :)

I entered and got selected

I don't know if I told you but South Carolina Writer's Workshop, SCWW, has a conference in October (for which I'm volunteering) and they put out an anthology to go with the conference. Every year before this year, the word limit had been 1750 for short stories. Well, they revamped this year and upped the ante, so to speak, and gave us 4000 word limits. So I entered my short story, Bride-and-Seek, which I had entered in Karen's contest for February (not selected or even remembered by her, according to her when I met her in February). So today, not more than half an hour ago, I received notice from the editor of the anthology to let me know my story had been selected. I will receive $5 payment and two copies of the anthology. I'm so excited. Doesn't pay a lot but hey - I'm okay with it - it gets me out there.

So be on the look out for Bride-and-Seek in the Petigru Review anthology in October. You can still register for the conference if interested - check out the website - http://www.myscww.org/2007_conference.htm - also see my blog posting called "Best Conference of 2007" and we really are looking to be great - E :)

"The Best Writers Conference of 2007"

Yep, I'm a bit biased but this is going to be the best one that I'll attend this year. Maybe it is because I know the folks who are coordinating and pulling everything together, maybe it's because I'm more involved in the group this year, but definitely check it out. It's at the beach, and who doesn't like the beach - see ya'll in the postings - E :)