Writing for Charity 2012

I went to my first-ever writing conference today!  I think it was an amazing choice for a first conference; it was pretty informal and not too massive... probably 250-300 people.  Unfortunately I'm not one to put myself out there, so I only took one sneaky picture when the authors weren't looking.

My sneaky picture of the Fantasy Panel authors:
Mette Ivie Harrison, Brandon Sanderson, and Tracy and Laura Hickman
Not to be overly ecstatic, but *swoon.*

Here's how my day went:

I got there at 9am when registration opened.  I registered, got assigned to Laura Hickman's critique group (she co-writes a lot of things with her husband, Tracy Hickman, who is best known by me for his Dragonlance books, which are great), then proceeded to run around like a chicken with its head cut off because my printer ran out of EVERYTHING at midnight last night and I was three copies short of the manuscript excerpt I needed to participate in said group.  I have to say that the only reason I brought anything to share was because my mom and my friend Diane insisted, but even as I made those copies, I had no intention of having anything of mine read in front of a real author or a bunch of strangers.

At 9:30 the conference officially started off with a huge author panel led by Shannon Hale.  She is hilarious, and I'm grateful that came before the critique sessions, as it gave me a little bit of time to get used to the idea of being in a room with so many famous people and unwind.

Next were critiques.  Lucky for me, I felt a great deal of social pressure to pass my pages when everyone else did.  And you know what?  It wasn't so bad.  Everyone was really nice and I got a lot of constructive comments.  Long story short, I did not pass out.  I also really enjoyed being able to hear snippets from other aspiring authors.  There's a lot of talent out there.

I ate lunch with some girls from my critique group (which was all girls, by the way, and so was about 80% of the conference).  It was amazing to be able to talk to other writers.  Lunch may actually have been the most beneficial part of conference, as me and a few of the other girls exchanged contact info to form a critique group!  Yay!

After lunch were the workshops, which were great, especially considering that I've never taken a creative writing class in my life.  There were four, and even though they were an hour each the time went by fast because the speakers were so good. Also they gave us cookies in between, so that helped.  Then they wrapped up all the official stuff and had a book signing.  Of course, I'm too broke to buy the twenty hardcovers I wanted, but I took my Kindle instead and asked a few of them to sign the case.

Have fun deciphering!  Just kidding.  Starting at the center top and going counterclockwise:
Brandon Sanderson, Bree Despain, Lisa Mangum, Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, and Shannon Hale.

All in all, I had an awesome time.  Perhaps it was due to the fact that yesterday my children were the devil and I just needed a break, but I think that was only part of it.  Being able to talk about writing all day and (the most of the awesome of all) meeting people, both aspiring writers like me and well-established authors, made it unforgettable.  Seriously, it was a lot of fun, and I can't wait to go to my next conference!

One last thought: if you live in Utah and want to be a writer (or meet a bunch of awesome ones) you should go to this!  I'm pretty sure they do it every year and it's well worth the registration fee!  Here's a link to the official site and 100% of the registration money goes towards buying books for kids who don't have any!