Anyone who knows me knows that I have never been shy about meeting people. When it comes to sculpting, I’m not shy or intimidated about showing my work, but a writers conference opens up a different ball game!

Most conferences offer opportunities for individuals to have their work critiqued or even to sign up for consultations with agents, or publishers. To take full advantage of the money that you are spending at a conference, I would assume that you should also jump over this cliff. There is no fear there, right?

So I could not help but wonder, How do I prepare?

Searching online I found a couple of helpful articles.
In A way with Word Writing blog Rene Gray Wilburn offers suggestions in her article Preparing for a Writer’s Conference.

Of course some of the items in this article seem simple enough. Research the publishers, editors and authors who will be present. I would like to do this, and if possible interview a couple of them for the online creative Christians podcast before the workshop.

Interviewing a publisher, especially a Christian publisher, as well as an agent is something that I have wanted to do for my podcast. For those of you who don’t know I have been podcasting since 2008. I have an inspirational podcast. I also recently developed and we a Creative Christians podcast where we interview people about the subject of Creativity. We have had some great names on the podcast Author of The love Languages books, Dr. Gary Chapman, Billy Graham’s Daughter, Ruth Graham, Olympic gold metal winner and author, Scott Hamilton and just recently conducted a podcast all the way to Taize France. There are, of course, many more influential and not so influential, but very inspirational guests. For a complete list, you can find them at my collectibles website. God’s Word Collectibles is the sponsor of the podcast.

Digging a little deeper, I found this article written by Ginny Wiehardt about Conference pitches as she interviews an Editorial Director of Random House children’s books.

So it is on. I have almost two months to prepare for my first writers conference. Here we go.

My goals
1. Write 2-3 pitches. This is also called the “Elevator pitch.”
2. Memorize this pitch and practice giving it.
3. Create a one sheet
4. Research publishers and editors, and if possible interview them.
5. Create thank you cards for those that I meet. Have them ready for my return.

I’m planning on attending my first writer’s conference. The C.S. Lewis Retreat and Writers Conference is Thursday October 28, 2010 at Camp Allen in Navasota, Texas.

Most people know me as a sculptor or speaker. Some know me as a writer for magazines. I have written nonfiction for nearly 25 years. In 2004, I assisted Mike de la Flor on his book, The Biomedical Digital Illustration Handbook. I enjoyed writing the chapters on the schools, education and professionals in the industry.  This past year Mike and I worked on a book together, Digital Sculpting in Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques.

Fiction book writing is, however, a new journey for me.  But over the years, secretly I have been writing other things as well.  I have numerous children’s books that I have written.  I have often described myself as a mix of Dr. Suess, Shel Silversteine and Jim Hanson. I like nonsensical fun children’s stories, but often they come with a lesson.  Usually with a more educational, psychological or spiritual lesson.

And this past year and a half I have been working on two young adult novels.
As part of this new journey and commitment, I have done the following

If I was asked, who I’d like to have been.
I’d aspire to be Shel Silverstein….

 Mixed with another I could deduce
A helping smidgen of Dr. Seuss

 Educating children would be sweet
I wish I’d created Sesame Street.

 So truly if asked who I’d like to have been
My reply would then be seussyhensstein.

1. Committed to writing 20-30 minutes every day- For the most part, I write much more than that, but I have been trying commit that much time to the novels and creative writing.
2. Joined the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators organization.  I have been trying to attend as many meetings as possible. http://www.scbwi-houston.org
3. I’m also working on illustrating my own children’s books. This I feel, is the biggest hindrance to me submitting the works. I am, after all, an artist. It is difficult for me to let someone else illustrate them.

The results of my first two commitments lead into this next commitment- Attend writers conferences.

Our first writer’s conference was the ApalloCon Houston.  It is a  science fiction, fantasy and horror conference.

We were invited by a friend, Marilyn Schindler Carren. Her husband, a screenwriter, was on a panel at the conference.  My husband has always wanted to write science fiction. Attending was something we could do together. It was also an exploration into a new, creative direction.

The C.S. Lewis writer’s conference seems like a good fit for me. For one thing, I like C.S. Lewis. To me, the name stands for someone who has an imagination, who can think outside of the box, and who is willing to entertain “different” ideas.  That is a good fit for the most recent novel, as it is quite edgy.

Now, on to figure out how to prepare for this conference.