Every year at this time, the Oklahoma Writers’ Federation, Inc. (OWFI) has a conference. This year, for various reasons that I will not get into, I had decided not to go. I kept my resolve through reading updates on Facebook and Twitter about the pre-conference session.
That sure sounded like something I could have benefited from!
I kept my resolve through most of Friday. OK. That’s a lie. On Friday, my resolve wavered. A lot. I could have benefited from a lot of the sessions I saw highlights posted about. My mother (who is often my driver since I cannot drive) kept suggesting I call the hotel, see if they had a room, and go to the conference on Saturday instead of just going up to visit (which was the original plan).
At 5:00, I finally did. They put me on hold. I waited a long time, convinced they would come back and say the hotel was fully booked and they had no rooms.
Except…
They did! I gave them the payment information, threw some clothes in a bag, gathered other things I would need, and we left. It was worth it!
I went to listen to a talk by Rhonda Penders of the Wild Rose Press (and relearned something I had known about them but forgot), listened to The Publicity Hound Joan Stewart, skipped the next session, had lunch, took a nap the next session (I was getting over bronchitis), listened to Joan Stewart again, and ended the day listening to Amy Collins of NewShelves.com.
I got information I desperately needed about blogging, marketing, and newsletters. I got some great ideas about book promotion and getting into stores that aren’t bookstores. I reconnected with old friends and met some new ones. I listened to live music in the hotel bar after the awards banquet.
I reconnected with me.
That last line is more important than you realize and goes back to some of the reasons that I’m not talking about here yet.
Prior to the conference, I had been debating my blog. I knew I needed to start blogging again, but I couldn’t decide if I should scrap this one and start over or continue on here. Since you’re reading this post on this same blog, I obviously decided to keep this one. After all, I’ve put a lot of work into it.
I am not going to commit to a set schedule, but I am going to post things about what I’m writing, what I’m making (knit/crochet), reviews, and other things that are going on and coming up. I hope you stick around, enjoy it, and perhaps even contribute sometimes.
Haven’t been to OWFI in years. Maybe in 2018. Hard for me to plan ahead with Bob’s schedule. Family First 🙂 Glad you were able to go. I know you enjoy the conferences and come away with great incentives and inspiration! Hugs!