Home again, home again…well, in body at least!

What an adventure the Blue Ridge Writer’s Conference became – and in so many ways I hardly expected. For while I learned a great deal about writing, my phone ringing and the e-mails I received added another dimension to the many lessons I learned. So many lessons I have hardly had time to sort.

You will excuse me if this blog rambles a bit. I did not learn to ramble at the writer’s conference. For whether one is writing fiction, non-fiction, poetry, articles or books – rambling is not good writing. All writers must “write tight”. Which means loosing words all over the place. Words I didn’t realize were out of style. Oops! Like that word “were”. Sorry. Should be “So many words have gone out of style. I did not realize that.” Oh, and I need to take that exclamation point off of “oops”. I’ve already used one in the first paragraph, which is already one too many exclamation points. And there I just used the word “already” twice in a sentence. That won’t do either.

See what I mean?

When I was unpacking yesterday, I took all the papers I had gathered over the course of the week and put them into one pile. One large pile. One large pile I must sort through, and read, and review, and learn from. And that pile doesn’t even include all the corrections I have made on my piece of fiction I brought to show to those in the literary circle. Those corrections must be made – and several hundreds more. Being a writer is a lot of work.

But being a writer is what I want to become more than ever. For, as I said, this week has taught me more than just skill within an art. It has done more than simply challenge me to take my hobby to a whole new level. It has also left me with closed and opened doors. For I did not get the teaching position in North Carolina. And although I was disappointed, other circumstances overshadowed the loss. For it was only a job. I still have so much the Lord has blessed me with. Things that could be taken away so quickly. Yet things I still possess.

You know, I learned that people attend writer’s conferences for a myriad of different reasons. For writers write a myriad of different things. And some attend having no idea what they want to write – they just know they want to write. I guess I went to find out if I really and truly can write. Happily, I was told by those in the literary circle than I can, indeed, write. But then something even more exciting happened. Something I hardly expected:

I won the Stories and Books for Children competition!!!!!!

I know, I know. Way too many exclamation points, but I’m not a published author yet. I’m just praying that I am on the uphill road to becoming one.