Monday, March 05, 2007

Monday again

Weekends never seem long enough, do they? Mine was fairly relaxing, but it felt a little short since I spent most of Saturday indoors while Adam took Drew on a five-hour hike to enjoy the nice weather. As I mentioned last Friday, I went to a publishing and writing conference at Mills College. I can't complain since I forced this conference on myself, but still. There were sessions on "the day job," "editors and agents," "roads to publication," and "writing groups." I was hoping to gain some new insight into the writing world, but I already knew most of what I heard, although it was good to hear some of it reaffirmed. I enjoyed the publication session most because two writers working at Mills talked about their experiences publishing. Last year I read the book The Daydreaming Boy by one of the writers, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, so it was nice to hear her talk about her writing. However, they really gave no useful advice, just anecdotes about their experience. The agents and editors panel was amusing for me because I worked in that field (acquisitions editing). When the panel gave advice on what not to do I was snickering to myself because I remember reading the horrid query letters they were describing, meanwhile the people around me were taking copious notes. You would think this stuff is commonsense, but clearly it is not for everyone.
I think the main thing I took away from the conference is that I don't want to go back to grad school right now. (Unless of course London is an option, in which case everything changes.) Many of you will realize what a huge step that is for me. Mainly I think I'm over the glorified idea of writing workshops and the personal necessity for them. However, I think I'm over the *people* in writing workshops as well, as bad as that sounds. This weekend reminded me that they can be so annoying. I have a few writer friends that I really trust and respect, and like it or not, they will be my future sounding board when I need readers. (Thanks for the offer, Kris, you'll be regretting it someday!) My cough, luckily, did not plague me too much during the panels and I was able to keep it at bay with cough drops. Now it's settled nicely in my chest and keeps me up at night. Hurrah.
The best part about Monday is watching the new 24 episode, so I can relax (is watching Kiefer nearly get killed for an hour relaxing?) and look forward to guaranteed entertainment.

3 comments:

Joseph R. Ruthruff said...

Just make sure that you don't take too much of Kris's time with reading, otherwise you and I are gonna have words! ;)

Angie said...

You owe me, remember! :p

Kristen @ frostingandfroth.com said...

I'll read anything you'll let me, girlie! You know that! :-) Congrats on coming to the realization that graduate school is for pompous, stick-up-their-arse types. Oops! Sorry, hunny! ;-)

Love you!

~ Kris