Over-stuffed Brain

A week later, my brain still feels like it could melt when I think about the writer's conference. So here's a "shortened" version of my trip.
Tuesday, Mom and I left about 11:30 am. We got to my grandparents that afternoon, stayed overnight with them, and drove all the way across Kansas to Goodland Wednesday. FYI, you people who think Kansas is FLAT...are only partly right! The eastern half of Kansas is pretty much like Missouri (yes, Mocha, except for the place you live...that's the only place in Missouri that imitates western Kansas). The difference is that Kansas roads are flat and straight; they cut through the hills instead of going around or over them! :0)
So, Thursday we only had a short 3 hour drive to Colorado Springs. Once in Colorado Springs, we had some time to kill so we drove around for a bit. I admit, I've never stayed at a 5 star hotel/resort before and felt kind of like a hick because I couldn't stop staring at everything. The main lobby had an enormous "Italian staircase" that was probably ten feet wide and had thick marble steps and handrails...yeah, pretty fancy for a country girl like me! The beds in our rooms were so tall that if I sat on the edge, my feet couldn't touch the ground (OK, everyone, stop laughing!).
Friday and Saturday I went to Brandilyn Collins' Fiction 101 class where we leaned how to put desire, emotion, conflict, and kick into our books. This helped me a lot, especially the desire and emotion part. I also got her book, Getting Into Character which teaches seven secrets actors use to make their characters come alive that us fiction writers can use.
In the afternoon on Friday, I attended Jerry Jenkins and Andy Scheer's Wordiologist session, teaching us how to edit fiction. I picked up a couple of useful ideas from that. Saturday afternoon, I went to Brandilyn Collins' Fiction First page Clinic, where she taught us how to snag readers in the first page. She says that for browsers in a bookstore, it takes 30-60 seconds to grab their attention with a book. They read the back cover...if that's interesting, maybe they'll open it and read the first sntence...if that's interesting, maybe they'll read the first page...if they like that, they'll buy your book. 30-60 seconds...all you have to make a sale. So you have to grab their attention with the first page (publishers generally take care of the back cover). That was very helpful.
Then of course we had mealtime speakers and editor appointments. Editor appointments were soooo cool! Two editors are interested in a book proposal once I'm done with my editing (try a year or so) plus my mentor has offered to help me figure out the whole marketing thing once my book is published. I'm excited!! I really, really liked all the advice and helpfulness from everyone I met with. Definitely helped me see editors in a different light. Imagine sitting and listening to peoples' spiels for two days and not being interested except in one or two! It'd drive me up the wall!
Lunch and dinner every night were ridiculous...two course for lunch and three course for dinner. Fancy table setting where you had three different forks (work from the outisde in, I found out!) and so much stuff around your place setting I didn't feel like I had any room to manuever. Every time I reached for my glass I cringed, expecting to knock something over.
I missed Justin like crazy...so bad some nights all I wanted to do was curl up and cry. Or leave and go home. Especially Friday and Saturday. Sunday wasn't so bad....I was heading home. All week I just had to think, "I'll see him Tuesday on the way home." That was amazing!! I loved seeing him so much. He'd been trying to talk Mom and Grandma into going up on Pike's Peak (Mom nixed it pretty quickly) and so I told him "OK, I'll go up Pike's Peak with you." And I bought him a Pike's Peak hoodie, which is very warm and fuzzy so I think I might steal it. :0)
So....I learned a lot, stuffed my brain full, and am now still trying to recover. Today is the first day that my mind has worked properly since. :0) But I'm very excited! Except that I just found out I have to work outside today instead of being free to write like I thought, bummer. :0(
Josh is at Teen Pact this week so maybe the next post I'll talk him into writing. If not then I'll let y'all know how his week went.
TTYL!

Ho hum...what a boring life is mine.
NOT!
So I'm thinking about starting up a writing blog for myself, and turning this blog over to my mom. Well, first I have to teach her how to do it! Should be fun, since she's not really a techy person at all...unlike Josh, who two days ago figured out how to Bluetooth stuff from my phone to his without ever doing it before (and it took him, like 20 seconds to figure it out). Oh yeah, I got a new phone!! The old phone is now Josh and Hannah's, and my phone is a cool LG that is bright green, and has a really good background pic (Justin and me) and has stupid ringtones...
Well, other than that, I've been busy doing a whole lotta nothing. Orchestra started back up again and is, I guess, in full swing. I now sit in the sanctuary for three hours every morning, working on my computer. Then I eat lunch with Mary, Joy, and Liz, have the weekly "writer's conference" with Mary, and talk to a bunch of random people until 2:30, which is when Justin arrives back from school for the weekend. I kid you not, Friday and Saturday have always been my favorite days but having him back makes them even better!
Saturday and Sunday we usually do some stuff with friends, but last Saturday, Valentine's Day...wow! Whole new meaning to that holiday now! Justin had a "surprise" planned for me that day...everyone knew what was going on except me! He and Mom were awful Friday night, they wouldn't stop teasing me. :0) Anyway, he took me ice-skating. And Dad let us hold hands (up to this point we haven't been allowed to do so). He spoiled us, but it was great! And despite apprehensions to the contrary, Justin and I didn't fall a single time! Then we went to dinner a Hemingways, the restaurant on the top floor of Bass Pro. Ummmm...good food! And it was nice to sit and talk with Justin, it was our first time to be sitting really and truly by ourselves at a restaurant.
Let's see, what else...oh, for movie lovers, you've got to go see (or rent) The Tale of Despereaux. It's about a mouse who won't cower, won't scurry, and is a gentleman who likes to rescue fair princesses. It's cute, really. It's a animated kid's movie but I loved it! No bad humor, no language...the only thing I would say about it is that it could be pretty scary for younger kids. I mean, he's a mouse...so he gets captured by rats, gets chased by a cat, down in Ratworld there are a lot of bones, some of them human-looking (its in the dungeon)...and one character (I can't figure out if he's mouse or rat) is blind and looks rather creepy. But, go see it, seriously. It's a good movie about chivalry and honor with a couple of non-typical heroes (besides the mouse Despereaux, there's Roscuro the rat, who was my favorite character).
For book-lovers, if you're into Christian suspense, you have to read Ted Dekker's latest, Kiss. It sounds like a weird title but it's really good. He co-wrote it with his editor, Erin Healy, and the publisher came up with a really cool brand for them: Heart Pounding Meets Heart Warming. (For those who don't know what a publishing brand is, it's a phrase such as Dekker's that is original to that particular author(s). Brandilyn Collin's "Seatbelt Suspense" is another example). Sorry, I can't help but throw in writing stuff anymore! :0) Anyway, read Kiss. It's a good book and hearkens back to the old Ted Dekker (like Blink, Thr3e, etc).
On my writing, not much going on lately. I haven't been working on Roliwyn, have worked a bit on editing TSC, and....I'm going to the Writing For the Soul conference in Colorado!!! Yay! *bells and whistles*. I'll get to meet my writing coach, schedule some meeting with editors (hopefully my book proposal will be in enough order that I can get them interested) and take a ton of classes! First, though I probably need to pack and to get business cards printed out....ick....I'v tried printing business cards once before and it didn't turn out so well....something tells me that the day will go downhill very quickly once I try to print them.
The worst part of the whole deal is that I miss a weekend with Justin. I hate being away from him, and that its a weekend will make it even worse! Mom has said though that we'll go to Columbia on our way home and see him. So I do have that to look forward to, yay!
Well, I think that's all for now! I'll post sometime after the conference, maybe on the way home since I'll want something to do while staring out the window at boring west Kansas! Oh yes, and Justin let us borrow his GPS, so I'll be sure to let y'all know how Mom gets along with it... :0) I'll probably get a phone call in the middle of a class: "Heather, how does this thing work?"
Anyway, feel free to email or call me and ask me how its going! We're leaving tomorrow, the conference starts Thursday, ends Sunday, and we'll get home next Tuesday.
Oh, and hop over to the h2o blog, there's a discussion about the meaning of "friend" going on right now.
TTYL!