About two weeks ago I googled "writing associations in North Carolina" and FINALLY hit something--the North Carolina Writer's Network (NCWN) is a nonprofit association for writers based in North Carolina and they are BUSY. Their website (NCWriters.org) is packed with all kinds of activities and help for authors, and I saw they were having a fall conference--this past weekend! 

I was too late to sign up for any masterclasses and I was too late for the conference room rate, but it was only two nights, so I didn't worry about that and booked it anyway after signing up to go. 

Charlotte is only 3.5 hours from the house, so I knew that was no problem, we just had to figure out if anyone was coming with me. Charley could take off Friday, the girls were ready to see something different, our trusty cat sitters were engaged, and so we were all set.

THE CONFERENCE

Oh my goooddddddd..... this writing conference, even only being two quick days, was so incredibly different than every other writing conference I'd ever been to, my head was exploding after the first class. 

The sessions were 90 minutes instead of just shy of an hour, and they were taught by professors and faculty from creative writing programs from local universities! WRITING TEACHERS. WHAT. 

Every other conference I've ever been to have been taught by either really popular authors (trad or indie), really successful indie authors, people who are known for the author organization systems, or those in the industry with a system or product to sell to indie authors. All of that is tremendously helpful, don't get me wrong, BUT to find a collection of teachers in one conference who are actually teaching ABOUT WRITING was magical. 

I felt like my ancient English literature degree was waking from a sleeping curse.

I had a list of things to look up in my spare moments: braided essays, the "pantoum" poetry structure, and "naive narrator." Not to mention the seven values of Buddhism, more on writing memoir, and from the one session I took from a social media entrepreneur... I had so many ideas for my own branding, I was writing that down when I should have been taking notes on what she was saying! 

The speakers and panels were amazing. Journalist turned author Tommy Tomlinson was Friday night, the Saturday morning panel was Patrice Gopo, Jay Ward, and Kimmery Martin. There was a panel on Sunday morning of agents and editors, but I have to confess I didn't pay attention to that because I will never, ever, ever even consider traditional publishing. So I used that time to get some notes together from the day before. 

My courses, for the record:
1. Objects May be Closer: Activating Story Settings, with Bryn Chancellor
2. Greater than the Sum of the Parts, with Patrice Gopo
3. Making Messes: How Character & Plot Thrive on Mistakes, with Amber Wheeler Bacon
4. We Know Your Why, Tell Your WHO, with Jennifer Moxley
​5. Write Your Values, with Misha Lazzara 

I'm busy today getting all of my notes into my Notion, but I'm trying to be better at updating this website, even though no one's coming here yet! BUT -- that okay. I am starting and getting shit down so it's here for the future, and that's all that matters. 

I also have some exercises from this weekend some of the instructors suggested and they're all amazing, so I need to get to those too. 

One thing I did get to do before the conference started was go to the MacTabby Cat Cafe!!! They had two slots available when we were there, so the girls went in the cat room to play with the 12 kittehs in there while I enjoyed my amazing latte and took photos of all of the art and cat things in the cafe. 

All of the kitties are available for adoption, and there was one young man there who had come by himself to play with the cats, just because he loves cats. He said he'd been wanting to get one for a while, and when I told him they were available for adoption, his whole attitude changed. He perked up and went and looked through the windows... then waited until he could go inside. I hope he found a friend. 

We went to Curio after, which was an awesome little juju magic bullshit store (MY FAVORITE) and I found a great little book on being a witch I didn't have by Julia Diaz: Witchery: Embrace the Witch Within, because I'm definitely needing to tap into something to get through this next year, and why not do it with some rockin' candles, herbs, delicious tea, and a new-found relationship with the natural world around me? 

I began working for NINC (Novelists, Inc.), seven years ago when I took up the monthly job of editing their newsletter: Nink. I am still not a member of NINC, because the majority of my money still comes from all of my copyediting clients and not my novels, BUT times are changing. 

I still LOVE proofing the newsletter, though, because I get that insider info in the publishing world, advice, tips and tricks from some of the most successful authors in the world today. And that has always included the yearly reports from the annual NINC Conferences that always take place at the TradeWinds in St. Pete Beach, FL. 

This year, I was offered a comp ticket to the fall conference from my team at NINC. They wanted to offer it to me so I could see the inside scoop for myself, and we would all be able to meet in person... I just had to get there and swing the hotel for the week. 

Since I was no longer putting all of my earnings into my farm, I had the money for us all to drive down to Florida in September from North Carolina and stay for five glorious nights. My family played on the beach while I attended all the sessions I could and I got to fangirl all over Sarra Cannon and Elana Johnson. (That's another story.) 

I knew this conference would help me in many ways, and it definitely did. I had to flex my I'm In Public Now, Look At My Girl Clothes! muscles... and I learned a ton of things from all of the presenters: a little craft, a lot of business, BookFunnel, how to pull a story bible together, just everything. It was exhausting and my head felt like it weighed 50 pounds at the end. 

I came home with a renewed sense of I CAN DO THIS and I dug into my plans for my novels. I was really jazzed to make goals that I hope to see come true before our next trip to St. Pete Beach, because Charley and the girls all loved our time at the beach!!