Author Adventures

Fleeing Distractions The many choices an author makes

Author Adventures

Hi friends and Happy Wednesday!

Writing is a solitary profession. Writing your books can only be done by you. And, it means long hours in the chair, hands on the keyboard. Or, in my case, pen on paper. But it doesn’t have to be completely solitary. There’s the beauty and gift of writing friends. Friends who brainstorm with you, who help you out, who celebrate with you during the highs, and who commiserate with you during the lows.

I’ve been blessed to have Zoom writing sessions with friends daily since Covid hit. That’s how it started, but it’s grown and become something we do daily. We do writing sprints and provide company. I also have the gift of Voxer where sweet writer friends leave me messages and weekly prayer check-ins. But we also, occasionally, get to break out and go on adventures

I got away on a fun writing adventure a little over a week ago. I attended the AWSA conference (Advanced Writers and Speakers) and CPE (Christian Product Expo). And, I had the joy of attending with my sweet friend Jill Kemerer.

AWSA was a time of prayer, encouragement, instruction, and a deepening of my hope in Christ. It was more ministry than conference and it was beautiful seeing so many ladies coming together in worship. It culminated with an awards banquet for the Golden Scroll awards and I’m honored to say I was blessed with third place in the Mystery category.

CPE was wonderful. I got to attend a murder mystery dinner. My very first and I loved it, but I guessed wrong. As a suspense author, I feel bad about that. Mystery solving should be up my alley. But it was such a fun experience and the actors were amazing. I wish I’d taken pictures of it, but it was held at the Kentucky Castle which made a beautiful backdrop and was a great place for brunch the following day.

And no castle is complete without tiaras. We didn’t buy them, but we didn’t rush to take them off. LOL!

The best part of CPE was the time with Jill and our off-site adventures including this amazing ice cream shop.

Meeting booksellers. We can’t sell books without them and I loved chatting with them all and learning about their stores. If you have an independent bookstore near you, support them.