Sunday, December 6, 2009

Lunch with Writers makes me HAPPY


This is me at lunch with a fabulous group of writer women. It was so much fun (thanks Debbie for the invite) & loved talking books, writing, hair color, potty training, etc with these fabulous women.

The highlights included meeting authors of two books I've read & loved: Bree Despain who wrote The Dark Divine that I blogged about & Emily Wing Smith who wrote the amazing book The Way He Lived.

Then during introductions when my friend Debbie said pointing to me & another friend of hers, "These are my two friends, they did National Novel Writing Month" . To which Brodi Aston (an actual writer with a finished book & an agent) said, "Oh! So you guys are writers too" & the other brilliant writing women all nodded.

A writer?!? I scrapped an dead ending out of my book for NaNo & now it's going to be hidden away, due to its terribleness, while I start a new writing project but I would never consider myself a "writer". However, it was a huge compliment & nice to hear.

Just spending a couple hours with these writing women made me feel driven enough to go home & start writing again.

Thanks for the lunch, ladies. I had a blast & hope to do it again soon.

P.S. The people in the picture starts with me on the left, Debbie's sister, Brodi Ashton, Emily Wing Smith, Sara Bolton, Valynne, Bree Despain, & Debbie- I hope I got everyone right.

6 comments:

M said...

Sounds like a fun and inspiring experience. Being around people who are using their talents and succeeding at following their dreams is always inspiring, especially when their dreams are your dreams too.

I think you ARE a writer, even if you're not published. Blogging is writing, after all. Do you feel compelled to write? Feel some part of you would die or you would go insane if you couldn't write? Then you are a writer.

I'd be happy to give you a few writing coaching sessions and/or some feedback on your writing if you'd like. I've done it for lots of people and like to think I have a knack for pinpointing what's strong and how to shore up the weak points. It could be our Christmas service exchange. :)

M said...

In return, you could evaluate some of my photographs and give me some photography pointers. You have such a good eye and good sense of what looks good and fits well together visually, in a creative and novel way. Sounds like a win-win to me.

Kristie said...

I didn't realize that Emily Wing Smith was an author. She went to my high school, amazing how time flies!
Sounds like it was a super fun lunch! Good luck on the book. I can't wait, someday I will find it and say I knew her a long time ago!

Cranberryfries said...

Oh gosh that was such a fun lunch. I just love enjoy the energy of other women and finding mutual ground and sharing experiences. It's awesome and fun. We're gonna have to do it again!

Esther Noelle said...

Glad you got to meet these neat ladies!

Olivia Carter said...

M- I love it! That's a great idea. I need to get over being shy about showing people my writing. It's hard. And I'd love to look at your photographs & do whatever I can to help out!

Kristie- That's so cool! What a small world! She's great. So funny & I really enjoyed talking to her. Her book is pretty amazing & heartbreaking too. Good stuff.

Debbie- Yes please! I feel like I'm starting to come out of my shell a bit! finally.

Es- It was nice to just meet other writers. It's inspiring & I really needed that.