I just spent the past two weekends speaking at writers conferences. They're a lot of fun and I get to network with other authors as well as editors and agents. The first one was in Hurst, TX, about an hour's drive from home. It was held on the Tarrant County Community College campus and was sponsored by the Trinity Writers Workshop. My topic was "Writing the Young Adult Novel" and was based on my class of the same name that I teach on line for UCLA Extension.

The second one was at a retreat on a beautiful lake in north east Texas. It was sponsored by the North East Texas Writers' Organization. This time I talked about building characters. Jim went along and we had a cabin directly on the lake. We drank our morning coffee on the porch watching the fish jump in the lake. We only had one problem. We boarded our shy, rescued greyhound, Miller, for the first time. He was really traumatized when we got him home. We felt SO bad! We'll have to hire a sitter the next time we go away.

It's back to writing now. 'Til next time...