Conference Bound

I'm off to the New England Chapter's writers' conference this weekend outside of Boston.

In my first couple of years writing I can't tell you how inspiring, encouraging and simultaneous demoralizing I found writers' conferences. Inspiring when new light bulbs about craft and storytelling went off, encouraging to get requests for my work, and share war stories with other writers, but the demoralizing part was realizing how many other talented people shared my dream and how few of us would actually realize it. Humbling to say the least. That's a better word than demoralizing. **Maureen slaps herself upside the head.**

Then I had my winter-o-conferences -- the year I decided I was going to pitch to as many of my top choice agents as I could stalk at regional conferences. I was very focussed. Sure, I also went to some workshops at those conferences and learned a few interesting things, but mostly it was about the pitching and the networking and I did come out of that year with an agent. Yippee!

Now... while I'm stuck in this limbo place of having an agent but not yet having a publishing contract, I struggle to come up with rationalizations for spending money on conferences. Yet... somehow I manage.

This weekend I'm going to support my CP and buddy Molly O'Keefe who's a speaker and doing a booksigning. I'm also going to support and catch up with the very funny and talented Eileen Cook who I knew on-line long before we finally met in person -- at a conference. I'm also going to schmooze (and booze?) with a whole whack of TKA clients like the lovely Marley Gibson (who also writes as Kate Harmon), and Kwana Jackson, and Jessica Andersen and many more. And, I've also scored a breakfast meeting to pick the brains of the amazing Deidre Knight whose not only the president and founder of the agency I'm with, but is also a great writer (and a client). (That always sounds like those old Hair Club for Men commercials to me. LOL) Can't wait.

Do you go to conferences? Why or why not?