While I Edit

I've signed up for the Backspace Writers Conference in NYC this coming November 3-4. I've never been. I'm super excited and anxious and scared and a million other things. I think mainly I'm just interested in what it will be like, all the writer types I'll meet, and what I'll learn.

You can be sure I'll be posting updates when I get back. The structure includes some general informational panels about publishing but also critique sessions on query letters and two-page writing samples.

I'm a veteran when it comes to receiving constructive criticism. Most criticism I've received in the past, however, has been restricted to assignments in college or graduate school and then writing assignments at work. This will be the first real time I'm receiving criticism on my WIP.

I have posted on Query Tracker Forum and had some alpha readers* take a look but this is a whole new level and I'm not really sure what to expect. I know it's subjective but there's a certain anxiousness that's part hope, part anticipation of the worst possible scenario. As such I've been busying myself with edits and using this conference date as a good motivator to work on some scenes I've been procrastinating.

You can be sure that where I'm typing, my trusty Lab Molly is always lying by my feet encouraging me along--or falling asleep when I read aloud to her :-)

And while my Molly is growing a very unfashionable gray goatee at the moment and is all grown up, I thought I'd share this blast from the past of baby Molly and today's Tuesday morning moment of zen:



Have you had any moments of zen lately?

*Alpha reader is my term for close friends or relatives who get to read your WIP before the beta readers come in.