Report from James River

It's been a busy couple of days. I drove down to Richmond on Thursday morning in order to participate in the first "pre-conference" workshops that James River Writers has offered. I think it was successful--both the query workshop and the short story workshop, which I led, were filled (in fact mine was over-subscribed, somehow) and the feedback I've received has been quite positive. My topic was, ostensibly, how to "create a world" in a short story, but really it was a short course in short story writing. I enjoyed doing it, and I think the participants enjoyed it, too.

Then last night we had a wonderful party for presenters and other invited guests. Good food, great people, beautiful house. A nice "kick off" for the conference (although, of course, I'd gotten a head start in the afternoon).

The conference proper began this morning with some inspirational poetry (Invitation to Write!) followed by lots of panels. I heard one panel talk about the challenges of writing in multiple genres and another about freelance writing. Then, after lunch, it was my turn--I was on two panels. The first was Character 101 and it was so popular we needed to move to a different room. Then I was on Mastering the Short Story, a topic I don't think we could ever do justice to. Both went well, I think. The final session of the day was a plenary session about the relationships among writers, agents, and editors. I thought the panelists did a really good job with that, and I haven't seen the subject presented in quite that way before.

Right now I'm standing by for another party . . . and I'm looking forward to another full day tomorrow!