Home, Sweet, Home

It's 10:16 PM, and I just got home from my talk at the Richardson Public Library. I'm beat.

It was a lot of fun. There were about 55 people in attendance. They asked great questions, and we ran about fifteen minutes over the ninety-minute deadline. A half dozen people were brave enough to share their query letters with the group, which gave us more to talk about.

Many thanks to my critique partner, Maria Zannini. She met me for dinner beforehand and helped lug all my paraphernalia into and out of the library. She also acted as my page turner for my easel--the mike didn't stretch all the way to the easel.

Thanks, too, to my dear friend Carleen who shlepped all the way to Richardson from her university to support me. She helped to hand out things and to lug all the stuff--which seemed to have multiplied like the fishes--back to my car.

I was thrilled to see my friends Rob and Cherrie Lamon from the Irving Writers Connection. I'll be talking at their writers group next month. Another IWC writer, Patricia Ferguson, was there with one of her friends. It was so nice to see a few familiar faces in the audience.

When I first started thinking about talking to groups, I decided there were three subjects that I could probably talk at least semi-intelligently about:

1) What you need to know about the industry before you seek publication
2) Writing a query letter
3) What you need to know when you get The Call (from an agent or editor)

Cindy Wright, the Program Chair, had asked me to present on #2. Next month, I'll present on #1 for IWC.

Tomorrow, after I'm rested, we'll get back to business.