Monday, November 12, 2012

I Love My Writing Community


One of the huge blessings of blogging is meeting so many interesting, entertaining, and just darn nice people. Pre-blogging, I lived in that kind of writerly bubble where one suspects there are other forms of writerly life out there, but they're about as easy to glimpse as Bigfoot. And then, two plus years later, you're part of a great crowd of folks who are willing to chat with you, exchange information, and just plain old support you. Thanks, pals.

One of the greatest stories to come from this bloggy thing we do, is my striking up a correspondence with a writer called Laura Stanfill. Laura, a former journalist, heard of me through a mutual friend and contacted me to be part of her 7 Questions for Writers interview series. (I mentioned this in a previous post.) She then produced a book, and being the amazing promoter that she is, last week she got a whole bunch of contributors together for a reading in a local community center. There were about 90 people in the audience!

Laura asked me to read something from my novel, so I treated them to the first chapter of my middle grade novel, SHAKESPEARE ON THE LAM, which is still (sigh!) out on submission. I kid you not, I felt like a rock star. Here's a video of me, getting all excited with the words on the page:



The best thing, though, was listening to and then meeting a bunch of amazingly talented writers who are also in Brave on the Page--people like Liz Prato; Duncan Ellis; Nancy Townsley and her husband, Gregg; Bart King; Stevan Allred; Kristen Forbes; and Shasta Kearns Moore. And many of them signed my book!! (Sorry if I'm beginning to sound like a squealing fan boy.)

There is, I believe, nothing better than being in a room full of writers. We are appreciative of each other, because we know how hard it is to put ourselves out there and write. I want to give Laura Stanfill huge credit for being such a visionary, and for all the time and effort she has put into making this book a reality, and for making our writing community stronger. I have never been so proud of being a writer.