Best Southwest

Tomorrow, I will travel all the way to Duncanville (a whopping 20 miles) early in the morning to attend the Best Southwest Bookfest. I got my first taste of this short conference last spring when I was doing my practicum for my master's degree at the UNT Dallas library and they sponsored it. It was a lot of fun! This year, there are several other things I could be doing tomorrow--going to the annual church Easter egg hunt with my girls, going to Emilie's volleyball game, going with Heather and Fabian and the girls to pick strawberries after the egg hunt. I struggled a little with the decision, but decided I needed to keep this commitment and go for several reasons.

First, several of those are rather domestic-sounding activities and I'm not so good at them. Heh. :-) Truly, I'd go if there wasn't this conflict! I'm a good mom, I'm just not always so good at the traditional "mom things." Oh, well. My kids think I'm okay, I think. And Heather, one of their "village moms" (you know, it takes a village...) is great at those things. We trade off...she does "mom things" with her little sisters, and I teach her 20-month-old Ian how to say "nostrils" while sticking his fingers up them when he's learning body parts.

Okay, so real first, it's free! Can't beat the price, especially considering the others I would like to go to in the near future are more like 200-300 each just for the registration fee. They are a lot more comprehensive and cater specifically to writers, while this is open to the public and there will be as many people who come just to listen to authors speak and get books signed as there are those going for the writing tips.

Second, some interesting folks will be there. Carlton Stowers, who wrote several well-known true-crime novels (such as Careless Whispers) will be there. A lady whose blog I have read a couple times lately (Shanna Swendson) will be there. I browsed to her blog because she is a client of an agent I've been eyeing for when I get that first novel completed.

Third, it'll just be a great opportunity to get some good info, be entertained, and maybe even see some of the people I used to work with at UNT Dallas or former classmates.

Fourth, and maybe most important for me--after attending last year, I was inspired to begin writing my first novel. I don't know if it'll be the first novel I actually complete, because I'm having some conflicts over what I really want my "voice" to be and whether it fits with that. I will finish it eventually, because I believe it's a great story and I'm nearly halfway through, but who knows, maybe I'll use a different pen name for it!

Anyway, within minutes of leaving the conference last year, where I got some really great ideas for doing so, the characters and basic plot began coming to me, and I was off and running pretty fast. It was so exciting for me to be in rooms filled with authors and people "like me" who were so turned on to writing and reading, I felt in a way I had come home. So, I think the Best Southwest Bookfest will probably hold a little sentimental spot in my heart for years to come.

Or at least until I get my first rejection notice. ;)