SB Writers' Conference = ratings
I survived the writers' conference without being eaten by mountain lions or collapsing from exhaustion. :) It was a great experience, and I'm so excited to do some more writing. And I'm so proud of myself for going to the conference AND reading some of my stuff while I was there. Yay!
Other than that, as soon as I got home from the conference yesterday I baked a cake (for my mommy's birthday), and did a horrid job of frosting it (it's hard with lumpy frosting [it's supposed to be lumpy, it has pineapple chunks in it]), but it was still yummy. I love baking. :) And last night we went out to dinner downtown, and stopped in at Macy's on the way back. So I looked for some nice work shoes, and found some really nice ones that hurt like whoa. :( Unfortunately, the sales guy who had brought out the shoes was quite determined to make a sale, so he asked what kind of shoe I was looking for, and I explained that I needed a nice sort-of dressy black shoe with a medium heel that wasn't a skinny heel because I have horrible balance. He then proceeded to scour the shoe department and bring back every shoe that was the exact opposite of what I had asked for (really dressy, pointy-toed, and high skinny heel). -_-;; But I couldn't get rid of him, so I bought a pair of sandals that wasn't quite what I was looking for, but still nice. I hate it when the sales people attack you like that.
- Okay, so on one night, at the evening speaker event, this guy started talking to me and asked the inevitable question when he found out I had just graduated, so I told him I was planning on going back to grad school in a year or two. And THEN, this guy says, "You'll get married and have kids and forget about going back to school. All girls want to get married, right?" I just smiled and nodded, but this is wrong on so many levels. For one thing, even if I did somehow fall in love and get myself married within a year (which is VERY unlikely, particularly since there are no eligible guys in my life at the moment), I would NOT "forget" about school. It's what I want to do, and I would NOT allow marriage to get in the way of that. And THEN, this guy went on to give me advice about having a successful marriage. Fortunately the speaker started shortly thereafter. I don't know how much longer I could have gone on smiling and nodding.
- "Me wanting to write is like a one-legged man wanting to be a tap-dancer." -Fannie Flagg (she's dyslexic). I really liked that, because there are things you want to do that you just cannot explain. Like me running cross country in high school even though I have asthma. It was important to me and I loved doing it, and I didn't care what anyone else thought. And it's the same with my writing. I don't know why I write, I just have stories to tell, and I can't tell you where those stories come from. I love that mysteriousness of writing.
- "What you know and where you belong are not necessarily the same as what you know conceptually and where you are physically." -Pico Iyer, responding to all those people who tell you to "write what you know." I love his response, because I think that's the beauty of writing (and reading, too). I write fairy tales, not because I live in a fairy tale but because I feel like that's where I belong as a writer. I don't think it matters what you write about, as long as it's important to you and you put yourself into it.
- And last but not least: "Your average rural Alaskan is one weird fuck." -some (Alaskan) guy in one of the workshops I attended.
Other than that, as soon as I got home from the conference yesterday I baked a cake (for my mommy's birthday), and did a horrid job of frosting it (it's hard with lumpy frosting [it's supposed to be lumpy, it has pineapple chunks in it]), but it was still yummy. I love baking. :) And last night we went out to dinner downtown, and stopped in at Macy's on the way back. So I looked for some nice work shoes, and found some really nice ones that hurt like whoa. :( Unfortunately, the sales guy who had brought out the shoes was quite determined to make a sale, so he asked what kind of shoe I was looking for, and I explained that I needed a nice sort-of dressy black shoe with a medium heel that wasn't a skinny heel because I have horrible balance. He then proceeded to scour the shoe department and bring back every shoe that was the exact opposite of what I had asked for (really dressy, pointy-toed, and high skinny heel). -_-;; But I couldn't get rid of him, so I bought a pair of sandals that wasn't quite what I was looking for, but still nice. I hate it when the sales people attack you like that.