After a two year break from Storymakers, I decided to attend once again. I wanted to go when I had a manuscript that I was ready to do something with. And a week before Storymakers, I finished a draft of my current WIP! I started this draft last February, and it took me fifteen months to go from zero words to over one hundred thousand words. That process took longer than I thought it would, but now I have a story that I think I want to do something with. And by "do something with" I mean edit, revise, revise, revise, revise, and then share with readers. So that's cool! I've never had a full manuscript that I've wanted to share. I learned a lot from previous manuscripts, and that was the main point of them--me learning writing skills.
Anyway, I have a manuscript, and I did some things with it at Storymakers. I met with an agent and had a "Premise and Plot Chat." That wasn't very helpful. I'm not sure why. I think my questions weren't the ones I most wanted answers to. Anyway, it was kind of a flop. But I also entered my first chapter into the First Chapter Contest. And I won my category! (Which was General/Historical Fiction) Woohoo! I couldn't believe it. Super exciting!
And I took a bunch of classes about editing. So the next goal is to fix my book to the best of my (and my writing group's) ability. And then to hire a professional editor.
Speaking of my writing group--Chapter Seven: Where the Plot Thickens--four of the seven of us were there at Storymakers. And it was super fun to be together! Man, I don't think we took a picture of the four of us. Bummer! But we had good times. And we hung out with people from a fellow writing group. So now our writing group has made its first friend.
Storymakers this year also had two amazing authors slated--Maggie Stiefvater and Beth Brower. Maggie ended up getting sick and couldn't come. I was really sad not to benefit from her revision intensive class...But Beth came, and she was incredible. Such an awesome human being, and I love, love, loved hearing about her writing process and philosophy. She's my hero. I gave her husband a note to give to her that said thanks. And my friend Amanda actually had a couple of conversations with her(!) Very cool.
Her keynote was my favorite part of the whole conference. So, so good. And she didn't have a Powerpoint presentation. I knew she wouldn't! Just note cards. And she had no problem keeping my full attention the whole time. No attention-grabbers needed--just awesome, interesting, quality content! My favorite quote was (speaking of writing craft) something like, "Hone your sword, and you will be able to fight on any front."
Amanda and I stayed with Aunt Kathleen in Provo. She is a wonderful host, and it was so nice to see her and catch up with her. I didn't take a picture of us together! I really failed on the photo front this year. Aunt Kathleen is working on her book about Grandma Sandberg. I'm really looking forward to reading that.
With late nights and early mornings and constant socializing and emotional roller coasters, Storymakers was pretty intense for me this year. There were some hard things about it, but I'm really glad I went. And I'm glad to be moving on to the next step in my writing journey.
I came home and had to do a bunch of mom things that I had been putting off so I could finish my manuscript. One of those was prepping for Annie's recital.
She learned a ton of music for her social diploma in guild this year. And I missed Ms. Renae's studio recital during Storymakers. So we decided to do a sophomore recital. Annie's recital with her students was first. She was so proud of them. She has really come a long way as a teacher (thanks to experience + Ms. Renae's mentoring) and her students are good little players!
After her students' recital, we crammed about forty people into our downstairs, and Annie (and Scotty) performed their pieces. They did great! We were so proud of them. And so many people came to support. It was lovely. We're so blessed to be part of so many great communities--ward, stake, homeschool, CAPA, etc.!
This was one of Annie's students wearing his classic cowboy hat. I loved it.
When we first moved to Texas, Jenni taught Annie dance lessons. And now Annie is teaching her son piano lessons. So cute, right? Times flies!
I did not take any videos during the recital. I wish I had filmed the whole thing. Oh well! Instead it just exists as a lovely memory.
Now on to summer! This week we have rowing camp and rehearsal for Frozen. The kids are in the chorus, and Annie's helping with costumes. No rest for the weary:)
