I’m all packed and heading to the airport to fly to Reno in the next hour for RWA’s annual conference. Last year’s conference was Dallas, the year before that it was NYC, the year before Denver. It’s exciting going somewhere different for each conference and my conferences have gotten busier and busier with agent, editor and publisher events.
At conference, I usually have dinner with Kim my Harlequin editor visiting from the London office, lunch with Karen my Warner editor and then a cup of coffee with my agent, Karen Solem. There is always a big Harlequin party for the Harlequin authors on Friday night, dinner with the Warner editors and authors another night, and then booksignings, workshops, and visits with my author friends from all over the world. Every year I’m excited to see everyone, and anxious to catch up with my friends and hear the latest regarding contracts, book proposals, as well as future writing and marketing plans. For one week we writers become social creatures, crawling from the woodwork (well, away our desks) to network, brainstorm, and remind our publishers who we are and what we hope to achieve.
This is a tough business and incredibly exciting–sometimes too exciting–especially for those of us who think of ourselves as bookworms and nerds. But I’ve learned that if you hope to make it as a writer you’ve got to grow a thick skin, and if you can’t grow it fast, then grow it extra strong because you’re going to need it. But a thick skin is a good thing for a woman to have, a good thick skin coated with teflon. We women need to learn not to take so much personally, as well as realize we’re not responsible for everyone and everything.
I’m signing off now, but I’ll be checking in from Reno and sharing whatever industry tidbits I can. Until I can report back–have fun, grow some more skin, and make sure you’re living the way you want to live. Yes, we can read about happy endings in books, but we shouldn’t just be reading about happy endings, we should be living those happy endings too.
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