CONTESTS & CONFERENCES - Arkansas Writers Conference

"I am not responsible for content posted about any of the conferences and events. I will let you know which ones I have attended or participated in. Please contact the conference site directly for current information."

Okay... commercial out of the way. Now let's talk conferences & workshops. There are a TON out there. You only have to look. Three websites I have always found helpful are SHAW GUIDES, WRITE DEVAS and RESOURCES FOR WRITERS by Jodi Renner. Book mark those links and refer to them next time you're on the hunt for a writer's conference.

This week I want to take you to Little Rock, Arkansas. Though I've not attended the conference, I have participated in their annual writing contests - and won a few here and there. This conference is put together by great people who know what they are doing. I'm talking about the Arkansas Writer's Conference. One woman you will find in attendance as long as she is able is the lovely Arkansas Poet Laurette, Peggy Vining. Such a sweet lady and wonderful poet. I have known Miss Peggy for over 25 years and she is the one who first told me about the Arkansas Penwomen and this conference.

Though the deadline has passed to enter this year's competition, there is still time to register for the conference which takes place June 5 - 6.

Anytime you attend a conference I spotlight, please email me or leave a comment to let me know what you thought. Let us learn from the experiences of others.

Happy Writing!
Angela

Monday Musings

Happy Monday everyone!

It's going to be a busy week around the house but I hope to still be in frequently to throw some new things your way.

Contest entries are coming slow. There are days I think I should have named the blog Writing Through Life.. or not. It seems like since I cleared everything out of the living room and ripped up the carpet in here in prep for the remodel, I've lost the urge to work on fiction. I'm doing plenty of non-fiction but the desire to work on contest entries just isn't there. I HAVE to find it - and FAST!

My husband will be home on Wednesday night and then the huge remodel of the living room begins, disrupting my 'routine' yet again.

But there is good news on the horizon. I've finally made the jump and am having Hughes Net installed on May 2nd. Anything has to be faster than this dial-up. Every day is a struggle to get everything done in a timely manner. If it will help me cut my non-fiction aka freelance writing time by one third, I might have time to do ALL the writing I want to do.

I guess today's post is a good example of how the writers life really works. Life gets in our way, we have days where writing just isn't what we want to do. Although we are lucky enough to have a job that allows us to do what we love, it is a job and a business.

So I guess I need to quit taking sick days and get back to business.

Happy Writing & Reading

Angela

Back in the swing!

I made it!

And I’m healthy again. Kind of hard to believe considering we’re moving into allergy season. I can always tell because our local weatherman always reports the pollen/ mold index as directed by the Green County Health Dept. I’m waiting for the mold spores index to go up, signaling it’s time to go hunting mushrooms 

In the mean time, I’m keeping busy writing a little of everything. For those of you who don’t know, when I’m not writing fiction and entering short story competitions I am a freelance journalist for the Texas Music community. We’re at the heighth of awards season with the Texas Music Association so I’ve been busy doing interviews and writing about the roots of Texas Music.

For the fiction venue, I have contest entries do for the Arkansas Writers Conference due to be postmarked by April 30th. There are 10 categories out of the 20+ available to me I’d like to enter. A couple are for Haiku poetry, which I haven’t written since middle school. But one of those categories is sponsored by a dear lady by the name of Peggy Vining . Peggy is the Arkansas Poet Laureate and one of the sweetest people you’ll ever meet in the writing community. I first met Peggy fifteen years ago at the Ozark Creative Writers Conference in Eureka Springs Arkansas. She is a true southern gentle lady on the outside but full of spunk for all of her petite size. I’m not concerned with whether I place in her category or not but it would be nice. I just want to play in Peggy’s world for a little while.

Today I’m researching for an essay on The War Years from 1941-1945. I’d hoped this would be a short story category and was already playing with a paranormal idea when I reread and was reminded it was for an essay. I’ll do the research and see what jumps out at me.

I haven’t forgotten about Death By Design. The novel work comes in the evening. I’ll fix me a Cowgirl Quencher and curl up with the critique comments my sister sent back.

Tomorrow I’ll be posting Conference news so stay tuned!

I’m also going to be guest blogging at Chris Redding's blog tomorrow. I’ll be speaking on Pitching at a Conference. Come by and say hello!

Happy Writing!

Angela