My Writer's Week with Lizzie and Melissa

Melissa, Sarah, and Lizzie at Buffalo Wild Wings.

 Well, I am home and recovered from a five day trip with my friends and the 4th of July holiday weekend!!! Here, I will share with you my trip. I hope you will enjoy it!!!

 On Tuesday, June 28, I left my home in Delphi, Indiana and made the 5 hour trip to Troy Michigan. My two Critique partners, Melissa Stark and Lizzie Walker, decided to meet at Melissa's house and have a writer's week since we were unable to go to the RWA Conference.

I was so excited to finally meet them. I had known Lizzie for two years, having met her in Veronica Wolff's discussion forums and I had known Melissa for one year, having met her in Celtic Critters Critique group in CHRW.



We spent our time writing in her apartment, writing at the pool, writing in the atrium....LOL, you name it and we probably sat there with our computers. Thousands of words were put down and I think all of us feel better about that. But, we didn't just write. We brain stormed about the GMC of the characters.  (G=goal, M=motivation, C=conflict)

This day around the pool, (picture below), we were discussing whether or not to kill off a character of mine. She is a sister to the hero. We needed a conflict. As we sat discussing if I should kill her or maim her, a lady who had been wading in the shallow end of the pool kept inching closer and closer to us. When Lizzie cussed, she looked up and giggled at us. I apologized and she said, "You do what ya gotta do!" and winked. We all busted up laughing.

Lizzie is on the left and Melissa on the right.

One night we went out to eat and then went to the St. Andrew's Scottish Society and learned a little bit. Melissa dug up info on her family tree and we met some really nice people. In case you didn't know, Detroit's Highland games is the longest consecutively running games. This is their 164th year. CONGRATULATIONS!

Now, we have all heard the saying, "All work makes Johnny a dull boy." Well, we did go out one night. Melissa took us on a tour of Detroit and I have to tell you that it is beginning to look amazing. That town has come a long ways and everyone there should be proud of their come back.

On Friday, we took Lizzie to the airport and saying goodbye wasn't easy. I left Saturday morning and though I miss my Celtic Sisters, I was ready to see my family. There's no place like home.

I will leave you with a few more photos of our trip. I hope you enjoy seeing them as much as I did making them!!!!

Melissa and I out to eat for her birthday!

Lizzie and I out for Melissa's birthday!

Writer's week

This week was to be an unforgettable week. I had been making plans to go to New York for the RWA Nationals Convention. This is the TOP convention for romance writers. There are workshops to be taken, lectures to be heard by guest speakers such as Brenda Novak or Sherrilyn Kenyon. Authors will be there to sign their books and groups get together in the evenings. A writer also had the chance to pitch to an editor or agent.

BUT- I am unable to go. They started selling tickets in January and I was unable to purchase mine until May. By then it was sold out. So, my two critique partner's and I decided to go to Michigan to Melissa's house and have a writer's week and then go to the Place Your Heart In A Book convention in New Jersey. A week after we made that decision, we got a letter from RWA letting us know that there had been some cancellations and if we still wanted to go, we could. We had three days to make the decision or pass it on to someone else.

That was a hard choice to make. But in the end, we decided to go with our new plan. Spend the week together writing and polishing our work. Get ourselves ready and then in October, we would all three attend the New Jersey conference. There are still lots of opportunities to pitch and take workshops.
So, tomorrow, I head to Michigan. I am so excited to meet with my CP's, Melissa Stark and Lizzie Walker, and spend our time being creative. My goal? I would like to get 20K written between Wednesday and Friday.

I think this is going to be a great 5 days with these ladies. I am very excited and know it will still be an unforgettable time! I will not promise to blog during this week, but I hope to and post pictures of our time together.

To my fellow writers who are in New York, please have a safe trip and an awesome time.