Who gets up before six a.m. on a Sunday?  Under normal circumstances, it certainly wouldn’t be me.  Oh, but there I was at the Pennwriters conference and my roommate, bless her, was up by five which meant so was I.  Then Dave knocked on the door promptly at six.  “Yes, Dave.  We’re up.”  

      After we had breakfast, we all made one last ticket buy for the Chinese auction and then some of us headed off to the first of the morning sessions.  9:15 to 10:15 we had our choice of Susan Gable—You say tomato, I say to-motto: How Character motto influences plot, conflict & other story elements, Bobbi Carducci—No means nothing, finding yes in rejection, and Lucienne Diver—trends in publishing.

     10:30 to 11:30 Uwe Stender—Writing non-fiction from query to publication, Don Helin—You landed that Publisher…now what?, Tim Esaias—point of view.  I sure that if more people had known that in Tim’s session you got chocolate for participating we would’ve had more than the SRO group we did have in there.  I know I enjoyed the chocolate.

     10:30 to 12:30 closing ceremonies and the Chinese auction.  I took two baskets home.  Upon arriving home, I was abused by two Bull Terriers for hours.  Their tails wagged so hard that I have bruises on my legs from being thwacked by them.  Dear hubby let me sleep for an hour or two when I crashed on my chair (with two sixty pound dogs on me.)

     It was good to see so many of my fellow writers whom I’d not seen for a year and renew friendships.  It’s always fun to meet new people and make new friends.

     There was one member of our group, who we all missed terribly—Debbie, are you reading this?  Debbie was in a bad auto accident two years ago and there has been a hole in our little gang of rowdies without her.  We missed hearing her laugh and after something bawdy was said, chime in with, “And I write for children.”  We do hope to see her next year.  Her recovery has been slow and her medical expenses–atrocious enough to keep her from attending again this year.  We all send prayers that you will continue to recover—but at warp speed now, and that your finances improve greatly over this year.

     {Note to Valerie Malmont}  Valerie we missed you too! 

     See you all in Lancaster next year!