Ah, the conference.  The joy of seeing my writer friends I haven’t seen for a year, or if they missed the Pittsburgh conference, two years.  Then there’s the excitement of meeting new writers and making new friends.  Nothing tops it and I look forward to it every year.

     On Friday and Saturday there are two hours of sessions in the mornings, and after a mid day break, two hours of sessions in the afternoon, we had a choice of four sessions per hour.  What to do?  What to do?  (You choose the one that you think best suits your needs.)  If after sitting through a few minutes one finds it isn’t what one wants, he/she can leave and try another.  No one is going to stop him/her or question where one is going.  Arriving late to a session isn’t a sin either.

     Believe me, there were sessions that ran at the same time that I was dying to attend, all of them.  I did narrow it down to two but since I can’t split myself into two people, I had to resort to other ways to decide.  For example, Ramona Defelice Long had a session on Elements of mystery writing and Loree Lough was presenting hers on Characters: why they do what they do at the same time.  I had to flip a coin.  Sorry Ramona but Loree won the coin toss.

Sunday morning there were more sessions.  Four from 9:15 to 10:15 and three from 10:30 to 11:30. 

     In every session I attended, I took copious notes and made sure to have whatever handouts the speaker provided.  All of which I will reread and use until they fall apart.