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!

     The Owl (me) began to wake up after lunch.  I now had enough caffeine in me to get the heart pumping blood to the brain.  Nevertheless, it didn’t hurt to grab another cup on the way to the next session at 1:30-2:30.  I went to Linda Lavarentz’s session–Dialogue that sparkles.  Good session, but again some things I’ve heard before and a few things I hadn’t.  It was worth sitting through.  While I was in that session, my roommate went to Susan Meier’s session—Can this manuscript be saved?  I get to see her notes later.  While still others attended Nate Hardy’s—Marketing made easy: success strategies for writers.  There are times that you wish you could split into three and go to all the sessions that hour.

     The last block of sessions for the day ran from 2:45 to 3:45.  My roommate went to Catherine Mclean’s—the character onion.  Several of us went to CJ Lyons—Kills, Chills, and Thrills session.  She’s a dynamite speaker.  To touch on a bit of what she taught us.  There was the Thriller Spectrum.  Mystery=who…set in the past, solving something that has already happened.  Suspense=why…the present, here and now, it’s visceral and psychological.  Thriller=how…the future, stopping something—a headlong flight into the future.  She went into high concept.  What happens next, hook, unique concept, and universal icon.  The other session during the hour was given by Esi Sogah—a day in the life of an editor.

     We had enough time for some socializing before a glance at a watch had us dashing to our rooms to change for dinner and the keynote address by Lisa Scottoline.  I wasn’t going to miss that for anything.  Having Lisa Scottoline as the keynote speaker, was the pivotal point that made me determined to get to the Pittsburgh conference this year. 

     For a lesser speaker I would’ve skipped Pittsburgh and waited until next year’s Lancaster conference.  I’d have bought the lap top I wanted.  However, to hear her speak, meet her, and come home with two books signed by her, I’m glad I went.  Unless I hit the lottery, it’ll be two more years of saving before I can buy that lap top, but it was worth it.

The PW conference was wonderful.  Lisa Scottoline is a dynamic speaker.  She had many of us all fired up and ready to work twice as hard as soon as we returned home.

I’ll touch on a few of the highlights tonight but due to complete exhaustion–I am not a Lark, I’m an Owl–I’ll be brief, this time.  (More to come later.)

The weekend lived up to our high expectations.   Pennwriters has never failed to send me home eager and ready to put my posterior into my chair and work.

Here are a two examples to whet your appetites…

John Lamb’s session, Homicide 101, fantastic.  If you ever have a chance to hear this retired homicide detective speak, DO NOT HESITATE, GO!

Nancy Martin, always  a firebrand  and her sessions are never a disappointment.  You can find her over on The Lipstick Chronicles.

If you’ve read my Doggoned Dead excerpt you will find that I’ve rewritten the first chapter.  Yes, this may have been “my vacation” but you will see that it was a working vacation.

Now dear readers I’m going to pay some attention to Dear Hubby who made my conference trip a reality, give my happy-that-mom-is-home pups plenty of hugs, smooches, and cuddles, and then I’ll get some much needed sleep.

     As a writer, I should set a daily goal and strive to reach it.  I try.  I honestly do try, but it seems that when I do someone moves the goal line. 

     My goal for this blog is to write 200 words a day.  My daily writing goal on my books is 1000 words.  So far, I’m hitting the goal on the blog and falling short on the books.  I hope to change that. 

     I discovered that I was unhappy writing my book in two point of views and I am going back to the original format of writing it in a single POV.  This past week I’ve been doing a lot of cutting and pasting.  I hope that by the end of this week I’ll be rolling along on a much improved manuscript.

     The dual point of view was not working at all.  I also think that by going back to a single one I’ll be able to drop clues and red herrings easier.  I believe my remaining characters will be more fully developed and become more interesting. 

     My critiquing group is probably going to kill me when I hand them the new manuscript at the end of the month.

     Along with the requisite Strunk and White, there are a few other handy dandy reference books to have on hand…or not. 

     There’s The Writer’s Digest Flip Dictionary, by Barbara Ann Kipfer “For when you know what you want to say but can’t think of the word.”  Gee, I wish it came in a pocket edition I’m always grasping for words.  It never fails, I know what I want to say, but the word beats a hasty retreat to the back of brain and screams, “neener, neener, neener you’ll never find me!”

     The Writer’s Little Instruction Book, 385 Secrets for Writing Well & Getting Published, by Paul Raymond Martin is a compact little paperback filled with little sayings and quotations.  This book has been grist for one or two of my posts.  Someone gave the book to me, and I have to say that I’m glad I didn’t pay for it.

     Dynamic Characters by Nancy Kress fits well in any writer’s library.  And, it’s a great one for the novice writer.  I think she’s helped me develop better characters.

     100 words almost everyone confuses & misuses, from the editors of the American Heritage Dictionaries, is a nice book to pair up with your Strunk and White.  (Our former President should have kept one in his pocket at all times.)