Happy Halloween

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New Jersey Conference

Tanya Goodwin and me taking a swim after a hectic day of workshops and pitching our books!

This past weekend, I attended the “New Jersey Put Your Heart in a Book”. A new conference in a different state...perfect! There were, however, a few obstacles to get over before the conference officially began.

Tanya picked me up on Thursday morning. After a quick lunch at my house, we were off. We quickly settled into our rooms. Next it was time to meet Tanya for dinner. We planned on looking through the workshop schedule, but it didn’t turn out that way.

Now you know the weekend was not going to go by without a couple of incidents. Like…a brief plumbing problem. Now you must be saying it is impossible, especially after our Washington story, but it’s true. After finding out that Tanya had the only toilet in the hotel that had a tank in a tank element, which of course kept getting clogged with just a fragment of a toilet tissue, she was moved to another room. Our journey began.

Next came a simple request. A small table. Well, after dinner, we were pleasantly surprised to see that the table was delivered to Tanya’s room. A banquet table. So our journey continued. We both brought the table down the hall, onto the elevator, with Tanya hanging over it to push the elevator button. Oh yes, another wonderful scene. You just can’t make this stuff up. And let’s not forget another false fire alarm. What’s going on? Two conferences, and two false fire alarms causing chaos. I just rolled over and said who cares.

Wow. Once we got over those obstacles, we were in the home stretch.
We breezed through registration and met up with Carolyn Gibbs, Lis Eng and Cathy Greenfeder for lunch. Everything was going well until I wound up with a sore throat and fever. But that didn’t stop me. I was off to the workshops. First up was “How to Cook up a Suspense Novel” with the husband and wife team of Jim & Nikoo McGoldrick writing as Jan Coffey. From there I strolled to Kathy Kulig’s “Screenwriting Tips for Building a Novel”. Oh yes, dialog is the most important ingredient.

The Golden Leaf Book Award Ceremony was awesome. Our very own Anna DePalo won for her short contemporary novels “The Billionaire in Penthouse B”.

The rest of the conference was filled with parties (the blender) and socializing with friends, new and old. Former member Irene Weissman rocked the house, telling us countless stories of inspiration.

We rocked the house at the after party singing Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. We had a great time. I was proud to be there representing our New York Chapter. I left with renewed hope, dreams and inspiration.

Walk It Out

Back to School! Hmm…not a bad idea for all of us. Come on lets face it, all summer long, the moment we saw the combination of sun and hot weather, we were no where near our computers. Now, it’s time to get into some sort of schedule, along with the kids. The key is structure and a schedule. You would think that with me being home all day that I would be pumping out thousands of words. Absolutely not. I am guilty of dilling and dalling all day long doing…nothing. But I did add some structure in my life during the past few weeks, and plan to expand that into the fall months.

Now you ask, how do you find time to write, let alone think? I have the perfect solution which I’ll walk you through. It will not only open up your mind to endless possibilities, but will keep you trim and fit.

Walking. I find walking is the best way to relax, and get my muse flowing. I walk no matter the weather. I’ve been known to walk during a snow storm. Even if it’s around the block, or walking during your lunch break, use the time to clear your mind and let your characters take over. I always carry colorful index cards with me and a pen, usually sticking out of my ponytail. Believe it or not, this is how I write my outlines. I walk it through one scene at a time. I stop, write my thoughts and continue on my journey.

I’ve used walking to get through some of the toughest scenes that I couldn’t find a resolution to. I have to admit that walking is my salvation. It works wonders for every aspect in my life.

Now, I am going to offer you a challenge. With NaNoWriMo only three weeks away, I challenge you to spend the week putting together a character sketch of both your hero and heroine, include physical and emotional traits. Give your characters a background, a career. Pick your genre and setting. Write a one sentence hook that would describe your book. Believe me, you will be thankful that you created that one liner before you begin your project. I suggest you grab a pair of sneakers, lace them up and get your imagination walking. A simple walk around the block will clear your mind, waking it up to endless creative possibilities.