Three Writers Conferences on the Horizon

Statue at the Getty Villa Museum, Los Angeles

I registered for three writer's conferences in 2010. They all happen early in the year, which sends attendees scrambling (myself included) to complete manuscripts. Conferences offer countless opportunities to advance writing skills, meet successful authors and make pitches to publishers.

The 17th Annual Christian Writers Seminar (February 19 - 20) is sponsored by Redwood Chapel Community Church in Castro Valley, California. With an array of seasoned authors teaching, instruction covers the basics of Christian writing,

fiction, researching, articles, self-publishing, screenwriting, and more. Though it targets the person beginning the journey, published writers will also find encouragement. Since there are no publishers, editors or agents represented at this conference, attendees are free to learn without feeling the need to pitch their project. This year the keynote speaker is Dave Meurer—a very funny guy, author of six books and numerous magazine articles. My husband used Dave as the speaker at his men's retreat some years back and

found him hilarious.

The 2010 Christian Writers Conference at Mount Hermon (March 26 - 30) is the crème de la crème of conferences in the Christian writing world in the opinion of many. From my attendance last year, I made valuable contacts with publishers that would not have been possible otherwise. Read my blog post from the conference last year. With

a jam-packed schedule of classes for all levels of writing proficiency, the difficulty lies in picking classes. In addition, attendees receive free manuscript critiques, have meal-time opportunities to meet authors, editors, publishers and literary agents, and can take part in night owl sessions covering issues important to a writing career such has blogging, tweeting and other platform essentials.

I plan on taking the Writing for Children morning track again. This year's track titled Children's Books: Writing For Today’s Kids features instructor Bill Myers, award winning author of over 70 children’s books, films, TV and radio shows. The track will explore how to reach today’s child and teen, create memorable characters and unforgettable plots, incorporate comedy, preach without getting caught, and market your work.

On April 24th I will attend the SCBWI 2010 Spring Spirit Conference at the Sunset Center in Rocklin, California. Similar to other conferences, except the focus is writing for children, this regional conference sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) offers something for every aspect of writing for children. I will be attending with a fellow children's writer from my critique group.

This year my goal at these conferences, aside from learning, is to find "homes" for articles I have written and acquire the interest of an agent for my children's books.