Woo Hoo! It's Finally Here!

Well, it’s that magical time of year again and I can hardly wait! This morning the Muse Online Writers conference officially begins. This past week has been a flurry of introductory emails and networking, and handouts for galore for each of the classes, but tomorrow the forum workshops and chat workshops officially begin and it promises to be a whole lot of fun.

This is my second time attending the conference. This year is no different than last – I signed up for waaaaay too many workshops…but they all sounded simply to good to pass up.

A lot of the writers at the conference are doing their preliminary work for NaNoWriMo. What’s NaNoWriMo? It stands for National Novel Writing Month. Yes, November is officially the month to challenge yourself to flesh out a novel of 50,000 words or more. That is quite a challenge. I tried it last year. I was successful in hitting my 50,000 word target, but the novel still in my “work in progress” drawer. You see, I decided not only to challenge myself to write a novel in a month…but to change genres and challenge myself to try something totally new – out of my comfort zone. It was great! Invigorating! The only downfall was with the change there was a need for a lot of research. I had not realized how much research was going to be necessary to get a believable mystery written. You have to know law – well, not chapter and verse, but the basics. You have to know jurisdiction – there are some lines that cross in the particular storyline I have going. You have to know people and behaviors. Well, for any good book to have believable characters you need to know the human element fairly well and show well defined and developed characters to keep today’s readers interested. By the way – there are a couple great workshops on writing mysteries at the Muse Conference!

My favorite genre is fantasy. Again, there are lots of great workshops at the Muse conference on Fantasy, World Building, Magic, Celtic magic. Of course I signed up for all of them. Yes, it is like regular school and they all have homework. Sleep? Nah, not this week, they’ll be plenty of time to sleep…hmmmmm…well, sooner or later there’ll be time to sleep, I’m sure. I’m an insomniac by nature anyway, lol.

Well, I’m still working on preliminary work for the conference soooooo…to everyone who is attending the conference – have fun and I’ll see you there!

Pass It Forward

Well, the 2007 Muse on Line Writing Conference has come to a close. There were over 1900 writers registered for the week long symposium. With 100 separate forum workshops, and about 75 scheduled hour-long chat workshops, there was definitely something for everyone. All sorts of industry professionals were there: publishers, editors, writers at all stages of their career ~ brand spanking new to many times published. People came from literally all over the globe: USA, Canada, Australia, S Africa, New Zealand...everyone together in a virtual forum sharing precious knowledge and advice. The workshop was completely interactive, offering opportunities to think outside the box and out of you normal writing comfort zone.

Lea Schizas, the founder of this golden opportunity, dedicates herself to sharing her knowledge and experience with others. Her mantra is "Pass it Forward," a philosophy she shares with all who come in contact with her. She demonstrates her philosophy of unconditional good will by living by her own example. The bar has been set high for any who accepts her challenge to "pass it forward".

I cannot begin to express how invaluable the experience was. What is even more incredible, is Ms. Schizas does not charge for this event - everything is absolutely free. She has a Paypal account for anyone wishing to donate to this amazing event that would literally cost participants hundreds of dollars to experience anywhere else. There is no required payment, anyone who would like to donate even $5 for this event will help defray the expense of running the event. Any proceeds exceeding costs of this year's events will be allocated to next year's conference. This conference is growing by leaps and bounds. More than 700 additional participants joined the event this year. This was the second year for the annual event, and plans have already been started for next year' s conference. The 2008 Muse conference will take place from October 13 - October 19.

The registration boards are currently open for next year's extravaganza, so register early, come ready to learn and share this wonderful experience. I have attached a link to the registration boards. You have nothing to lose and opportunities of limitless possibilities to gain.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/2008MuseConference

I am Sooo Excited!

Monday, the second annual Muse Writers Online Conference will begin. It is a week long event packed with many scrumptious workshops and classes. There will be writers at all stages of their careers, from those just beginning to those that have many published works ~ publishers ~ editors ~ all will be there sharing a wealth of information. Attendees are from all over the world: US, Canada, Australia, Greece, Paris, New Zealand, China, England, Taiwan, Africa...and the list goes on.

This is so exciting, and best of all....its free! Writing conferences costs hundreds of dollars, plus travel expenses, hotel costs, food...this is all in the comfort of your own home. This will be my first time attending, but judging from the handouts alone that I have received, this will definitely NOT be the last time I attend! This is going to be awesome! The forum boards are already beginning to buzz with presenters and participants introducing themselves. I can hardly wait!

When I first saw the list of the classes being offered...I felt like a kid in a candy shop. I hardly knew where to begin trying to narrow down the list and selecting the workshops I most wanted to attend. There really is something for everyone here. I finally came up with with my wish list, of nearly 40 classes. There is so much going on here!

I am going to try to keep up with writing in my blog about all the classes and workshops I am taking. It is a really jam-packed week, and the excitement from everyone on the boards is just bursting to begin!