WRITE HERE IN EPHRAIM - BIG SUCCESS!

     In spite of serious morning snow, WRITE HERE IN EPHRAIM was amazing! I was too busy to take a pix of the snow actually falling from the sky. (Here is fuzzy me at the registration desk with fuzzy authors Tristi Pinkston and Karen Hoover at my side. Look for more pix on "writehereinephraim.com" later this week.)

 I eventually managed to get outside to capture an image of gray skies.

 

     The snow kept some people away. I know because they sent me sad emails. In spite of that, we broke last year's numbers by about 25%! As people were leaving, the sun broke through the clouds. (I missed the actual sunlight while tearing down tables, but here's the break in the clouds. Imagine warm sunshine spilling down on you.)

     They day truly followed the old March adage, "In like a lion, out like a lamb." Just like a good book, it began with stormy drama and delivered a warm, feel-good ending.
     Surrounded by so much creative energy, I was swimming with ideas at the end of the day, so much so that I wasn't paying attention and tipped my table cart over! (With help from my sister and my son, we fixed it... we got home before dark... all is well!)

     What would I do without my family? What would I do without my author friends? What would I do without you? And where would we all be without stories? Stories are magic, you know. They never wear out.

   I prepared for Write Here in Ephraim by paneling at LTUE in February, and I still get to look forward to the Storymaker Conference in May. Lucky me!

     
This is my panel smile. (I'm the one in the middle...well lookitdat, I'm even tall sitting down! How do you like those green sparkles on my place name? I had some sparkles in my car that accidentally spilled when I got out ... aw, who am I kidding? I put those on there myself, but it's true that finding the sparkles in my car was a happy accident.)
     This panel discussed writing from the POV of the opposite gender. For some reason, I have lots of book ideas starring middle grade boys. (Could that be because I have six sons?)
     I couldn't help wondered about my state of mind until I remembered 70 year old author Alan Bradley who writes from the perspective of an 11-year-old girl sleuth who loves poison in a series that begins with, "The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie." If he can write as an 11-year-old girl, then I can get inside the head of a 13-year-old boy.
     What points of view do you like to write from? Are you yourself? Or some mysterious other person?