Workshop

I am psyched! I attended the Writer's Today workshop at Birmingham on Friday and Saturday where I met Gay Talese, and a bunch of other great authors. There were agents and professionals from the online publishing industry. I took a notebook full notes and I'm in the process of digesting, organizing and journalizing the information so that I can keep it fresh in my mind.
One of the most delightful authors I met was Watt Key who is also an Alabama writer. He has been writing for years. In fact he has written nine novels but his first book, Alabama Moon was just published and he was on cloud nine. He got a three book deal with an option on his fourth. He didn't say how much the deal was for, but he was smiling. He spent a great deal of time talking about the specific things he did to get a New York agent.
After listening to a New York agent yesterday, I was disheartened but Watt gave us all hope. He said that he could wallpaper his room with rejection slips, but he was relentless. He believed in what he was doing and he learned everything he could about writing query letters, packaging, research and persistence.
Watt said that he was not that good a student and he struggled with English/grammar but he loved to tell stories and he never gave up. I left that session with a smile on my face.
I have not written a novel yet but it is something I have dreamed of for a long time and I know now that it will happen.