Conference Season

With summer fast approaching, it’s starting to get to that time of year when writers begin to ponder the various conferences in their area. Traditional wisdom says you should attend at least one a year. This is a two-fold thing, the education offered in the various workshops and classes as well as the chance to network with other writers (who might become not only contacts and critique partners, but readers as well.)

This year, I passed on attending the Blue Ridge conference that I attended last year. It started this afternoon. My primary reason for missing it is that I’m seriously considering the ACFW conference in September. But I also don’t like the fact that Blue Ridge is a whole week. It means I’m away from my boys (that includes my hubby), and that hubby has to take a week off work to care for the kiddos, which then means we lose out on a week of vacation as a family. The ACFW conference is drivable this year (it’s in Indy – so not close, but only about 9 hours. Blue Ridge was close to 8, so really about the same.) There’s also a conference in Philly (definitely closer) that I’m considering.

And I’m also considering not going to any of them…because even though traditional wisdom says you should go, I have to say there’s an element of traditional wisdom saying Castor Oil is good for you, too. Oh, sure, it’s good for you, no doubt…but it’s not the thing you’d choose for the experience in and of itself.

I have a little time to decide. This is good, not only because it’s going to be a challenging decision, but also because I really do have a pretty big deadline looming on the writing front right now, and I need to deal with that before I worry about much else.