Saturday, February 20, 2010

Writing Conferences

Four days at the San Francisco Writers Conference left me with a need to process all the information for the next few days. But by Friday, I was back to revising my novel, Hada, incorporating as much as I could from what I had learned.

Highlights for me this year were workshops given by Ransom Stephens, Donald Maass, and Penny Warner. Ransom has a new book out, The God Patent, and Penny's new one is How To Host a Killer Party. I'm looking forward to reading both after the Ann Patchett marathon I've been on.

All of Patchett's books give the readers a new setting, new characters, and a new story that one thinks can't possibly be better than the last one. Again and again, she never disappoints. After Bel Canto, Run, and The Magician's Assistant, now I'm in the middle of her first novel, The Patron Saint of Liars. Then I'll come to the last one left to read, Taft. I'll miss her writing style, but I'm happy I have Ransom's and Penny's books to take me to their worlds.

The best decision I made in 2009 was to allow an hour or two a day to read fiction. When someone said writers need to read, they were absolutely right.

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