Monday, April 23, 2018

WRW Retreat

I went to the Washington Romance Writers Retreat - In the Company of Writers - this weekend. I had a wonderful time. Sonali Dev gave a great speech Friday night about how being a chatty child taught her the power of being a storyteller. There was a No Stupid Questions panel about networks and resources for writers. Lani Diane Rich talked about story structure. There was a wonderful YA panel with Mary Strand, Jen Malone, Katy Upperman, and Pintip Dunn. 
I did some volunteering in the afternoon and also participated with the critique workshop. It is possible I won an award for my service running the critique matchup list. Okay, fine, I did. And I appreciate it. 
We did American Author and Katharine Ashe gave a speech about owning her dream to be a romance writer. There was Romance Jeopardy which was heated and terribly unfair. 
Katharine Ashe also talked about habits writers fall into and how to bust them. And Tim Bentler-Jungr returned to wrest final introduction duties back from Mary Strand and Lori Ann Bailey talked about how all her failed dreams led her to romance writing. 
It was a great weekend and as is often the case I didn't get to talk to everyone as much as I wanted but that is kind of the best problem to have.