21st Annual Gold Beach Writer's Conference

Now that my children are grown, and Holidays are more about their homes than mine, my favorite holiday has switched and become one I indulge in purely for me.  It is always President's Day weekend, which usually coincides with Valentine's Day, but it isn't because of either of those that I love it.  Valentine's is great, but Ive been with my husband since 1982, and he loves me every day, and he is a music teacher who is often off delivering "Valen-tunes" with his choir students, or like last year, traveling to a music festival with them.

So, No.  I love this weekend because it is about WRITING.  Just an hour north of my home is a lovely, but very tiny town nestled right on the beach, and they host the South Coast Writer's Conference and have for 21 years now.

Sometimes the beach is very different from year to year, storms move the sand and logs a lot, but it is beautiful under the sun or in a storm.  This year, I got lucky.  Just outside my motel room, a mere block from the fairgrounds where the conference began, was a deliciously warm beach filled with drifts of seafoam.

and this year, I had just published the third book in my Duffy Barkley series only 9 days before, so I had a lot to share at the conference.  There is the coolest bookstore there in town too, huge and friendly and besides books, filled with local art and a yummy bakery.

http://www.amazon.com/Dixie-Dawn-Miller-Goode/e/B004458ES2/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1456952437&sr=1-2-ent

Peter Brown Hoffmeister, author of The Intentional Art of Failure

https://peterbrownhoffmeister.wordpress.com

 The Friday offers longer, more in depth classes and then an evening with a keynote speaker and shorter speeches from all the presenters.  Saturday gives us two classes in the morning, two more in the evening, then book sales, and finally a writer's critique circle.  I was lucky enough to get to meet some people in person from a facebook writers group based 90 miles south of me. Previously I had only interacted with them on-line.

Anne Osterlund presenting "Sweat The Small Stuff"

http://www.amazon.com/Anne-Osterlund/e/B001JRRLW8/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1456952892&sr=1-1

Anne says, "92% of submissions are full of grammar and spelling mistakes - so if you are not doing that you are already in the top 8%."

it was fun to see that the pile of my books for sale at the bookstore was a lot smaller than the last time I dropped in.

Heidi Schulz, author of Hook's Revenge

 http://www.amazon.com/Heidi-Schulz/e/B00IHRY05O/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1456952574&sr=1-1

 Heidi write middle grade humor and has a really good sense of her audience and a word of caution.  "Surprise and an exchange of power are the keys to humor. Be careful of the kind of humor that takes power from the powerless.  It can be an act of bravery to not laugh when everyone else is."  Punch up, not at those smaller than you.  Humor ca engender sympathy. We laugh with Groot and Rocket and then later we care about them.  Her best piece of writing advice, "be brave."

thinking back at all the solid advice I got, the simplest, easiest stuff was the best to remember.

Jason Brick said, "The jerk trying to force you to buy a used car is not a salesman. Being so loudly geeky about something you love that you make other people love it too.  That's sales."  

My friend and fellow author R. R. Virdi is a master , plus I honestly love his book, Grave Beginnings.

http://www.amazon.com/R.R-Virdi/e/B00J9PZ1YW/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1456952822&sr=1-1

Jason also had concrete sales advice, "have facebook and 1 more social media place you interact.  3 times a day, share something awesome and share somebody else, because nobody cares about you but they start caring about you when you start talking about them. Then comment intelligently or at least hilariously on at least one thread, ask a question or pick a fight.  Post at least 21 times a week, but only mention a blog post and your book 1 time each week, unless you are doing a special promo."

http://www.amazon.com/Jason-Brick/e/B00H4INFBM/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1456952635&sr=1-2-ent

December 2010

I grew up with White Septembers and an Occasional June snowstorm and even trips to the snow up on the Beartooth Mountains on the 4th of July

 but where I live now, Christmas is green grass and red maple leaves.

It is no less festive

 and yet, there are times when I miss the need to stay indoors, bundled into the living room, huddled around a board game with my family as school is cancelled and hot chocolate is simmered.

There are very few times that we have had snow at the high 25 foot elevation of my Redwood coast home.

But we have a tradition of visiting loved ones over the school break, and that nearly always includes visiting snow as well.

 The Mountains around Ashland, Oregon are where we found it this year.

and what could be more in keeping with the holiday that the acres of oak trees wearing their mistletoe kissing balls?

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with our friends who are as close as family, in their warm, sunny home in Ashland, OR

but our own Christmas Tree was there to welcome us home afterward.

Then as New Year neared we headed up the Oregon Coast to Visit Uncle Wince, (a nickname from being the wrestling partner of choice when the boys were tiny)

We stopped in Old Town Bandon, OR to buy fudge and walk on the pier.  We have often dropped our crab pots there, but this time the ice chest was already filled with Dungeness crab

 and the goal of the day was to visit the state park, close to Coos Bay, at the Old Simpson estates known as "Shore Acres" in Charleston, OR

The surf there constantly pounds the cliffs and carves surreal shapes in the sandstone

even the trees are sculpted by the wind and weather

both mansions burned but the gardener's cottage remains, and the three gardens are decorated with thousands of lights each winter.

 The oriental garden is my favorite as it reminds me of my days as an exchange student in China.

 Inside the cottage, Santa was discovered bathing on his cap, amid a pool of bubble wrap.

 Up into Salem to the Uncle's house, we took a walk and saw this Dr. Seuss style tree in a yard near-by!

 and shared our third Tree of the Holiday season.

and watched the sunset from Uncle Wince's window

and found this charming scene across the street from the cemetery

 We had such a lovely Christmas break, that even the rest area we usually stop at, had been made beautiful by the arrival of snow.

In my Novel, Duff Barkley hates being at his Aunt's house for Christmas, and is frightened to stumble out of her attic and into a strange world, but in my beautiful world, being welcomed into the home of uncle's and friends, added a magic to the season and gave me memories of love and laughter to carry on into "the bleak mid-winter."