Usually, the moment I get back from a conference, I set to writing
about it, trying to encapsulate the experience, how amazing it was, gushing.
But not this year. I have waited a whole 48 hours because I’ve been busy.
Busy? I was busy before
the conference, making the final tweaks on my portfolio, working with my critique
partner, getting reprinting done when the first batch was a disaster, running
errands, as well as my usual hectic work and life stuff. I was busy for a long
time in preparation, and yesterday was my first full day off in about 4 months.
So perhaps “busy” is not the right word. Since I got back, I have been flowing.
I am deep in
creative flow, in fact. My mind has not stopped firing. I have not stopped
working, researching, learning to use Scrivener, brainstorming, planning, writing,
and I have progressed both in knowledge and inspiration. I feel as if I have
been catapulted forward: by what I learned in workshops, by a nice little bit
of success...
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| Runner-up R.Michelson Galleries Award 2014 |
...but, without any doubt, above all by the energy and warmth I experienced this weekend.
The evening before I left for the conference, I sat waiting
for pick-up pizza and writing in my journal. I was so excited to be going. I
was SO excited to be in that environment again, and to take the step of presenting my
portfolio for the first time (gulp!), and to see all of my friends, most of all.
And I wrote, “Tomorrow, I am going home.” And then I did.
And now I have to wait another year to do it again. I don’t
really have the words right now—it’s a quiet, happy, very replete feeling I
have—so I’ll direct you to the blog of my kid-lit buddy, Ross Cox. He’s already
said what I feel most of all, and he's said it far better than I feel capable of right now…
And besides, I’m itching to go back to my manuscript.
