SCWW Archives - Susan M. Boyer

South Carolina Writers’ Workshop Conference

October 26, 2009 in Conferences, SCWW, Thoughts on Books Read

The voices in my head are singing The World Spins Madly On by The Weepies.

What I’m reading: Even by Andrew Grant

Warning: Do not start reading this book if you have no choice but to put it down and go to work, feed your kids, or head to your mani-pedi appointment. David Trevellyan will haunt you until you pick the book back up. It’s that good.

I just got back last night from the SCWW conference in Myrtle Beach. (I haven’t even blogged on Bouchercon yet, which was fabulous–more on that later. I know, I’m behind again!)

I arrived in Myrtle Beach on Thursday so I could stare at the ocean and sip mango daiquiris for a day. (My own brand of therapy.) This was a perfect beginning to the weekend.

The conference was awesome. For the first time in three years, I was able to attend without worrying about whether the AV was right in the meeting rooms, all the faculty flights were on time, the critique room stayed on schedule, etc. (As most of you know, I was the conference chairperson in 2007 and 2008. I learned a ton, and had a ball doing it, but it ate into my writing time too much.) Kudos to Carrie McCullough and Lateia Sandifer, this year’s chair and co-chair!

I can’t begin to cover conference highlights, because there were so many. Every workshop I attended was time well invested. But faculty introductions were a riot…

While the rest of the faculty lined up and took their turn at the mic for introductions, Janet Reid watched from her table sipping something cold. Maybe the second agent at the mic asked, “Why doesn’t Janet have to do this?”

The next agent in line introduced himself as Janet Reid. I think that was Jeff Kleinman. That was followed by a series of, “I am Janet Reid…no, I am Janet Reid” introductions–all in good fun.

Then there was the three-way introduction routine that Jenny Bent, Barbara Poelle, and Holly Root performed with flair, followed by the real Janet Reid taking the stage.

As you can tell, we had an awesome faculty and a lot of fun. The keynote speaker, Steve Berry could not have been more gracious, approachable, and encouraging.

Every faculty member (around thirty of them in all) went out of his/her way to encourage writers in all phases of their writing journeys.

I’m home today–first time in a month. I’m digging through laundry and notes from two conferences, but, yes, Julie, I will be on the dance floor at 5:40.

Peace, out…

Susan

New Year’s Revolution

March 23, 2007 in Uncategorized

Okay, yes, I know I haven’t posted on this blog since November 1. But I have many, many reasons. Not excuses…reasons. Here are the top ten:

10. I was kidnapped by aliens–not the beautiful-but-flat-chested, Jazzercising kind, but honest to dog aliens–and their Internet does not support inter-planetary communication.
9. One of my multiple personalities, Starla, was in charge, and she refuses to use a computer because she believes that they emit radiation that causes a vitamin K deficiency, wrinkles, and the impulse to ballet dance down Main Street wearing a hat with fruit and combat fatigues, while twirling fire batons and singing Hello Dolly.
8. I’ve been on a Top Secret mission for Homeland Security.
7. My dog ate my laptop.
6. I’ve spent every spare moment exercising.
5. I’ve eaten so little that I was too light-headed to type.
4. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and multiple family birthdays in rapid succession.
3. We finally sold our house, and downsized to a condo 1/3 the size and it is quite time consuming to rid yourself of 2/3 of your belongings, but you can only fit so much stuff into 1,400 square feet.
2. I’m in a funk because of the move I thought I wanted to a downtown condo, walking distance to everything, including all my favorite restaurants and the Starbucks where Renee Zellweger was hanging out until The Greenville News chased her off–and the hotel where George Clooney is staying during location filming for Leatherheads. Not that I’m a star-stalker–I mean, I’m sure they’re very nice people, but honestly, I get no thrill out of close encounters with celeberties.
1. I’m this year’s chairperson for the South Carolina Writers Workshop Conference, and while this is a volunteer position, it is taking more of my time than any fulltime job I have ever had in my entire life–not that I’m complaining–au contraire–most days it’s a blast.

Okay, those last four were for real.

Coming Up For Air

October 23, 2006 in Uncategorized

Hey y’all. Sorry it’s been a while. I’m still writing, still VOLUPTUOUS, and still trying to grow in the former area and shrink in the latter. But things have been hectic lately. I’m a volunteer for the South Carolina Writer’s Workshop, and we just had our annual conference this weekend in Myrtle Beach. Actually, to be accurate, I’m on the board of directors, and this year, my assigned task was door prizes and auction items.

Now, if you think about it–and I have, trust me, given this a great deal of thought–it is moronic to sell things to raise money to help support the organization while simultaneously giving stuff away. But we do it. Every year. And by golly, if I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it right. So this year we gave away a ton of stuff. And we sold a ton of stuff. And I’m exhausted.

Writer’s conferences are a fantastic way to invest in your development as a writer. I’ve been to a few over the last several years, and it’s incredible how much you soak up, especially from the social events. Just being around a bunch of literary types gets your creative engine all revved up. And it’s amazing how generous successful authors, editors and agents are when dealing with crowds of writers who just have one quick question that takes 20 minutes.

Anyway, the conference was a success, and this week I’m traveling with Jim. We’re in some corner of Alabama that I was previously unfamiliar with, about an hour outside of Birmingham. I plan to catch up on sleep, writing, and reading.

I’ll catch up on Jazzercise next week. Hopefully I’ll still be able to fit in my clothes by then. I’ve been stress eating a lot. Yeah, I know, Diane…There’s no way I’ll catch up now.

But we had a lot of door prizes.

Peace, out…

Wow, Where Did That Week Go?

March 4, 2006 in Uncategorized

It’s Friday already again. I feel like somebody stole a week from me. I didn’t get everything done that I needed to…I want an extension!! I made it to Jazzercise three times this week and did not pass out a single time, although I thought I had for a minute in Wendy’s class yesterday. Why is it that when an instructor is trying to loose weight, (Wendy had a baby a while back) we all suffer for it? That girl was in turbo drive. She worked us like marine recruits. She sure looks good, though. I asked her what she’s been doing, and she told me the name of some program she’s doing that’s like Weight Watchers, but with a Bible study. Now, I don’t know about y’all, but I think there’s something basically wrong about getting weighed at church. I’m already confessing my sins, putting me up on the scales to document them is just going to send me into some sort of traumatic episode that will no doubt lead to stress eating. I think I’m just going to pray before I get on the scales at home, and hope for the best.
I had two writer’s group meeting this week. Monday night was the Christian Writer’s Group. We had a small group, but a lot of good discussion. I took the second scene in the new novel I’m working on. I can’t talk about that one yet. Something in my circuitry gets fouled up when I talk about something before I write it. It’s like all the life goes out of it. Last night was our first Thursday meeting of the SCWW (South Carolina Writers Workshop) Greenville chapter. There were sixteen people there, and ten readers, which is a lot. I read the latest version of the first chapter of my novel, Lowcountry Boil. It went pretty well, I think. I don’t know what I’d do without all those extra sets of eyes. It’s amazing to me how many times I can read the same sentence and not realize I’ve left out a word. Overall, it was a good week for writing. There were a couple of days I didn’t get my four hours in, but there were also a couple that I wrote for seven or eight. The blogging thing is off to a slower start than I’d hoped. I think for the accountability thing to work, I’ve got to do it more than once a week!! In the immortal words of Scarlett, tomorrow is another day!!