Making a Literary Life Friday: Packing for Conference City

Lucky Lisa. She's packing for her trip to NYC for what promises to be a wonderful learning experience and loads of fun. The rest of us secretly wish we could stow away in her luggage. Take a look at this week's round-up of literary happenings.

Lisa
This week I had wonderful encouragement from Kirby Larson, author of recent Newbery Honor book, Hattie Big Sky - as my middle grade novel visits editors' desks. I also welcomed her tip on not-to-miss outings while in the Big Apple. Still counting... 6 days until SCBWI. Busy packing. Very excited. I'll tell you all about it when I get back!

Amy
I attended a workshop at Grub Street South with author Jamie Cat Callan. Her latest book, Hooking Up or Holding Out was released this month and she let our group be the first to use her soon-to-be released novelty kit The Writer's Toolbox (Chronicle, April 2007). As a longtime writing instructor, Jamie knows all the tricks to connect the right brain to the page. I also spoke with the brilliant writer and Grub Street director, Chris Castellani; the list of authors who will be attending the May conference is astonishing. You won't want to miss the Muse and the Marketplace this year.

Hannah
Edits were the task of the week, with rewarding, large chunks of time between paid work and daily two to three-hour school play dress rehearsals. I sing Be Our Guest as I revise. I'm so close and excited about the changes. I hope this is The Huge Leap Forward, not merely A Huge Leap, but for some reason, it will be fine either way. I also am close to finishing Brazzaville Beach, and William Boyd's earlier books are supposed to be even more stunning. Love that feeling of knowing what to pluck off the library shelves at my next visit.

Lynne
On the non-fiction front, I saw my final cover for Negotiation Generation. I really like it, and I hope to share a preview of it once it's been finalized by the art department. As far as fiction goes, I made some difficult choices regarding revisions to my novel this week. I plan on exploring in richer detail the forces motivating my protagonist. I'm also going to expand a major plot line as it relates to two other main characters--soon to be even more central to the story. I was apprehensive about doing this earlier in the week, but reading and writing about the fear theme this week has bolstered me up. I'm ready to tackle those edits, now, largely due to my trusted readers. Thank you, Tom and the members of The Writers' Group; your reassurance was a huge gift.