A New Milestone

by Stephanie Black

Last week I blogged about some writing milestones. On Friday and Saturday of this week, I get to create another writing milestone. I’m going to the LDStorymakers Writers Conference! I’m going to give that statement some more exclamation points !!!!! because I’m very excited !!!!! and did I mention !!!!!!

Okay, I have myself under control now.

Never in my writerly life—starting when I was maybe eight years old and my sister and I wrote that play about fairies, and I was Fairy Winter Snow, and we performed it for our mother and—get this—we even made up some songs to go with the play, which makes it a musical—eat your heart out, Andrew Lloyd Webber--anyway, never have I attended a writers’ conference. The Storymakers Conference sounds like so much fun, and I would have loved to go last year, but it was hard to justify the trip, since I was flying out six weeks later for BYU Women’s Conference. “Next year,” I told myself. And now it’s next year, and—hooray!—I’m going!

This is a rare and special treat for me. Except for booksignings, the last time—okay, the only time—I’ve attended a writing-related event was the Covenant Murder Mystery Dinner back in 2005. That was awesome, and it was fun meeting a bunch of other authors, including Frog Bloggers Kerry Blair, Robison Wells and The-Author-Formerly-Known-as-Jeff Savage. Because I live hundreds of miles from the heart of the LDS market, I don’t often get the chance for actual in-person chatting with other LDS writers. If it weren’t for the internet, I’d have very little association with the writing community, so I’m very grateful for the online association that lets me enjoy frequent contact with other writers, no matter how many hundreds or thousands of miles separate us geographically. It’s kind of strange to realize that so many of the people I “know” via online writers’ groups or e-mail are people I’ve never met in person. And many of them will be at the conference and/or the Whitney gala. I can’t wait to meet them face-to-face! I even get to meet my awesome editor for the first time at the conference, so I’m looking forward to that.

Tomorrow, I’m heading for Utah. Since I missed a flight last year (not fun), I’m terrified at the thought of missing a plane, so a very kind friend is dropping me off at the airport very early. I’d rather sit in the waiting area for ages than be chewing my nails off in a panic if we get stuck in traffic. Writer Jeri Gilchrist generously offered to pick me up at the airport in Salt Lake, and I’ll be staying at her house. I’m excited to be spending time with Jeri, who is one of the nicest people on earth.

So to our Frog Blog readers—if you’re attending the conference or the Whitney gala, please come and say hi to me. I'd love to meet you in person!

Small, bizarre trivia fact: the dress I’m wearing to the Whitney gala matches the cover of Fool Me Twice—red and black. No, that’s not why I bought the dress. I bought it because I wanted a dressy dress for the gala, and it was on super-mega sale. The color-coordination thing was just one of life’s funny little bonuses.