Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

I am back.

When I walked in the door, it was wonderful to be back in the cacophony of my everyday life. The first day back I totally "vegged." Sure, there was 10 loads of laundry waiting for me, YW's responsibilities, 235 emails and the entire house looked like it had been turned upside down and shaken, but I just laid back and played with the children. It was great. We caught up on American Idol, House and played Wii. Then I took my daughter to track practice (which had been cancelled) so we went to Subway and shared a $5 sub while chatting about life in general.

My husband was a little disappointed that more wasn't accomplished but I loved being HOME! Today I'm back at it. I already had YW Presidency Meeting, sorted through stacks of papers and mail, prepared two meals and once I finish, plan doing a room by room pick up and then taking the boys out to play hoops. Tomorrow we are going to the zoo, IMAX and are ending the day with bowling with extended family.

But at the back of my mind looms the memories of the LDS Storymaker's conference. To be honest, it wasn't at all what I expected and has left me in a sullen mood. It was very well planned and I enjoyed boot camp thoroughly. It gave us each an opportunity to share the work we had done and critique it with a group of our peers. That was useful. I also loved James Dashner and Jeff Savage- they are very funny. Jessica Day George was an absolute crack-up. I loved her wonderful attitude about life and that she is not going to "hell" (had to be there.)

Many of the classes were very helpful. I especially liked Mr. Gordon Ryan who spoke about his characters with such emotion but I learned something that we VERY depressing. Brandon Sanderson and Jessica Day George both spoke about the many writers conferences they attended in order to find their agents and finally get accepted in the national market. Janet Rallison also mentioned the importance of using your time productively. I guess what I learned most of all from Annette Lyon, Josi Kilpack and Heather Moore, among others is that the only way to be successful is to seriously work at it for hours and not just the writing part either. There is editting and editting and editting, marketing, publicity and anything you can think of to increase readership. Writing is a lot of hard work! .

I began writing as my escape from hard work, but now that my foot is through the door, I'm not only committed but a little addicted to my current and future projects. So, I guess I better just roll up my sleeves and dive in.

Ugh.