That time again, need some inspiration

Since I made the resolution to "write" (I really mean air quotes there as though to say my writing isn't really "writing" in the literary sense but more like fits and starts of beginnery flailing. I hope that gets better some day soon.) more, I've been attending writing conferences. Yes, they make such a thing. I'm coming to understand that few fabulous writers spring up all alone. They are made with trial and failure, painstaking revision, and good editors.

If you've been around a while, you probably remember the first time I won a contest. It's amazing to me every time it happens, even though I am determined to give up forever if I don't win. That's a pretty rocky place to be.

This was the conference where I won awards that convinced me that maybe there might be some day a little bit of tiny hope that I might be a writer (no air quotes). That year the guest was poet Layne Longfellow. Then last year it was a professor/comic book editor/newspaper editor. This year, it's Jane Friedman. She was the editor for Writer's Digest, one of the magazines for writers I peruse often. Yes, they make such a thing. (My family appears a little stumped when I mention things like conferences and magazines for writers...they exist. I enjoy them. I am weird again. It's okay. I asked for a knitting magazine once and got the same reaction so I'm really not alone.)

I visited her site to find out more about her. She started at F+W as a crafty editor. She links to her first project here. The title: Quaint Birdhouses You Can Paint and Decorate

For some reason, I find that encouraging.
I thought I might skip this conference this year, since it's the same month as the big one that I am currently registered for but will skitter out of given half a real reason. Now I'm going to the Arkansas Writers' Conference. So you know what that means? Gotta get some contest entries going...