I feel like I could sleep for a week.

I didn't go to many workshops this year, mainly because I worked a lot at the conference. I worked the literacy signing and every luncheon, and moderated a workshop so I was a busy girl.

I did get to some publisher spotlights, and the PRO retreat was very interesting with an agent and an editor panel dissecting the first page of several unpublished novels and a one page synopsis of the same novels. The thing I learned from both of those is that CHARACTER MATTERS. Hit the high points of the character's growth arc in the synopsis, that the plot hangs from the character development. Which I knew, but now I KNOW, if you understand the difference.

Jayne Ann Krentz had two items of wisdom (and then a whole speech) - 1. Life is hard enough, don't be stupid, too. 2. Pay attention to your CORE story. (If it's really an historical and you've set it in the future - maybe you should rewrite it as an historical. This was an example from her career, btw.)

Kensington is my dream publisher as is St. Martin's Press, and of course I'd be over the moon to be published by Harlequin/Silhouette so at least I feel like I have more than just one opportunity out there in the business.

And everywhere, we heard the same thing - publishers want fresh voices telling classic stories in a new way. Well, duh.

Debbie Macomber gave us four tools to use on our career journey. Passion (skill, caring, honesty), Patience (balance, insight, emotional strength), Focus (goals), and Strength (emotional fortitude) - not to mention the friendships that will help fill in the empty spots when you can't.

Oh: and a definition of a Romance Novel and Women's Fiction from Jennifer Enderlin at St. Martin's Press: In Romance, the Courtship is central. In Women's Fiction, Courtship is not central. (Gives a lot of latitude, actually.) St. Martin's wants time travel and fantasy as well as just about everything else.

And historicals are NOT dead.
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Now this is what I did:

Ate and drank in moderation, laughed, passed out over 50 business cards, walked around looking confident, met with online friends, gambled (lost a total of $30, not bad), didn't get to bed earlier than midnight all week, woke up at 5:30am all week, helped out, talked with board members, passed encouragement to first timers with appointments, laughed, shrieked with joy when both Von and Maggie won Ritas and my friend GG won a Golden Heart, slept through both flights home and collapsed gratefully into bed last night hours earlier than I usually get to bed.

It was an awesome week and now I have to go write. 'Scuse me!