Who are these people, anyway?

Been a hectic few days for me.

First, my best news is getting confirmation that I have a seat in the Dragon*Con Basic Writer's Workshop. I'm still kicking around being part of the Advanced Workshop, but I'm leaning toward a 'no' at this point. My main reason is wanting to be sure that I digest the information from the basic workshop, but I'm also nervous about whether I will click with Ann Crispin. It's nothing personal, but I know sometimes people don't mesh well. Pair up those two with a desire to spend some time enjoying the rest of Dragon*Con and I reach my decision. Now we'll see if that changes with time.

Second, I attended the second meeting (my first) of the Master Mind Group in Cumming. I met Shawn, Cheryl, and Ben there. We were quite an ecclectic collection of aspiring published authors. Or I should say, everyone except Cheryl. She gets the cookie for the most success to date with one sale already published in a Chicken Soup book, and a pending podcast (which in my true form I already forgot who it was sold to.) Cheryl has a blog up that you can check out as well.

Shawn has a webpage and blog that you can check out as well. She has written for quite a while, but, like me, is still searching for the editor who will be blinded by her brilliance. She also is the Municipal Liaison for Scriptfrenzy and NaNoWriMo. Very passionate woman with big dreams for providing support to authors, locally and globally.

Ben wins the rookie award for the meeting. Great guy, he is just getting his feet under him in his writing. He was very refreshing in his candor and openness to suggestions. I hope to see him there again.

I took my camera with intentions of snapping some photos to post, but maybe next time. The small size of the group made the thought of snapping photos seem invasive to me. I'll take the camera next time and we'll see.

On the writing front, my screenplay is up to 14,000 words and climbing. I have five days to hit 20K, but then I have some polishing to do. This is definitely a rough draft. But overall it has been fun.

I also have done some more work on my short story, Jameson Special Op. I got a great piece of advice last night which brought a revelation I was begining to suspect. I have the story starting too soon. I need to change the starting point and that will help with word count, as well as helping with holding reader interest. I hope to get a chance to work on that later today.