It’s a surprisingly cool morning here at my house for this time of year. I’m just praying the temperate conditions hold out until Saturday for my daughter’s wedding. As life is about to get pretty crazy for about 48 hours, I thought I’d take a few minutes and talk about the West Virginia Writers Spring Conference, which I attended last weekend.

First, a smattering of background. My only previous trip to this conference was seven years ago. The only reason I know it was exactly seven years is that it popped up on my Facebook memories. Seven years ago, my life was completely different than it is now. I didn’t know at the time I was, in a few short months, going to meet the woman who would turn my life around in every good way and whose daughter would become my daughter as well. It’s funny how something as joyous as falling in love with and marrying the woman who makes your dreams seem paltry can bring your writing life to a grinding halt. That’s in no way a complaint. I would gladly trade those years of not writing again for the blessings that meeting my beautiful Sarah has brought to me, not to mention the sheer joy of becoming a dad for the first time at a time when I felt sure that hope had flickered out.

But Lauren is off at college now, about to be married, and I’m recently retired from full-time teaching, so, while my life with Sarah is just as full of wedded bliss as it was on our wedding day, I find myself with enough time on my hands to actually write, as well as do some of those other things that authors need to do, like keep a blog, build an online presence, and, yes, attend writing conferences. And that, I’m happy to say, I just did last weekend at Cedar Lakes Conference Center in Ripley.

I arrived on Friday morning and was immediately taken by the homey, comfortable atmosphere. Literally everyone was friendly and welcoming. The officers of West Virginia Writers, who were busy keeping the program moving smoothly, never failed to stop and talk with anyone who came along with a question or concern or who just wanted to visit and get to know them. And the same could be said for all the attendees, too. Folks who’d attended the conference many times before went out of their way to help those of us who were new, or in my case, newish. Smiles and handshakes and hugs were in plenteous supply. I want to give a special shoutout to Randy Underwood, who sat with me at the opening and attended several of the same workshops as I did. He even kindly allowed me to sit with him and his friends at the banquet.

As for the workshops, not one fell short. I went into the weekend with the intent of attending as many sessions as I could on para-writing topics, such as publishing and marketing. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe the writing sessions would be of value. It was that the pressing need in my mind right now is how to get my work out to press and into the hands of readers. And I have to say I went to the conference with one idea of how that would happen and left with a completely different plan. As someone who has self-published several books and who doesn’t absolutely need the income that selling books could generate, I was certain my plan was to get an agent and try for a deal with one of the larger publishing houses. But I learned (or was reminded of) a few things over the course of the weekend. First, it was made clear several times that indie publishing is not as stigmatized as it was when I started. Second, the chances of getting an agent and contract with a large house are so low as to be approaching statistically meaningless, and even if I do get that contract, the amount of support I’m likely to get from the publisher is minimal, meaning marketing would still be in my hands if I want to actually sell books. Finally, the publishing landscape has changed enough in the seven years since I was active that there is a viable middle ground between fully traditional and fully independent publishing. I want to thank my workshop leaders Renee Nicholson, Cat Pleska, Kara Starcher, Val Nieman, Heather Day Gilbert, Lee Martin, Laura Jackson, and Lynne Squires for putting together such quality presentations. I didn’t leave a single presentation where I didn’t feel like I’d learned and grown as a writer and a person.

I already have next year’s conference on my calendar. And this time, I’m not commuting so I can get the full on-campus experience. Additionally, I plan to become a contributing member of this writing tribe. Toward that end, I gratefully accepted the chance to serve as the regional representative for region 7, which covers the following counties: Jackson, Mason, Wood, Pleasants, Ritchie, and Wirt. So, if you’re a writer from any of those counties, please feel free to get in touch with me. I’m open to ideas for promoting writing and writers in our area and I want to support you in any way I can.