Off To A Special Writer's Conference

Dawn Over The Potomac River

I received the photo above this morning from the husband of the woman who moderates my online writing group. Charlie and Joyce drove from their home in South Carolina to Sterling, VA, just outside Washington, DC to get our group's writing conference ready to go. This is their first morning at Algonkian Regional Park.

A few are arriving today at the regional state park where we hold our conferences. We're in the woods along the Potomac in a dozen nice cabins of various sizes. We're a small group--not like the huge writer's conferences held in major cities in huge hotels. We usually have in the neighborhood of 25 women and maybe 3 husbands who are of great help doing errands and whatever else is asked of them.

We're called Writers and Critters and described as an International Women's Writing Group. Three are coming from Japan, two from Toronto, Ontario Canada, and the rest from various areas of the USA. We have members who cannot attend that live in the USA, Netherlands, Norway, and Australia. Former members from England and Ireland keep in touch, as well.

Most of us will arrive on Thursday, myself included. We'll have an opening dinner that evening in the large sessions cabin. Our cook is an angel in disguise who hails from Mississippi. She is also a computer expert who gives a good session on some computer topic at each conference. She does this for no pay, just out of the goodness of her heart. There will be wine and soft drinks, good food, and nonstop conversation.

On Friday, the sessions begin and go on all day, again on Saturday and Sunday with more good food and conversation every evening. The topics vary at each conference and most are given by members with an occasional outside speaker. I have no doubt that the sessions will be worthwhile as the women presenting are not beginners but published and experienced writers. We should all come home with new knowledge and plenty of inspiration.

I will be traveling on Thursday and returning on the following Monday. The blog post schedule will be a little different than normal during those days. I'll post if and when I'm able to do so. We have Wi-Fi out there in the woods but never sure how reliable it is. In the past, it's been quite good. I've been to several of our other conferences which makes me eager to go again. Twice, however, I've had to cancel. The very first conference we had was in the spring and storms cancelled my connecting flight out of Chicago. I was stranded there for two days with no luggage. Happily, I was able to stay with family who live there but it was too late to go on to the conference. Last year, I had paid for everything, including flight, then ended far too ill to travel so had to cancel once more. Consequently, I'm looking forward to this conference and willing my travel plans to go smoothly.

When I return, I hope to have some good tips and encouragement to pass on to you.