DFW Writer's Conference

This week-end I attended, with my writing buddy Joanne, a writer's conference in Grapevine. See Joanne's blog here. It was a chance to schmooze with other writers, well known authors and agents. Laurie Moore presented a workshop on how to write flowing dialog and had us laughing at her experiences in the police academy. There were many visitors who had not experienced a Texas sized thunderstorm before and I'm sure they were wondering if the building would collapse under the volume of pounding rain and thunderclaps which hit the metroplex with a vengeance over the week-end but no tornadoes developed thank goodness. After two days we were squirming in our seats as parts of our anatomy became numb from sitting in barely padded chairs, but in the last workshop on Sunday we hardly noticed as we listened to Jeff Crilley. You may remember him from Channel 4 news. He has an enthusiasm which is hard to ignore and draws the audience in with his wit and fervor. After 25 years as a reporter and in the news business, he has branched into speaking engagements in connection with his company Real News PR. Jeff provides great ideas for approaching the media with a humorous and down to earth presentation. Check out his book - Free Publicity.

Like a sponge we absorbed information on writing, publishing and marketing and on the way home we chatted about how we can put the ideas into practice. We're fired up to pound the keyboard with stories.