NEWS AND VIEWS

Vicki's Book News and Articles

SILKEN SANDS CONFERENCE



This weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the 2010 Silken Sands Conference hosted by the Gulf Coast Chapter of RWA where Dianna Love was the kickoff speaker and buddy Karen Rose was the Keynote speaker.

I had the pleasure of traveling, rooming with and doing a critique workshop with dear friend, Kathy Carmichael. We started the workshop in the classic setting but extended it to give input on each submission–on the beach for an additional couple hours. It was fantastic and Rita was a fantastic moderator!

While there were a lot of new faces at the conference, it was such a joy to meet so many of them and to see long-time friends like Ali Cunliffe, Hannah Rowan, Fran McNabb,Ginger Sween, Rebecca Barrett, Joyce Holland and her adorable hubby Tony (who is uber-supportive and always has been) and so many more folks I haven’t seen in a long time. Barbara Vey was there from PW, and her usual charming self.

I ate too much, talked too much and came home worn out but content. I needed time with writers to talk books and craft with people whose eyes don’t glaze over on writing talk. 🙂

I also had the pleasure of meeting Lenora Worth, an inspirational author and fellow member of ACFW. Her daughter spends time with my local writing group, but I didn’t know that Lenora was her mom. That was a treat.

Kathy took photos, bless her heart. I’m going to include them at the end of this post.

Silken Sands hosts a conference every other year. On off years, its sister chapter in Birmingham, Southern Magic, hosts a conference. Laura Hayden, who did a fantastic workshop on subliminal writing and music, is its President.

Here’s a listing of the authors at the signing:

Laura Breck
Diane Burke
Kathy Carmichael
Wendi Christner
Beth Corneilson (I had the pleasure of being seated beside her)
Wendi Darlin
Cynthia Eden
Traci Hall
Laura Hayden (a fellow Noveltalk member)
Vicki Hinze
Vanessa Kelly
Virginia Kelly
Allison Knight
Marianne LaCroix (a fellow ACRA member)
Lisa Lipkind Leibow
Judith Leigh (fellow ACRA member and friend)
Sandy Lender
Dianna Love
Carol Malt
Catherine Mann (a good friend)
Fran McNabb (a good friend)
Joyce Moore
Cheryl Norman (fellow ACRA member & friend)
Loretta C. Rogers
Karen Rose (fellow diva :))
Kelly L. Stone
Paige Tyler
Amber Leigh Williams
Carolyn Williamson
Lenora Worth (fellow ACFW member)