The ABCs of A Writing Community

In light of the gathering writing community this week at ACFW!! An oldie but goodie!!

Pepper here.

I've always been impressed with the way the Christian writing community pulls together. I remember a conversation the Alleycats had at one of our get-togethers about what a unique group of individuals Christian writers are. In a highly competitive profession, where a large group of writers are trying to get their story in with a small number (and growing smaller) of publishing houses, we'd expect less friendliness and community and more isolationism and suspicion.

But no.

My experience has been one of the support, encouragement, and celebration.

In fact, Dawn Crandall (a writer I've never met) started reading my book two weeks ago and has not only given me GREAT pointers for publicity, she's also hooked me up with her entire Street Team of early readers! I'm serious. I received 30 FB messages in one day offering to be an influencer for my May debut.

CRAZY! AWESOME!

And endorsers? Laura Frantz and Julie Lessman were quick to agree - even though I KNOW both of them are enormously busy. Julie Klassen gave me some tips. Carrie Turansky encouraged. And all along the way people have come alongside me (as I'm wading through this new pool of 'publication') to help.

So - what do you do to build your writing community?

Let's get to the basics. A, B, C.

Appreciation and Attend - I didn't start out with a writing community. The Writer's Alley was a grasp for community between a few newbies (Sherrinda, Casey, Krista, Mary, and me) But along the way, I began to come upon new contacts too - by showing appreciation and attending other blogs.

It's sad how many people show appreciation nowadays - and the simple act can make the best impressions. I think that's one of the reasons God talks about an attitude of Thanksgiving in the Bible so much. A thankful heart is attractive and welcoming.

Ruth Logan Herne once told me that 1/2 of the battle is 'showing up'. That's how you build community too. BEING somewhere! Seekerville was one of the first places I visited because of  author Mary Connealy's recommendation. (I'd written her an email to show my appreciation for her book, Petticoat Ranch) - the appreciation led to my attendance at Seekerville! And eventually to creating a daughter blog, the Writer's Alley.


Build and Bring - These two go hand-n-hand and carry the same connation as the movie Field of Dreams. "If you build it, they will come" - Well, building something worth reading is a key ingredient to growing a writing community. Whether it is your novel, short story, or blog, make it worthwhile and (I cringe here because I'm so bad at this) consistent. I've recently revamped my blog to make it a more consistent offering - something I can actually DO! 2 days a week.
So build something worth reading and it will bring the readers and community!

Collaborate and Cooperate - this is where we give back! Promoting and encouraging other writers or readers on the journey helps create a sense of community. It's a give and take relationship! It may mean something as simple as sharing their FB status to promote their book. Letting them know you're praying for them. Offering to be an influencer or endorser, or being willing to host them on your blog.

Cheering as a team is so much more fun than cheering alone.

So - what are some ways you build your Writing Community? What would you add to my list? Let's work together here ;-)
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Pepper D Basham has been telling tales ever since she was a little girl. When her grandmother called her a “writer” at the age of ten, Pepper took it as gospel and has enjoyed various types of writing styles ever since. A native of the Blue Ridge Mountains, mom of five, speech-language pathologist, and lover of chocolate, Pepper enjoys sprinkling her native Appalachian culture into her fiction wherever she can. She currently resides in the lovely mountains of Asheville, NC, where she works with kids with special needs, searches for unique hats, and plots new ways to annoy her wonderful friends at The Writer’s Alley. She is represented by Julie Gwinn and debuts her first novel, The Thorn Bearer, on May 7th 2015.

www.pepperdbasham.com

Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Create a Blogging Tribe by Tina Radcliffe

Where Everybody Knows Your Name: Creating a Blogging Tribe

By Tina Russo Radcliffe

How many blogs are there? These statistics are from Snitchim.com

Tumblr.com shows it has over 101.7 Million blogs with 44.6 Billion blog posts

WordPress.com has over 63 Million blogs

Livejournal reports to have 62.6 million blogs with

Weebly states it has over 12 million blogs

Blogster has over 582,754 blogs

How do you rate a blog? By the number of followers? Subscribers? Commenters?

In my opinion, a blog should be evaluated by how well the blog is doing the job it was created to do.

Seekerville, a blog of 13 authors began in 2007. The blog was an offshoot of a Yahoo group we formed to actually pray and help each other into publication. The members were all inspirational romance contest entrants who knew of each other because of our virtual meets through contests. Most of us had never met in real time.

How did a group of strangers build a strong blogging community? Of course it’s a God thing. But good business principles played into our community as well. From our Yahoo group came the strong desire to give back.

"No Marine Left Behind – A mantra that speaks to teamwork, loyalty and brotherhood that exists between Marines.” Our philosophy is similar, in the context of writers. We add an additional facet of reaching readers in a very real way. This is our underlying philosophy.  

But how do you create a successful blog? Joe Friedlander provides the best post I know of on this topic. No need to reinvent great content. I agree with everything he says!

9 Lessons from A-List Bloggers

1. Produce evergreen content.

2. Write with a plan.

3. Build community.

4. Foster interaction.

5. Build a list.

6. Give readers a path to follow.

7. Build traffic with guest blogging.

8. Write what’s right.

9. Provide practical help.

To this I would add that baring deadlines, natural disasters, internet fail and out of office days, we expect everyone to show up (the 13 Seekers), and we expect all posts to go up at midnight. Consistency counts.

Behind closed doors Seekerville is like an orchestra. I am the unofficial conductor. To be clear, I help direct the many instruments of Seekerville. But there is no Seekerville without each and every instrument. Over the years we have divided up the responsibilities among us, and this makes the blog run smoothly.

We have also learned something about the dynamics of our blog and its role and responsibility. Some lessons were learned the hard way, through stumbles. Here are some of our unwritten rules and rules written in our guest blogging guidelines that steer our daily operations:

1. We aren’t about controversy.

2. We know our target audience and direct our posts to that audience.

3. We rarely do interviews and we don’t do book reviews.

4. Our posts do not proselytize but we aren’t afraid to share our beliefs.

5. Our post content covers these areas: inspirational and encouraging or educational.

6. We are not about blatant self-promotion.

Personally, I think of Seekerville as Seth Godin’s, Tribes meets Ree Drummond’s, The Pioneer Woman. We are building a tribe, yes, but it’s in our kitchen, with coffee, snacks and a welcome to our house attitude. Why does it work? Because we sincerely believe in it.

These are two of the many features of Tribes that we utilize. (This pdf of Tribes Q &A can help you understand Godin’s book.)

Transparency. Another factor that creates our sense of community. There is no distance between us and our community. There is no outside looking in aspect. We are not experts doling out opinions. There are no levels of hierarchy. Additionally, we are real, and we share our triumphs and failures.

Tribal Pulse Taking. We do watch our stats and comments to evaluate which posts and speakers are impacting our community. We also take a yearly survey to determine what our community wants and needs.

From The Pioneer Woman we have borrowed the down-home, come to dinner quality we have in Seekerville.

Our mental image is a visitor walking into our house. You become our family. What’s the natural response to family? We greet you by name, we chat with you one-on-one. We commiserate when you have problems. We cheer your successes and we create opportunities for you to succeed. Finally, we provide a safe place for you to share.

Every good hostess has the responsibility to not only feed her guests, with good blog content and a welcome smile, but to send them home with something. This is why we do our very successful giveaways. They aren’t required of us or our guests. We also provide giveaways as a way to say thank you.

Another unique feature of Seekerville is that we often have several conversations going on in the comments. Most are directed for our host blogger in the form of questions and answers. But, a day in Seekerville means we share news and greet new faces.

Have you ever been a blog guest and no one shows up? Lonely isn’t it? That’s not Seekerville. We believe that if you are a guest, the Seeker who hosted you is responsible to ensure your visit is successful. We do the PR for your visit, and we stay and support you and encourage interaction.

Our successful tribe building is based on word-of-mouth. While we have begun to advertise, 90% of our new traffic is from word-of-mouth. I believe consistency, useful content, along with staying true to our core philosophy is responsible for our success.  

I hope I’ve been able to share Seekerville in a way that encourages you to stop by. Go ahead and feel free to hum the Cheers song as you mosey on over, we’ll save you a seat and a cup of coffee.

Thanks to the Alleycats for having me today.

I look forward to your questions about forming your own tribe. And because I like to bring gifts for my hostess and her friends, today I am giving away a Tina Russo or Tina Radcliffe ebook of choice- one for my hostess, Julia Reffner and one for a commenter. International winners welcome.

Tina Radcliffe writes Inspirational romance for Harlequin Love Inspired and romantic comedy as Tina Russo.

Her next release, a novella, The Christmas Angel is available now.

The Love of Writing Friends

Around this time two years ago, I was writing alone. Writing alone and timidly stepping into the blogging world by visiting Seekerville and the wild and crazy women there. That is where I met my friend Pepper Basham. She was also writing alone and not so timidly stalking the Seekerville gals.
(Pepper here: Yes, I'm a stalker...and I was LONELY)
Yes indeed, she was lonely. Or so she told me when she emailed me. I couldn't find her original email, but here is one of early emails from her....should I have been afraid?

A touch of insanity goes a long way---that's all I'll say.
Oh, it's so good to find a similar soul. Bless God.
Not that your insane, I'll let you make that admission on your own ;-)....Pepper

Hhhhmmm, a friend who thinks I'm insane. I love her!!!!!!!!!!! 

(Pepper here: The above statement is still very true. Kindred spirits are allowed to be as crazy as they like, you know)

I love how God puts two souls together who have similar backgrounds (we are both minister's wives) and who both love to write romance (well, Pepper loves to write in ALL genres....she is very well-rounded)

(Pepper here: I'm really not going to make a comment about how physically accurate that last statement is...sigh) Ahem, Pep, we won't go there, because I prefer to say that we are just well-rounded...it sounds much better.

Anyway, we began emailing in 2009 and in March of 2010 Pepper thought it be would fun to start a group blog. So we started recruiting people we had met through the writing blogosphere and found a great group of women to join us at what we called The Writer's Alley. We started out with five awesome ladies: Pepper Basham, Casey Herringshaw, Mary Vee,  Krista Phillips, and ME. 

(Pepper here: because we're so well-rounded -except Casey, who is skinny as a rail, a country rail.:-)

Now we are ten women who love God and LOVE to write. 

For almost three years now God has developed as sense of family in this group we call  The Writer's Alley. Though some have left, God has always provided a perfect fit with a new sister to our family. Not only do we benefit from the encouragement from each other, we have the opportunity to encourage others along the way. (This was all Pepper here. Dictator!) (Literally) :) 

We have had some great things to celebrate! Krista is now a published author with her book, Sandwich, With a Side of Romance. And five of our gals are now agented!  (See the side bar for the list!) We've gotten many contest finals and semi-finals, as well as numerous rejections, but I'm sure there will more to celebrate in the coming months and years. We've got some mad talent in this group of writers, and it all started with two scheming brainstorming blog buddies!

As we come up on our third year anniversary at The Writer's Alley, we would like to hear from you! What new topics would you like to see at The Alley? What old things have we done well? Let us know your thoughts! We want to keep providing great content for YOU!

***This post is brought to you by Sherrinda Ketchersid & Pepper Basham, written on the couch at Sherrinda's home in Fort Worth, Texas. 

Conference Networking! It's ALL about People

I LOVE meeting people.

That’s why when I attended my very first ACFW, I went with one overarching goal – meet the fabulous ladies of Seekerville. (Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE the Seekers!

Poor Mary Connealy put up with my stalking her.  Audra Harders took me under her wing and prayed with me.  Missy Tippens southern sweetness shone through in her encouragement and guidance.

And Julie Lessman? She always had a flock of people following her bubbly personality around. It was amazing!

Last year, my goal was to meet my fellow ALLEY CATS!! Can I just say it was REMARKABLE!

Casey Herringshaw and Mary Vee had to put up with my snoring, Angie Dicken got to show off her sweet smile (and even sweeter baby girl), and God worked his beautiful divine appointments in bringing Ashley Clark and Karen Schravemade into my life in the most unexpected ways.

Who else? I finally got to love on my Writing Mama, Ruth Logan Herne, and meet my 'twin' Carol Moncado :-)

It was AMAZING!

Why am I telling you all this?

Perspective!

I know, there are wonderful editors to be wooed and talented agents to impress, and those two sets of individuals were on my list too – but first and foremost I wanted to meet people who had inspired my writing (and my life) for the previous three years.

And I wasn’t disappointed. It was a blessing straight from God.

1. Because they really are as wonderful as they seem online
2. They will be continual encouragers of my life and future supporters of my writing.

So, why is it important to get other people involved in the publication process?

Let’s face the hard truth. Very few people break into the world of fiction on their own. Dan Walsh is an extreme exception with his quick and easy path to publication, but for the rest of us it truly ‘takes a village’.

A village of highly trained or somewhat zealous individuals. J

Networking is the best way to create your ‘village’. And networking at Writer’s Conferences is vital to the unpubbed (and published) author.

Check out this quote from http://www.right-writing.com/networking.html

“One editor said that if she had two manuscripts, equally good and both publishable," said author and conference teacher Jack Cavanaugh, "one having been mailed in, the other picked up at a writers' conference where she met the author, she'd publish the conference author over the person she hadn't met." Why? "Because after making gut decisions, publishers invest upwards of $30,000 on the project before it ever hits the bookstore."

Basically, taking the risk and sacrifice of time and money speaks volumes to these people. They may see you as a more ‘serious’ writer when you’ve forked out $1200 to attend a writer’s conference and prepare for it.

I enjoy the networking just for the mutual encouragement- that’s my favorite part. In my ‘real’ world, my husband and kids can get glazed expressions when I go into writer-speak. But at conferences, especially Christian conferences, I find kindred spirits. People who talk to imaginary friends, dream up crazy worlds, and google-search for weird things like various poisons, other words for ‘smile, the body language of a liar, and ‘how long can a person survive in a sinking car’.

So, what are some basic Networking tips?

1. Come prepared

a. Intro and pitch- practice your personal introduction and then your pitch. Personal Introduction: “Hi, my name is Pepper Basham and I write different types of fiction, like historical & contemporary romance, speculative, and YA fantasy. How about you?”

You’ll get more on the ‘pitch’ writing later in our Writers Alley series , so stay tunedJ

b. One sheets – Next Monday Angie is giving a GREAT post on writing One Sheets. More than just your pitching tool, this is a great way to help calm your nerves as you pitch. It’s like your ‘cheat sheet’ J

c. Business cards – a visual source for networking. Don’t leave home without it.

d. People wishlist – Have a goal. Who do you want to meet? My top goal AGAIN this year is to see my fellow Alley Cats. Woohooo!

I have a GIANT 'Thank You" to send to editor Julie Gwinn, a hug for Julia Reffner, a squeeze so hard it will probably pop her eyes out to Sherrinda Ketchersid...and SO MANY MORE.

But have a list - and then expect even more meetings than those on your list.

e. A smile – never fully dressed without one. It’s the universal sign of ‘niceness’ – and for heaven’s sake, if you’re a Christian you should have at least one thing to smile about . Doesn't Laura Frantz have a GREAT smile!J

2. Never eat alone

a. Meal opportunities – Find a place to sit with people you don’t know. Eating is our most social avenue. Take advantage of it.

b. Social gatherings – use other gatherings as an avenue to explore new friendships and connections.

c. Service opportunities – volunteering in the bookstore or at the registration desk puts you in front of a whole lot of people over a short period of time.

Plus you get the added bonus of serving. I met Janette Oke this way last year.

3. Seize the moments (and stretch your comfort level) – take the opportunity to meet new people. Don’t just stay with your ‘group’, but branch out. I stumbled into Erica Vetsch and Patty Smith Hall. Author Cathy Marie Hake sought me out after a year of cyberchat! Woohoo!

I met Cindy Wilson(ALLEY CAT) and Jeannie Campbell in the taxi on the way to the airport!

You never know who you’ll meet and how that will inspire your writing future.

4. Don’t forget to reciprocate

a. I’ll give you my business card if you’ll give me yours ;-) Make sure to exchange cards with the people you meet. Unless you have a photographic memory, this will be extremely helpful 2 weeks later when you’re writing ‘thank you’ notes or googling a website.

b. Your new best friend? Talk AND listen. It’s so easy to monopolize a conversation when you finally have someone who actually wants to hear about your imaginary friends (believe me, I KNOW), but I’m pretty sure when God gave us two ears and one mouth he was trying to make a point. (Melanie Dickerson, I couldn't find the pic I have of you in Medieval attire ;-) But you looked great!

5. The perfect follow through – After you get home, keep the networking going. Follow up with emails, visit website, and send thank you notes. I will NEVER forget Keli Gwynn’s beautiful ministry to me in her personal cards she sends. Not only does it show her generous nature, but it solidifies the fact that if she needs my shout-out about her upcoming debut – she’s GONNA get it!!!!

So, what are some extra tips you have for networking at a Writers Conference?

Anyone you really, really want to meet at your upcoming conference? J

Prepping for Conference - A quick to-do list

Writers Conferences are happening all over the place and I'm sure that you'll have plenty of opportunities to read about how to craft the perfect one-sheet or design the most eye-catching business cards, but I wanted to take the opportunity to offer some other ways to prepare as well.

Here's a short list (or as short as my long-winded self can get :-)

1. Pray – The one I need the most, but end up doing last. (Sorry, Lord) As Christians our first response to any situation should be to pray. Pray about who you should meet, which courses you should take. If He guides your writing, He’ll guide you in the industry too.

2. Research – if you have opportunity, check out the websites of the editor and agents you plan to meet at the conference. Even if you don’t have a formal appointment set up with a certain agent, you’ll have opportunities to meet them in other ways – such as in the elevator, at a meal, perhaps in a lecture. Know what they’re looking for and how your manuscript might fit into their line.

3. Etiquette – When you have that opportunity to meet editors and agents, remember your manners. They are people too. Accosting a poor editor with your terrific idea while she’s in the bathroom may make an impression, but not the kind you’re going for. If it is outside of your scheduled meeting time, introduce your question something like this “May I ask you a question?” or “Do you have time for me to give you an idea of my story?” Don’t hog the conversation at meals, but offer an out. Editors know you’re at the conference for that reason, but don’t be pushy. Be confident – but not overbearing. Listen to what the editor or agent has to say too. Listen more than you talk.

Oh, and BE ON TIME for your appointments. That’s a professional touch too.

"Please" and "thank you" never grow old.

4. Meet people – If you have spare time, try to meet people. It’s a great way to network, of course, but it’s always just fun. Finding other people who ‘speak your language’ can really be a boost of confidence – and decrease that general loneliness feeling authors have a tendency to feel. I CANNOT stress this one enough. You will make some of the most wonderful friendships and touchpoints by stretching beyond your comfort zone and engaging people in conversations. If nothing else, start with the simple question, "So, what do you write?"

As you well know, we writers LOVE to talk about our stories.

5. Be prepared, as much as you can – If you have novels in the works, create one sheets or one-pagers. Or make a projects sheet. Do NOT take your entire manuscript. If the editors want to see the whole thing, they’ll ask you to send it to them.

Research (like from #1) is a way to prepare. Try to review a map of the vendor before you get there, so you’ll know ‘kind of’ where the presentations will be held – it’s a stress reliever.

6. Dress – Unless the conference is in a temperate setting…I don’t know, like Hawaii, it would be wise to pack with varying weather in mind. For example, at the Blue Ridge mornings were cool, but afternoons were warm, so I'd wear a light jacket over short sleeves in the morning. Easy fix :-)

Also, when you have your scheduled meetings with editors and agents, you’ll want to dress like the professional you are. I don’t mean a three-piece suit. Slacks and a nice shirt will work, but enough to show you are serious about your writing.

7. Make wise use of your time – If you do #4 and prepare ahead of time, you will already make wise use of your time. Knowing the schedule ahead of time and getting a general idea of where you need to be…and then where you WANT to be, will help you make wiser and more effective use of your time.

8. Have FUN! This is an opportunity to celebrate your writing with tons of other people to "get it". I can't WAIT to spend time with my fellow AlleyCats, the gals from Seekerville, you wonderful followers of The Writers Alley, and the other amazing people I've met through writing. View your day through the balance of God's hand, with each appointment (whether planned or not) being an opportunity He's placed before you.


9. Be 'teachable'.It's probably not in your best interest to say you can’t change the book because “God gave you this book and it can’t be changed.” It hints that the editor or publisher will be out of God’s will if they change your story at all. We should approach writing with the same attitude as our faith - God is continually teaching us, whether through His Word, our experiences, or the people we meet.

10. Pray. Hmmm, didn't I say this already? Well, it's worth repeating. When our heart and mind are in the 'write' place all the circumstances around us come into the proper perspective. God's provided this opportunity for you to go to conference. In the start and the finish, keep Him in view.

What conference tips would you add?
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What's Up the Street for Next Week?

Genesis Deadline!

Casey with 2011 Romantic Suspense
Genesis Winner, Renee Ann Smith, now
agented by Joe Kneedler of
Alive Communications

The deadline for the ACFW Genesis contest was yesterday! You are either relieved your entry is sent and done and there is nothing you can do about it or groaning that you weren't able to get that last period in place before midnight.

Let us know so we can CHEER for you if you entered! And if you didn't, there are several other contests you might want to look into in the Sidewalk Talk section.

Next week...

Polishing makes perfect! Angie has tips to do just that on Monday.


Julia reminds us to bring back the fun in our writing on Tuesday.


We're told to make our characters unique, but what about our setting? Join the discussion with Sarah on Wednesday.


Ashley talks on social networking on Thursday, am I networking or just obnoxious?


Cindy tells us what she has learned about writing from her book club of diverse readers on Friday.


Sidewalk Talk: Contest edition

The My Book Therapy Frasier contest is still open and will be until March 31st. Plenty of time to keep polishing!

Novel Rocket is hosting their third annual unpubbed-writing contest. This page has all the details

Seekerville started their SPEEDBO contest (think NaNoWriMo). Visit their site for all the facts.

What's Up the Street For Next Week?

Happy Weekend Everyone!


Since Groundhog Day was this week – AND since he saw his shadow- it looks like we’re going to have 6 more weeks of winter.

If you can call it winter.

In most parts of the U.S. the temperature has been unseasonably warm.

So what are your thoughts about the weather? Do you like a cool winter or are you enjoying the spring-like temps in January and February?

Let’s find out what’s happening on The Alley this week.

Monday – Are you getting ready for a contest entry? Maybe an agent or editor submission? Then check out Angie’s post about what happens “After you hit send”.

Tuesday and Wednesday- Julia and Sarah are brewing up some great posts for Tuesday and Wednesday, but you’ll have to stop in to find out what they are. No doubt it will be the perfect blend of humor, talent, and creativity.

Thursday – Give our newest Alley Cat another welcome as Ashley talks about sprinkling humor into your fiction. (Is Ashley CUTE or WHAT?!?)

Friday – Cindy strikes a more serious chord this week as she discusses when is the right time to lay aside your manuscript.

A GREAT contest update at Seekerville yesterday, including the Genesis final judges’ list. Follow this link to check it OUT!

What's Up the Street For Next Week- NEW YEAR'S Edition

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

How are you celebrating the coming of a new year?
What is one of your writing resolutions?
What is one of your personal resolutions?
How are you going to bring Jesus into your New Year? :-)

Starting a New Year gives us an opportunity to reflect on the past year and I'll HAVE to say that one of the highlights of this year was getting to meet some of my fellow Alley Cats at ACFW in September. WHAT. A. BLESSING!!!

It was also a wonderful opportunity to meet some of the fabulous Seekers from Seekerville as well as some of our fabulous Alley Friends.

So what do the Cats have up for you this week?

Monday - Pepper takes a recap from her Sizzling First Encounters series to ring in the New Year. She'll provide some 'first encounters' examples from published authors that will get the new year started off with a BANG!

Tuesday - Sherrinda jumpstarts our creative flow with a 'What if' Day.

Wednesday - Cool post by Mary this week entitled the Privelaged Class - Misconceptions of famous published authors.

Thursday - Casey gets us ready for the new contest year with The Low Down on Contests, Should I? Shouldn't I?

Friday - Our soon-to-be-published Krista Phillips brings a fabulous post this week (assuming she survived her edits from last week ;-)


NEWSTAND:

Genesis 2012 opens this week! To learn more about it go here - http://www.acfw.com/genesis

And stay tuned for next Monday, Jan 9 when Angie invites 2011 Genesis finalist Naomi Rawlings to give some helpful tips about entering the Genesis.


Casey starts Operation: Encourage and Author this week. Stop in a check http://encourageanauthor.blogspot.com/
Now from all of us to you - Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
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pictures courtesy of:
http://en.loadtr.com/a_Happy_New_Year_-494802.htm

What's Up the Street For Next Week? Post- CONFERENCE EDITION

Since a lot of us are still recovering from Post Excited Conference Exhaustion, I thought I'd just take an opportunity to share some pics from the conference and some fun things that happened.
As many of you know, this was the first time most of the Alley Cats got to meet in person. Wendy, Sarah, Angie, Casey, Mary, and Pepper were in St. Louis- leaving Sherrinda, Krista, Cindy, and Julia to man the Alley on their own.
They did a fabulous job, btw.

Pepper, Mary, and Casey roomed together - with their new friend, Carol Moncado. The 11th floor would never be the same again.

And Casey was the Belle of the Ball. Everyone seemed to know our little blond-headed cutie. If you doubt it, check out her FB page and see all her pictures. Yep, she was Miss Popular - but no wonder. Cute and Sweet (except in the mornings....whew.... ;-)

It's a good things she dealt so well with middle-aged women like Pepper, Mary, and Carol.

Carol came prepared with SEVEN batches of cookies. SEVEN - and she handed them out to  people (bribed them and such...you know, free internet access, book proposals...) Here she is with Ruth Logan Herne from Seekerville.

The banquet was wonderful. Opportunities to celebrate with fabulous authors like Laura Frantz, Janice Thompson, Brandylin Collins, Mary Connealy, Liz Curtis Higgs...and so many more.

Here's Rachel Hauck with Casey.

Here's Pepper with Janice Thompson.

Here is a pic of a group of us with the Seekers! YAY!!

Here is Casey, Angie, and Mary during one of our meals. They are such lovely ladies inside and out!!!

Then we have a pic of the tallest and smallest Alley Cat - Wendy and Casey :-)

Make sure to stop by this week at the Alley for more tips on writing, talks about conference, and fabulous fun. We hope you are inspired this week.

Any conference questions or fun experiences you'd like to ask or share?
Blessings,