So I went to the Mississippi Christian Living writer retreat, named the above this year. It was held at the Bill Waller Crafts Center on the Mississippi Natchez Trace in the Ridgeland area. The building is the home of the Mississippi Craftsman’s Guild and has a lovely shop with finely crafted items, several meeting areas, a large display area for Guild events, etc. Just a great place to have this event.
I got a lot out of the conference this year in that it was very focused on getting your work up to professional standards and giving resources for that as well as giving guidance to getting your work noticed in the larger literary community. The keynote speaker gave a lot of information on story structure, character development, plot development, etc. I enjoyed thinking about how to apply what she was saying to my current work-in-progress as well as seeing how closely what I had done in Hurricane Baby lined up with what she said.
A lot of the marketing tips I took special attention to, also–trying to mine for ideas of places I could go and get my book out in front of people once it’s released. One woman mentioned organizing virtual book clubs using Google Meets, and I am giving that some serious thought. I think I will get in touch with her over email for more information on how to do that.
I handed out a lot of my sell-sheet and my new bookmarks I made to hand out at events as well. So hopefully I was able to scare up some pre-orders this weekend myself.
And we did some writing as well–I wrote a scene for my work-in-progress; it may stay, or it may go. But it was a freeing thing to write in a fresh bright space without feeling what happens when I work from home–like there’s this chore or that shore to catch up. That sort of thing. So it was really nice.
For locals to the metro Jackson, Mississippi area, I’ll be reading from Hurricane Baby at the Brandon Library Arts Brunch on April 20, 2024. The event runs from 10 a.m.-noon, and registration is at this link: https://cmrls.evanced.info/signup/EventDetails?EventId=20155&backTo=Calendar&startDate=2024/04/14
Winding up that this event was very interesting–I happened across a Facebook page for my city that had an announcement for the event, calling for authors to sign up. I called immediately and left my name and number for the organizer, Amy Lee. She called me back and sounded very happy to have me involved in the event! I believe there’s about ten authors being featured, so it will be nice to see who all is involved!
It’s all getting more and more like it’s actually happening with each milestone I pass. Thanks for reading and sharing these highlights with me!
Julie Liddell Whitehead 
Nice, Julie. I did much the same thing, but I was the one giving advice, at the Las Vegas Writers Conference. No, I didn’t get to go there. It was virtual! But you’re doing all the right stuff. Number one thing on the list as far as I’m concerned is being a good literary citizen (aka networking).
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