What's Going on With Us

            Many of you may know that Gary and I have been writing stories and poems for local contests. For the last few years we’ve attended writing conferences in Searcy and Little Rock to learn more about the craft and improve our writing.

            This year, we’ve taken advantage of the opportunity to attend even more conferences and workshops. Next week, we will be attending the Ozark Creative Writers Conference in Eureka Springs. It’s a chance to take a short vacation and enjoy the beauty of the Ozarks, hear some good speakers, and meet some other people who share our love of writing.

              It is also a chance to test our skills against writers attending from other areas. There are several writing contests being awarded at this conference, and we hope to make a showing in the awards. But I admit, I’m nervous about it.

We’ve had some nice wins in the last few years at both the Arkansas Writers Conference and White County Creative Writers Conferences. Our writing has improved as we’ve learned tips and techniques at the various workshops. And we’ve practiced. Like any skill, writing requires practice. But we’ve never been to the Ozark conference; we don’t know anything about our competition. I can’t help but wonder if we’re out of our league.

  Regardless of the contest results, we’ll learn something from the terrific line-up of speakers. We’ll have a good time. We’ll see a few friends and hopefully make several more. And if we get to cash a prize check or two, that would be icing on the cake.