Laura J. Davis

It's hard to believe, but it has been almost one month since the Write! Canada Conference. So much has happened during that time, to me in particular, that I wondered how the conference (or any writer's conference for that matter), has helped you in your writing. Are you renewed, recharged and ready to get on with the business of writing?

I found it particularly interesting that weeks before the conference began, I started to lose interest in the sequel to Come to Me (don't worry I will get to it!), and instead, the Lord kept bringing me back to a story that I had started years ago, while I was writing Come to Me. I became so intrigued with where this story could go, that I started working on it and tightening it up. I did not have anything that I wanted to submit for critique and I did not want to make an appointment with anyone while I was at the conference, so I continued to work on this story, ignoring the voice in my head to submit it for critique.

The deadline passed to be able to submit anything and I breathed a little easier, yet kicked myself at the same time for not submitting anything! Then the email came that the deadline was being extended. The voice in my head went from nudging to full blown yelling. So, I reluctantly submitted the first chapter of a new novel I have been working on entitled Finding Claire. My entry was so late in it's submission that I could only hope and pray that the right faculty member saw it.

I'm pleased to say that the right faculty members did! Steve Barclift of Kregel was so interested, that he wants to see the rest of my manuscript and not only that, but he took a copy of Come to Me with him, suggesting that if Kregel were interested, they might be able to reprint it under their name.

Author Mags Storey and fellow Word Guild member also critiqued Finding Claire and passed my name onto her agent for representation.

So, what exciting news do you have from your experience at Write! Canada? I know two members of this website won awards for their books. What about you? How did Write! Canada benefit you? How has it changed you and what will you do in the coming year to build upon all that you learned at the conference?