A weekend of writing and riding

Wow, I don't think it could have been possible to stuff more into this past weekend. The third weekend in April has always been about choice in the past because two events are scheduled at the same time - the annual Pikes Peak Writer's Conference and my first endurance event of the season.

This year, the Kenlyn endurance ride was scheduled for Sunday instead of Saturday, so I was able to attend Thurs-Sat at the writing conference (sadly missed the award banquet and keynote speaker Libba Bray :-( and Sunday sessions.)

I attended great sessions on query writing, first page impacts, author panels, world building, writing for boys and much more. I pitched to Barry Goldblatt who passed on some cold honest truths - in his experience. I'm not daunted, my current book with a working title of MIGHTY MIKE AND THE ALIEN PEZ DISPENSER will be right for someone and some boy out there will read it, enjoy it, and just maybe, think reading is a cool thing to do. I met another great agent that just might be the one and learned about a publisher that could be perfect for my book. If only they didn't only accept un-agented submissions once a year. In December. Patience is not a virtue in my world!

And after all this cerebral fun, hubby and I loaded up our horses which haven't had nearly enough conditioning in this bizarre spring weather, drove to Denver and rode 50 miles through some very interesting urban settings. Ok, not quite 50 miles riding. Our poor bodies (also sadly lacking in the spring riding conditioning department) demanded that we get off and lead a few times. Just to save our horses from our sad riding posture as much as to stretch some muscles. The horses did great and we completed in 3rd and 4th place.

On a sort of separate note, but still related to both experiences: events of the last couple weeks have left me feeling jaded and saddened about the condition of the world. I truly felt there was no hope for children to have the kind of childhood I enjoyed. But seeing all the wonderful books being written that will bring comfort, hope, challenge, and salvation to future readers reminds me not everything has changed. And during our endurance ride, we ran into many youngsters out walking, biking and exploring that were so thrilled to see our horses. The world is still exciting and fun. We all have to work to keep it that way to make sure our children have options to choose between escaping into the wonderful world in a book or experiencing nature. Or finding ways to include both.

My friend and critique partner, Eliza Tilton, will have her first book published in May 2013. It's a YA Fantasy titled Broken Forest, and her very talented husband did the cover art.

To kick this release off, YA Romantics is hosting a CYOA Blog Hop set in the Broken Forest world. One of the scenes will be hosted here, but look for a post with the starting point and enjoy creating your own adventure set in this imaginative world.