by Trish Perry
Sometimes you feel like a nut; sometimes you don’t. All of the personality tests tell me I’m an extrovert, but I don’t always feel like one. Maybe you don’t feel like one either.
But don’t you dare let shyness keep you from going to this year’s ACFW conference in Denver!
I only wish I had started going to the conferences earlier.
Even before getting on the plane for my first ACFW conference several years ago, I made friends with a number of my fellow members simply by hopping into forum chats.
Regardless of how much or how little publishing experience any of us has, plenty of ACFW members are new to the conference this year, which is the case every year.
When I started poking around the forums, I made cyber friends who made the in-person experience so much more fun and less overwhelming.
Before any of us started packing our suitcases, we talked about agents, editors, classes, pitches, bookmarks, one-sheets, evening wear, being too fat to fit into said evening wear, needing to shop for new evening wear- and the chocolate party. (After all, if you’re going to buy bigger evening wear anyway, you might as well attend the chocolate party.)
Because my daughter is getting married this year in Jamaica, I probably won’t be able to attend this year’s conference, and it’s killing me. Yes, I can get the classes on MP3, which is great. But I am SO disappointed that I won’t get to touch base in person with some of the wonderful people I’ve met in years past.
If you’re on the fence about going this year, I want to encourage you to get off that fence and step onto the side that leads to Denver. If you do you’re going to make oodles of writer friendships that will last forever. You won’t ever want to miss ACFW again.
Trust me on this–missing this year is making me feel like I’m nuts.
Learn more about Trish Perry by going to her website, www.trishperry.com
Her newest novel, Sunset Beach, just released from Harvest House Publishers June 2009