Writing Events

When I was getting my MFA in Writing for Children from the New School in New York, we had to attend a minimum of eight writing/publishing "events" per year (or was it per semester?). They believed this helped us to embrace the "writer's life," and it was one of my favorite parts of the program.

Now that I'm in DC, I still try to attend as much stuff as I can. Local conferences, book signings, etc. And I'm lucky to have my monthly DC Kidlit Book Club meetings, as well as my DC Children's Book Guild meetings. The Guild had a wonderful midwinter party last weekend where we all got a chance to eat, mingle, and discuss our writing, and today we had a luncheon with editor Namrata Tripathi (of S&S's Atheneum) as the speaker.

I always mention how solitary writing can be, especially when one is home with kids and not able to get out and do as much stuff as one would like. But attending a few events each month, making time for writing dates with friends, and just hanging out at the bookstore every once in a while to browse really keeps the juices flowing.

I'm mid-revision right now, so I need to be gunning it every day, but I'm glad I took some time this week to catch up with my fellow writers and get re-inspired. Tank refilled!