February Reading and Writing

Right here in the middle of winter we have had a couple of days of spring! I hope we don’t pay for our bliss later with snow or turbulent skies. After rough personal weeks, I had some pain relief and so the air felt like a rebirth of sorts. Although I had to reduce the writer’s conference from two nights down to the hours of 9-2 on Saturday, it was wonderful to be out. The writerly hours were uplifting with abundant news and inspiration.

The Ozark Writers’ League had three main speakers and a panel discussion among book sales, lunch, shirt orders, and a wine and chocolate grab. The last two were money makers for the group. It takes good funding to keep any group going these days. Printing, postage, incidentals, and of course, interesting speakers brought in take money.

Originally the Missouri Poet Laureate was to speak but he had to cancel due to health issues. So a poet named John Crawford stepped in. Most of his info wasn’t new to me, but his presentation was lively and enticing. Then Jan Morrill presented a program on haiku which deserves a blog of its own later. After the panel ran too long, the last speaker had to cut his presentation short which was a shame because he was fantastic! T. M. Eaton spoke quickly on how to turn our heritage into either memoir or fiction. This was exactly what I wanted to hear so I was devastated to lose a third of his time to the panel.

Eaton has a new book out titled Stories of Mission County. I ordered it this morning. I felt I needed to see it right away! I also picked up some books at the conference by other authors. Not that I needed more books, but I want to support nascent writers with hope someday someone will support me. I also wanted to know more about some of the members, and in their stories they will reveal themselves to me. It is a great way to make new friends.

Meanwhile, I have started Lisa Claro’s new book Love to Believe. Only a couple of chapters in, and I know the rest of this day will be rest and reading with some tea thrown in! I hope the last week in February is filled with good news, good health, and good books for all of us. Happy Monday!