I sat in front of a
microphone Thursday morning and put in my fifteen minutes. Alas, not for my
fifteen minutes of fame, just helping WVIK put together an interview for the Midwest Writing Center
To promote the conference, an
annual end-of-June event, the station wanted to interview someone new to the
conference and someone old. I got the nod for old.
I didn’t mind, because I’ve
been coming to MWC workshops since 2008 and the conference since 2011. And,
yes, at sixty-three, I am somewhat oldish.
I filled in the interviewer
to my background, how I first heard about the conference, and noted the things
I felt helped me the most. I listed a great many.
My connection with MWC has been
very beneficial for me. I’ve come a long way from the shy person hanging out in
the background afraid someone might notice me. I’m still a shy person, but I
tend to speak up more.
In reviewing my information
packets and notes from the 2011 conference, I noticed I had signed up for three
workshops. For 2012, I attended two. Last year it came down to only one. This
year, I’m going to pitch, that is, actually talk to two agents about
representing me and my book.
Whether the pitches work or
not doesn’t matter to me as much as showing how far I’ve come on this novel
writing journey of mine. Thanks to working with the MWC, I feel like I am a
writer and my novel will get published one way or the other. There are a lot of
opportunities out there and one of them will be right for me.
Before leaving the station, my
last comment for the interviewer, a young woman, was “don’t wait for
opportunities,” meaning, make your moves before the later stages of life.
I meant to be encouraging,
but maybe I was wrong. We don’t all have the same opportunities or develop at
the same pace. What if you have a certain amount of living you have to put in
before you’re capable, ready, for writing down your stories? What if the stars
do have line up?
Click here to find WVIK article and audio.
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