Workshop, last day

I did not want to go to the workshop yesterday. There were good things I was looking forward to, but they were completely overshadowed by the likely emotional aftermath. But I had goals I wanted to accomplish. I wanted to meet the other attendees and talk to them. I wanted to feel a sense of creative community. So with determination rather than desire I departed for the workshop. I then did a very girly thing. I stopped at Payless shoe source and bought myself a new pair of shoes. I was wearing ratty old shoes and I wanted to feel pretty and confident. I haven’t bought new shoes for myself since Howard quit Novell three years ago. So I walked into the conference feeling better about the whole thing because of my pretty new shoes. I was later rewarded by new shoe blisters because wearing brand new shoes to a convention does not rank high on the list of smart convention behaviors. My feet will recover and I’ll be breaking the shoes in more gradually.

I survived the third day of the workshop with a complete lack of “emotional heap.” Since this was my last day I am now suffering from a few mild regrets. I wish I had gone to lectures by Carmen Deedy and Dandi Mckandall. I got to speak to both of them briefly and they both were delightful and fascinating. Dandi did a reading from her book Larger Than Life Lara and I loved the segment so much, that I had to buy the book. Carmen Deedy did a reading too. That was when I realized where I’d heard her name before. My mother met her at a storytelling conference. Carmen signed a book for my mom, but signed it incorrectly. It was the last copy available, so she mailed out a correctly signed copy after the conference was over. The book was for me, so now I have both copies. I mentioned this to Carmen and she remembered the incident and my mom. That was fun. Carmen even smiled and waved to me later. She is a person I’d love to sit down with and just listen to. She’s funny and full of stories.

In all it was a worthwhile expenditure of time, effort, and money. I’ve made first contacts with several people whom I’d love to meet again. Hopefully I’ll get to meet them again someday.

The conference did have a few quirks. It was very Mormon, which is to be expected I suppose. At the “follies” the conference director called each of the teachers/guests down and told an embarrassing/amusing anecdote about them. They then called upon those same guests/teachers to take part in karaoke. Some of the guests loved this, some did not. For me it was like watching an embarrassing aunt make a public scene yet again.

At one point I got to listen to the conference directors talk about the time they went to Life The Universe and Everything which is the Science Fiction and Fantasy symposium at BYU. They thought that the people at LTUE were frightening because they wore costumes and were attending classes on weaponry. It made me realize that what feels normal and comfortable to me is possibly very uncomfortable to someone else. I need to write a whole essay on comfort zones sometime.

Anyway the conference was good. Now it is time for me to get back to normal life. I’ve got piles of housework to catch up on. And I need to get back to the actual writing part of being a writer.