Post-RWAus Conference 2011

Me in my Roaring 20's costume for the cocktail party.

Conference is over for another year, and what a weekend it was. There are so many amazing moments from the weekend it is hard to pick my favourites. From a non-writerly perspective it was so nice getting all my meals prepared and cleaned up for me, my bed made and linen washed and no-one to concern myself about except me. Definitely the icing on the cake as far as the weekend was concerned.

One of the highlights was meeting all my cyber-writing friends in the flesh - whether it was the first time or catching up again. I also met some absolutely lovely people I hadn't known before conference, but am very glad I have now. This may be part of the reason I have returned home with no voice!

My brain is swirling with all the new information I'm trying to absorb from the sessions I went to. For the first time I didn't automatically go to all the craft sessions and so have taken away from conference a lot of new information on other aspects of writing (but I did buy 4 new craft books...).

Overall, I think I loved conference because, like everyone says, it's the chance to be in a room full of people who get you.

 See you all on the Gold Coast next year!

RWAus Conference 2011

Today is the official first day of my 2011 conference experience. Yippee!!

I actually arrived in Melbourne yesterday, but today it begins. I get to register, attend my first workshop session and start to catch up with all my writing buddies who spend most of the year existing only in the cyber world.

The workshop session is "Taking the terror out of pitching" (and if you read last week's post you'll know I'm really hoping this session will prepare me for my pitch).

I've chosen not to do the Warrior Writer workshop tomorrow (motivation I don't need - more hours in the day, yes... but I don't think the workshop will provide that, lol). The decision also stems from the fact that towards the end of conference my brain starts to fry - am hoping that this will help me pace myself. I am doing the slush pile session though, and of course tomorrow night is the cocktail party (which I am looking forward to).

Then the Sat/Sun workshops (and that was a difficult choice when deciding between sessions) and of course the awards dinner Sunday night.

This is also the first year I have stayed at the conference hotel (very exciting) and I hope this will make things a little more relaxing.

Before I know it conference will be over for another year, but I intend on enjoying every moment of this one!

Melbourne in Winter - I Must Be Crazy!!

I don't do cold.

It's that simple. I spend my entire winter trying to get warm. Be that as it may I am going to Melbourne in winter. I must be crazy!! I'm not worried about being indoors (in fact, indoors in Melbourne is probably warmer than indoors in Brisbane as our houses are designed to stay cool in hot, humid summers - and also have no internal heating). It's the outdoor bits I'm worried about. Mind you, I can probably keep them to a mimimum. Even so...

I have stood looking at my wardrobe and am certain I don't have the right sort of clothes. I've never been to Melbourne so have no idea what others wear. Anyone got any suggestions on what I should pack?