Why Attend a Writer's Conference?

By K. L. Bridgewater

I have been asked by a number of people why do I attend writer’s conference. Having only attended two in my life, I don’t have a lot of experience, but the two writing conferences I went to were pretty great. I suggest researching the type of conference you want to go to, and glance at the reviews to see if it is well worth the investment. Most conferences cost a pretty penny. Tie in room and expenses to drive or fly there, it can become quite expensive. But I have three reasons that might make the money and time worth it.

1.)    You meet and make friends with like-minded people.

At my first ACFW conference last September, I attended the First Time Orientation where Brandilyn Collins answered questions and discussed what we could expect. After the Q & A session, Collins asked us to divide into our different genres to meet someone who writes in the same type of plot line. Since I write in suspense, I joined the suspense group, which sadly, was mostly populated with guys. Most of the woman grouped in romance or historical romance groups. After talking for a couple of minutes with the guys, a young woman about my age with shorter dark hair and black rim glasses with a camera around her neck approached me. We started talking about our writing and love of suspense. Instant friend. We talked a lot that weekend and still keep in touch. We plan to room at the 2014 ACFW conference in a couple of weeks. I can’t wait to see my friend, Emilie Hendryx again.

2.)    You meet accomplished writers.

As an avid reader and writer, I become excited when I meet an author who I have enjoyed their books. At the ACFW conference, I took writing classes from Tosca Lee, Karen Witemeyer, Jeff Gerke, Susan May Warren, Rachel Hauck  . . . Additionally, I took a pictures with Colleen Coble, Brandilyn Collins, Rachel Hauck, Susan May Warren, and Robin Jones Gunn (shown above with not a good picture of me) after they autographed their books for me. One of my favorite, and most valuable experiences, was meeting with mentors. I met with Ronie Kendig who looked at the first two pages of my chapter and scribbled all over the page to improve my writing. She actually enjoyed my beginning. It was nice to see these established writers as normal people who didn’t mind meeting with you. At the Writer’s Advance Boot Camp, I met Steven James and Lynette Eason, two of my favorite suspense writers.

3.)    You network with the right people.

At the ACFW conference, at every meal I attended, an agent sat at our table and asked questions. Steve Laube, of Steve Laube agency, sat at the same table as me for lunch one day. He asked the table about our writing and if anyone had an agent take a bite on their pitch yet. After a while he asked a grammatical question to the table. While everyone else declared yes to the answer (sorry, I don’t remember the exact question, but something to do with a title of a book), I kept repeating, “no, you don’t.” Laube asked me to explain my reasoning while he smiled in my direction. After lunch, he approached me and handed me his personal business card. He told me to keep in touch. It was awesome. At the Writer’s Advance Boot Camp, Lynette Eason wanted to see the first couple of chapters of book and wanted to help me write better since I looked like someone was teachable.

I hope these suggestions inspire you to find a conference to attend. Personally, I had a blast at both conferences and can’t wait to return this year to the ACFW conference in St. Louis.

If you have attended a writer’s conference, do you have any other reasons for attending? Do you have any memorable moments that fall under my three categories that you want to share? Please do, I would love to read your funny conference stories.

20 Things You Might Not Know About Me

By K. L. Bridgewater

I had a little break in between writing Face of Admiration, and I thought I would include this blog on here. I first saw the idea on Jamie Lapeyrolerie’s blog, Books and Beverage. I thought this was a neat idea and wanted to tag a few of my writer friends to see their answers to these creative questions. Hopefully, it will makes it way around the blog sphere and allow us writers to get to know each other a little more. So here goes:

Question 1: How tall are you?

I’m 5’8” which is the exact height of my husband. It is nice because we are the same height. Great for hugging!

Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?

I don’t know if you can call this a hidden talent, but I do cross-stitch in my spare time. I have done baby blankets for my three boys, my niece, two nephews, and a friend who is having a baby in October. I have cross-stitched a number of winter scenes that hang on the wall around our house. I have done stockings for my immediate family and my sister’s family, my mom, and my dad. Lastly, I have done the tree-skirt under our Christmas tree. It is a Christmas village. I enjoy making pictures from x’s and string.

Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve?

I wished more people would comment on my blog every day. According to the count, I have about fifty people who look at it every time I post something, but no one even says hi on the bottom.

Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?

A dirty bathroom. Living with four boys, I have designated the downstairs bathroom the boy’s bathroom. It is always dirty, even though I have the boys cleaning it every Saturday. It is a manly bathroom with a light gray wall and deer and moose everywhere. Upstairs, however, is my bathroom with the candles and light purple walls and flower pictures hanging. Big difference.

Question 5: What’s your favorite song?

Right now, it is “Take the Bullets Away” by We As Human. I enjoy Christian alternative music. My favorite radio which I have stream through my phone in order to listen to in the car is RADIOU. They play Christian music, but it is NOT CCM, which, personally, I can’t stand. The good thing about RADIOU is a lot of my non-christian friends have no problem listening to RADIOU where they wouldn’t touch the CCM stations for nothing.

Question 6: What’s your favorite ETSY shop that isn’t yours?

I feel bad, but I have no idea what an ETSY shop is.

Question 7: What’s your favorite way to spend your free time when you’re alone?

Having three boys, I rarely have any moment alone. I read and write with three boys hollering and playing in the background. There is rarely a quiet moment in my house.

Question 8: What’s your favorite junk food?

I have a desire for Heath and Carmello’s. Love English toffee and Carmel smothered in chocolate.

Question 9: Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?

I have two dogs. Happy, is a golden retriever, and Snoopy, is a beagle.

Question 10: What are your number one favorite non-fiction and fiction books?

For non-fiction, which I don’t read a lot of, I would have to say the Bible. For fiction, there are too many too count. But here are a few: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling, The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, Anything by C.S. Lewis, The Little Princess and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. These are my favorites who have influenced by writing, and I could read any day.

Question 11: What’s your favorite beauty product?

I really don’t wear a lot of make-up, so I can’t answer that. I do have a Chapstick in my pocket at all times, so maybe that would count.

Question 12: When were you last embarrassed? What happened?

I don’t embarrass easily, or it could be that I don’t put myself in a situation to be embarrassed. I used to be humiliated when I had to speak in front of a crowd, but teaching has helped get rid of that.

Question 13: If you could drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be?

I enjoy my Dr. Pepper, but because I’m on a diet, I have left that out completely. Lots of water lately with some coffee thrown in for a variety.

Question 14: What’s your favorite movie?

Never Been Kissed with Drew Barrymore and David Arquette. Or Mona Lisa Smile with Julia Roberts. Can’t decide which one I enjoy better.  

Question 15: What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep?

 I really didn’t hang out with just one group. I had friends in all groups. I was in honor classes, so I hung out with those type of people. But I hung out with the students I worked with. I hung out with loners who saw the world differently than most people. I had friends in the band. I was friends with the valendictorian and the popular kids.

Question16: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?

I always wanted to live in a London, England. Some of my favorite writers, as you can tell from my list on question #10, are British writers. I plan to visit England with my husband for our twentieth anniversary, which is in seven years, so keep my fingers crossed that it actually happens.

Question17: PC or Mac?

I don’t really like anything to do with Mac or Apple, so I stay away from their products. There are things just as good on the market, if not better, for a lot cheaper.

Question18: Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boyfriend/girlfriend, or spouse?

For my birthday in 2003, my husband purchased tickets to see the Colorado Avalanche when they visit the Chicago Blackhawks United Center. This was back when the Chicago Blackhawks were not good, so the tickets were not expensive. We were pretty close to the ice for $70 a ticket. Now it is about $400 a ticket for the same seat.

Question 19: Favorite celebrity?

My favorite actor is Robin Williams, so sad that he just passed. He brought such joy to my life. My favorite actress is Sandra Bullock. My favorite sports hero would be Patrick Roy, who is number 33 and was the goalie for my hockey team, the Colorado Avalanche from 1995- 2003. Then he retired and came back in 2013 as the head coach of the Colorado Avalanche. They made it to the first round of play-offs, which they haven’t done since Roy’s days on the team. Boy, am I glad he’s back.

Question 20: What blogger do you secretly wish to be friends with?

There are so many great bloggers out there. I don’t know if I could name just one. I enjoy Emilie Hendryx and Laurie Tomlinson, but they are already my friends.

I tag Emilie Hendryx, Laurie Tomlinson, Dawn Crandall, Suzanne Wesley, David Anderson, Ronie Kendig, and Jamy Whitaker.

If you decide to do this (I hope you do!), please send me the link! I want to read them! If any of you would like to participate, here are the rules!

1. Copy and paste the questions below and then answer and turn them into a blog post. Or, record a video answering these questions and upload it to your blog post.

2. At the bottom of your post, tag anywhere from 2-10 bloggers you want to see answer these questions. (I also suggest hitting up your tagged people via social media just to let them know you tagged them to do this tag challenge.)

3. Use the title: 20 Things You Might Not Know About Me Blog Tag. Once you’ve hit publish, leave a comment below with the link to your post.

4. Use the hashtag #20ThingsBlogTag when sharing on social media so we can all find your awesome posts!

Question 1: How tall are you?
Question 2: Do you have a hidden talent? If so, what?
Question 3: What’s your biggest blog-related pet peeve?
Question 4: What’s your biggest non-blog related pet peeve?
Question 5: What’s your favorite song?
Question 6: What’s your favorite Etsy shop that isn’t yours?
Question 7: What’s your favorite way to spend your free time when you’re alone?
Question 8: What’s your favorite junk food?
Question 9: Do you have a pet or pets? If so, what kind and what are their names?
Question 10: What are your number one favorite nonfiction and fiction books?
Question 11: What’s your favorite beauty product?
Question 12: When were you last embarrassed? What happened?
Question 13: If you could only drink one beverage (besides water) for the rest of your life, what would it be?
Question 14: What’s your favorite movie?
Question 15: What were you in high school: prom queen, nerd, cheerleader, jock, valedictorian, band geek, loner, artist, prep?
Question 16: If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live?
Question 17: PC or Mac?
Question 18: Last romantic gesture from a crush, date, boy/girlfriend, spouse?
Question 19: Favorite celebrity?
Question 20: What blogger do you secretly want be best friends with?

**This blog post is a part of the ’20 Things You Might Not Know About Me’ Blog Tag started by April from Blacksburg Belle. She began this blog tag experiment to build community among creatives, help us bloggers to connect more and get to know each other better. This month’s topic is all about sharing just a little too much information about yourself. If you’d like to participate or want more info,check out the beginning post right here.**

My Writing Process: Blog Hop

By K. L. Bridgewater

I was invited by the sweet Emilie Hendryx (whom I had the privilege of meeting at the 2013 ACFW conference in Indianapolis) to join a blog hop. You can see her previous post at www.eahendryx.blogspot.com.

Today I’ll be talking about my writing process and answering four questions. I’m pretty excited to be asked to join, and I hope you learn something more about me as a writer.

1.) What am I currently working on?

          I am working on developing the characters and the twists and dangers for my heroine and hero in a three part book series. The series features Chloe Walker and Devin Sanders, who will be featured in a couple of my future blog entries, so make sure you return to learn more about them. I usually start with an idea of how my book will turn out, but as I write, however, I learn my book wants to head in a different direction, so I steer off course from my outline. Mostly, for the better.

2.)    How does my work differ from others in its genre?

             That’s a good question. I don’t really think I have a good answer. I write suspense with a hint of     romance. But I want my story to focus on the mystery. The romance is important to the hero and heroine, but I don’t want the readers to walk away with a deep sigh of romance contentment like readers of romance do. My overall goal is to have the readers gasp and flip the pages because they can’t put the book down because so much happens to the characters and the readers worry about what happens. I’m sure every suspense writer feels the same way. My story idea is unique but mixes the police with an amateur sleuth working together to solve a dilemma.

3.)    Why do I write what I do?

I write romantic suspense because I love action movies like Fast and Furious, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, etc.  As a young girl, I read every Nancy Drew book by Carolyn Keene I could uncover at the local library. Additionally, I enjoy books filled with action, twists, and mystery. I follow the clues presented in the story with hopes of discovering the villain before the end. Dee Henderson introduced me to the Christian suspense genre, and I was hooked. Enjoying these books, I have decided to write my own. Creating the element of surprise prickles my skin as I uncover something new about the plot that I didn’t plan originally.

4.)    How does your writing process work?

I discussed this very issue on my blog post for Tuesday, July 8, 2014. Majority of the time my ideas come to me as an ending. I don’t know what the characters look like. I don’t even know the theme. The ending pops in my head, and I sit down and write the ending, which causes the skin on my arm to grow big enough goosebumps to put someone’s eyeballs out.  So after the last quarter of the novel is written, I usually try to develop my characters with their big lies and their backstory. Then I weave in elements to bring the first quarter of the story to life.

Well, thanks for stopping by the blog. Unfortunately, all my writer friends have already done this, or who I have asked where too busy, or some didn't even reply. So I have no one for you to hop on over and look at their writing process.  

How does your writing process work? Do you see the ending like I do or do the characters or theme walk in front of you? Please comment on how you do write.