LDStorymakers Conference 2013

Fay Klingler, Danyelle Ferguson and me at the Mass book signing Friday evening.

So the 2012 Storymakers conference is over and we're all still standing (except those who fainted from exhaustion. I think that includes my co-chair). Every year the conference gets a little bigger and a little better, and this was no exception. We had an awesome committee who was always on top of things (or at least they seemed to be, which is close enough in my book!) a terrific hotel that bent over backward to make things go smoothly for us, and incredible instructors. And the three minutes I was able to listen to the keynote speaker were really great too.

Jaime Theler and I co-chaired the conference this year, which had about 520 attendees at the downtown Provo Marriott, nearly 60 presenters, 75-80 classes (some were offered twice or covered two hours) and lots of laughter as we watched Sarah Eden's writing videos. Oh, and more than a thousand books sold through our bookstore, which will help those authors pay for their conference expenses and share their brilliant advice. And several hundred dollars was raised for a non-profit in Peru. All in all a ton of terrific stuff.

I feel like I should be exhausted, but I've already been writing emails with my new co-chair (Don Carey) about next year's committee, even while tying up the loose ends with Jaime and our current committee. When I said that doing a conference of that size was a marathon, I think I still didn't know yet what I meant, but I look forward to next year--our 10th conference (which has a ton of ideas bouncing in my head).

We're definitely going to have to cap the conference again, which is a bummer, but a necessary evil. Less than seven months until registration opens--and that's closer than it sounds!

My Visit to the Regency Tea Party

For the past several months some writing friends of mine have been planning a Regency tea party, which started as three or four people, and expanded to fifteen of us (more had planned to come, but life happened and several had to drop out at the last moment). Since Sarah Eden's living room isn't built for that many visitors, we held the tea party at the Provo Library. This picture was taken only a few minutes before I arrived (late) after running like mad for the previous several days. I actually sewed the hook-and-eye closures onto my dress as we were en route to Provo.

No, hook-and-eye closures are not of the time period, but buttons are a pretty specialized feature that my sewing machine does not have, so I sewed the buttons on the top so it looks authentic. I figure that's close enough. I still have a little lace to attach around the neckline, but my dress turned out cute. Since I'm a slacker, I didn't get any pictures. But I know a few were snapped of me that day, and when I finish the dress I'll take one of the finished product and post about it.

Anyway, we had tea (herbal) which was incredibly good, and hot cocoa, little cucumber sandwiches (because nothing says Jane Austen tea like cucumber sandwiches), fruits, English cheeses and crackers and lots of little goodies. Sarah, who writes terrifically funny, totally clean Regency romances (I highly recommend them if you like the genre) explained the way the fashions changed over the twenty years or so and how teas were conducted. And I got a chance to talk with some really terrific writers I hardly ever see, and several I'd never met in person (just online). It was a lot of fun, and we're already talking about doing it again next year before the 2013 conference as well. I'm thinking my next sewing project will be a little purse--way easier than a dress!