FCWC Recap

Home again from my fourth Florida Christian Writers Conference. Without a doubt, this was the best one yet. The photo shows: me, acclaimed authors Nancy Rue and Angela Hunt, and my writing pal Karen Evans.

Nancy and Angela teamed up, as Nangie, to teach a fiction-writing continuing class that helped me dig deeper into my protagonist's feelings of resentment against her mother. (I didn't even know she resented her mom until I did the journaling exercise.)

Nancy gave me structural advice during a one-on-one meeting that helped me zip through time and easily transition from one major event to another without getting bogged down with the unimportant years in between.

My Kindred Heart writing buddies and I left the conference with tears in our eyes at leaving one another and smiles on our faces at our achievements. Each one of us has book proposals or manuscripts to send to interested publishers. Clella even sold an article when her roommate told an editor how funny it was!

We did an after hours workshop on starting an online critique group -- and someone did!

Jeanie and our friend Melinda did an after hours on blogging, sharing their experiences starting from scratch a year ago to developing a growing number of followers.

My after hours was on Novice Novelist Novel Notes, my first PowerPoint presentation. Great fun chatting with other novel novelists.

The FCWC is an excellent conference with a top faculty and renowned. keynote speakers. Hope to see you there next year!

Family Trees

What do a Florida horse thief, a Dutch dressmaker who can speak seven languages, and an Austrian dairy farmer living in Brazil have in common?

Each one can be found on the family tree of the friend I had lunch with today at Fat Boys ("where the locals go"). One branch of Joy's family traces its Georgia/Florida roots back as far as the 1700s. Another vines its way back in time to pre-World War I Austria and Holland (with that detour to Brazil).

I'm emerald green with jealousy. Sure, my mom's paternal ancestors go in a straight trunkline back to the late 1700s in Ohio. But I'm not sure how they got there or where they came from. And what about their wives' ancestors? They are lost in the mists of history.

My kids know that one of their dad's Irish ancestors probably married a shipwrecked sailor from the Spanish Armada. There's also a chance they have a drop or two of Native American blood. But my husband's genealogical record is even more sparse than mine.

So, yes! I'm envious that my friend has treasured keepsakes from her Dutch dressmaker maternal ancestor.

And I'm thinking I want to learn more about this woman's long-ago life. Her intriguing "fact" may inspire fascinating fiction.

And I'm thinking it's past time to seek out the mysterious women in my own family tree.