I'm Back!

I went to my first writer's conference this weekend, and I was totally inspired. During the drive home, it felt like there were hundreds of things I could write about. Everything seemed to be screaming at me to find the story inside and write it. The sunlight streaming through the trees, the car that bumped the tail of the other car right in front of me, and the angry man who jumped out. But one thing kept bothering me, and I couldn't get it off my mind.

You see, I went to this writer's conference planning on being discovered. I sat in the front row with a big, inviting smile on my face. I even changed my outfit one morning because I thought I should wear something that looked professional so when the authors noticed me, they would be more inclined to ask about  my writing and see if they could connect me to their agent. And I swear the main speaker made eye contact with me forty times over the course of three days. I just knew I was going to raise my hand during one of the sessions and ask a question that would blow his mind. He would be amazed by my deep and thought-provoking question, and would ask if I was writing a book, if I had a blog he could read, or if he could at least sign up for my email updates.

I wrote down my question because I was kind of nervous and I didn't want to forget it. I patiently raised my hand for all fifty minutes of the Q and A, but I guess they ran out of time, and they never called on me. Undaunted, I stood in line afterward to talk with the speaker and give him the chance to meet me. I scoffed at all the fans in line around me, encumbered by books they wanted autographed, and I watched other fans asking if they could take a picture with the author. I wasn't affected by any of this star struck stuff; I was keeping it cool. I had my notebook and pen and when it was my turn I got straight down to business. "Hi there. I'm wondering if you can talk to me a little more about story plotting, and how long you spend on each component?" As he answered me, I realized he hadn't understood the question. He gave a good answer, but it was the answer to a different question. So I tried to rephrase it and he said something else and I'm not sure either of us knew what we were talking about at that point. I was still really curious about the answer to my question but I sensed that things were not proceeding according to my plan and it was time to gracefully move on. I smiled politely and he said, "Does that makes sense?" And I said, "Yeah! Thank you. That really helps."

So, he didn't discover me. He didn't ask if I was a blogger, or beg to see a sample of my writing. You'd think reality would have sunk in at that point, but even as I was driving home, I thought, "You know. He has my email address. (Meaning I'm on the email list for conference updates.) I'm sure he'll send out a group email in the next couple days saying something like, 'If you're the girl in the red coat who asked the brilliant question about the story plotting, please make yourself known! I feel so compelled to ask if I can publish your book.' "

Ultimately I didn't write about the sunlight, or the fender bender, or any of the other stories mulling around in my head during the drive home. I wrote about my delusional imagination that evidently can't see reason. And as the stories fell into my mind like leaves from the trees, I had another thought. It was a quote the speaker shared by Henry David Thoreau.

Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to their graves with the song still in them.

Isn't that terrible?! I don't want to go to my grave with the song still in me. I'd rather sing an unfinished, out of tune melody than remain silent, too afraid to sing. 

Well, it's been a few days, and I guess the speaker hasn't gotten a chance to send that email looking for the girl in the red coat, so until then, I decided to take Thoreau's advice and pour my energy into writing this blog. Why a new blog, you may be wondering? Well, I thought I'd give you all a break from having to type in the world's longest blog title that sometimes looks like it's about Germany and sometimes about many singers. Also, we don't live in Germany anymore, and only one of us Joneses actually writes this thing, and I want full credit. If you miss Germany and like re-reading as much as I do, feel free to visit www.keepingupwiththejonesesingermany.blogspot.com anytime.

Here's what I'm envisioning for this new blog: Posts on travel and adventure and normal life, thoughts on relationships and fear and love, reflections on beauty and God, before and afters of our first (and hopefully future!) house flip and maybe occasional recipes. (And by occasional, I mean roughly once per year). So basically posts about anything. Except probably fashion, or cats since I don't really like those things. It will be a lot like my last blog, only less about Germany, and (ideally) contain more frequent postings. Thanks for reading!

P.S. At the writer's conference, they said rookie writers often fail to check their facts. As I was fact checking my quote, I learned that it's actually a misquote, and Thoreau only said the first half. Next conference, I'm going to raise my hand and share that!