So . . . I Met Nicholas Sparks Today

No, seriously, I did. He was the headliner at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest in Bowling Green, KY. Nicholas Sparks happens to be my all time favorite author. I have read every one of his books in order of their publication date. Some I've read twice. I've actually read The Notebook three times. I'm fixin' to read it again because I need to read my new autographed copy. The book signing was not that big of a deal because there were so many people waiting in line. By the time it was my turn, he had been signing his name nonstop for an hour and a half. It consisted of about five seconds where he smiled at me and said hello, I told him my name, and he signed my book. Still, I now have an autographed copy of The Notebook, which I think is pretty cool.

I also got to attend a presentation by Nicholas Sparks. It lasted approximately 1 hour 20 minutes. He basically chatted with the audience about how he became a writer and the inspiration behind some of his earlier novels. I pretty much already knew everything that he told from reading his website and his memoir, Three Weeks with My Brother. He was very entertaining to listen to and often times funny. Of course, he also had half the audience in tears as he was retelling the events in his life that led him to where he is today. I mean, you'd think you were listening to a world-class storyteller or something! This guy can spin anything into a captivating tale.

Besides Nicholas Sparks, I attended a presentation by Susan Eaddy, the illustrator of Papa Fish's Lullaby by Patricia Hubbell. I had never heard of this woman or the book, nor am I interested in illustrating. I just wanted to hear someone speak about children's books. I ended up being one of only two in her audience. It was really nice. She showed us how she turned the author's manuscript (which was basically a poem typed up on two pages) into this amazing clay art. It is beautiful. So, I now have an autographed copy of this book. What do you think of this:

The other presentation I attended was by Chuck Sambuchino who is well known for writing The Guide to Literary Agents blog. I already own a copy of Formatting & Submitting Your Manuscript, so I didn't purchase another copy to be autographed.

What did I learn today? A lot of what I needed to hear. First of all, I was reminded that, after Nicholas Sparks wrote his first novel (not The Notebook, by the way), he didn't write again for another three years. So my little drought of a few months does not have to mean that I'm not a writer anymore unless I choose for it to. You see, I've had this problem that I feel like because I'm not sad anymore, I don't have anything to write about. From reading what other baby loss mom writers say about it, I think this may be a side effect of beginning your writing career as a way to keep from killing yourself as opposed to writing just because you'd like to try something new.

I also learned that I should start small. Sambuchino recommends starting with small or local publishers or new agents. So far, I have sent letters to several big time agents, and it has gotten me nowhere. I do have a letter and a proposal out to a small company named American Carriage House Publishing that I am very hopeful about. I think I should continue to go this route and send out a few more to some small companies.

Sambuchino also said (and I know this), that if I do get called by someone, the first question they are going to ask is, "What other projects are you working on?" Nobody wants a one hit wonder. I need to get off my lazy pregnant butt and write something else!

Mommy note: I was in the conference center all of about three minutes this morning before I pulled out pictures of Gabriel to show to the people standing in line next to me. I just can't help myself. He's beautiful.