I sit down
to write this blog, my husband calls to me.
"Honey, I'm leaving now."
How
sweet. He's giving me time to write by
leaving the house. He'll be gone about
an hour, and in that time I should be able to produce something worth reading
about the St. David's Christian Writers Conference.
But I hear
a knock at the back door. It is four of
the six boys from the family that lives next door. They want to borrow our air pump for bike
tires. These guys shoveled our driveway
for us this winter—the worst winter in more than a decade. They are amazing, and I cannot do enough for
them, so I skip out to the garage for the pump.
Back at my
computer, I gather my thoughts, and the phone rings. It's Mom. She's turning 80 this year and decided that I should take over some of
her financial work. Her memory is not as
good as it used to be, so sometimes she calls about something that I already
told her I took care of. It takes a while
to reassure and calm her.
Ah, the
blog. Now, it's the doorbell at the
front door. AT&T wants me to buy
U-verse. Not today, thank you very much.
I need a
break and a drink of water. Where was
I? Oh yes, St. David's.
I go every
year to this four-day conference the third week in June. It's a place where I can immerse myself in
writing. The workshops get my creative
juices flowing, and new ideas form. My
goals become clear, and I write. I know
I can take workshops and classes on-line, but it wouldn't be as good. This conference is an oasis of sweet concentration.
Like-minded
and talented people catch me on fire in face-to-face dialogue. Critiques show me my weaknesses and make me
stronger. Writing is solitary, but at
the conference there is strength in numbers. I've made friends there who will look things over in a manuscript before
I send them to an editor. That way, I'm
not embarrassed by obvious typos and errors that I can't see, even though, I've
read it out loud and meticulously proofread several times. I gratefully do the same for them. After returning home, the drive and passion
continue. It's easier to write and keep
writing no matter the distractions.
And now,
here comes my husband home from the store.
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Sue Boltz is a longtime friend of St. Davids and is also a member of its board of directors.
