Writing conference, feeling blessed

This last week was crazy and amazing and uplifting. The beginning of the week was spent getting ready for my writing conference. Grocery shopping and cooking and taking the kids to the park, etc. Getting pitches and pages ready. And then Thursday through Saturday, I went to my conference. It was truly one of the most uplifting experiences I've had in a really long time. Not because anything about the conference was particularly extraordinary. There were classes and food and a couple keynotes, like any other conference. But everything ran smoothly. People connected with each other. I met people I'd been talking with online for the last year and felt like I'd known them for ages. It was the LDStorymakers conference, so we could share in our religious beliefs as well as our love of writing. We opened with a prayer, and blessed our meals and helped each other out. We worked through problems as a group. And above that, I could feel Heavenly Father blessing me. I prayed before the conference to be given an opportunity to talk to an agent. I got to talk to two. I hoped to find new critique partners, I found at least four. I hoped to have more hope that my writing would be wanted, that it would fill a need. I had a publishing company ask to have a look at it when its done because they are starting a new imprint that deals with exactly my genre. I made friends I wasn't expecting to make. And it made me feel so loved by my Father in heaven. He watches out for me and for all of us. Because he loves us. When I got home, my kids were excited to see me. I felt renewed and rejuvenated by my time away from them and I'm excited to spend the week with them. Thank you, Dad, and Anessa, and Steve, for babysitting the girls so I didn't have to worry about them. It was a wonderful experience.

• Some of my new friends. Just now, looking at this picture, I realized I have a rather small head. No wonder my kids have small heads. Haha!

There were 750 attendees.