Energized and Motivated Without Margaritas

I just got home from my DARA meeting (Dallas Area Romance Authors) where the guest speaker was Christie Craig (http://www.christie-craig.com.) She told us at the beginning of her program that she would entertain us, educate us and motivate us, and wow, she hit a home run on all three. The entertaining part had the entire room in stitches as she told a story about her "frugal" husband, a cheap rental car, a mattress on the Interstate and a good old Texas boy. OMG! I was crying! It's too long to tell here plus it's her story, but trust me when I say, if you ever meet her, ask about it.

Next, she moved to the educating part, centering on Plot, Setting, Voice, etc. Now anyone who's been an RWA member for very long has already sat in on dozens of workshops on these topics. Another OMG! She said the same things I've learned before but in a way that made me think I hadn't. There were so many lightbulb moments when she spoke, I wondered how I had ever penned a novel without her words of wisdom. If you have an opportunity go to her workshop, do it. It's very enlightening.

Lastly, she pulled out a big packing box with 2 large envelopes (the Ty vex kind you get at the PO.) As she told us how someone like her who quit school in the tenth grade decided one day she was going to write, she kept dumping rejection letter after rejection letter into the big box. We were all amazed at the number of letters. Then, she pulled out another envelope and kept dumping. There were probably 2 or 3 hundred. That was our motivation part. Since those letters, she has published six books plus a "How to" romance writing book. (Check out her website.)

The moral of the story - never let anyone else tell you that you're not a writer. You only lose that title when you stop writing.

I came home really excited and can't wait to get back to my manuscript (after my nap, of course.)

Oh, and I got my roses today. DARA gives a white rose for the first sale and a pink one for every one after that. I love pink!!

So, I decided rejection letters would be a great subject for us to jaw about today. What's the best or worse one you've ever received? My best one came from the late Kate Duffy at Kensington who said I was a talented writer. The worst was a printed postcard with "No" on it.
Geez! Why bother?