Darlings! I’m back and with oodles and doodles of stories!!! Having said that, the question now becomes: hhhmmm…which story do I begin with?

Shall I tell them about waking up at 3am on Thursday so I could do the online check in with Westjet (thereby ensuring a REALLY good seat), and the 2 minute task turned into an hour wait because the site kept telling me there was an error in my information? The error as it turns out, was that when Airmiles booked the flight for me, they neglected to give me a first name and they spelt my last name incorrectly. My total appreciation to WestJet for clearing up the mess and getting me a seat on the plane.

Or do I talk about the marvellous lady I met while waiting for the plane? She was and older women (somewhere in the 70s) with an adorable Yorkshire Terrier named Lady who wore a jaunty red bow with white polka dots in her hair.

Do I dare confess that I actually shared a table with Loretta Chase, and only realized it at the end of the meal when she got up to leave?

What else? What else? The truth is that I have an absolutely marvellous time. Everyone was so wonderfully nice and helpful. I was curious about what the panel (which included Anne Groell, Sally Harding and Wanda Ottewell, Eileen Cook) had to say about the industry.

And this is what I learned: reading is subjective.

What a blinding revelation, huh? But a woman in the audience would ask a question, like: “How do you feel about multiple POV in one scene?” and one of the panelists would answer: “I HATE IT!!” and the other would say: “I LOVE IT!!” I also learned that everything I ever read about pitching is complete and total hogwash.

I didn’t have to get it perfect–point of fact, for both my pitches, I neglected to actually tell the editor or agent what the title was. I also pitched on 2 hours of sleep, courtesy of two snoring roommates (which is so incredibly funny a story, that I have to write about it seperately).

Wanda, Anne and Sally said that they’ve received beautiful pitches from writers who couldn’t write, and atrocious pitches from people whose writing moved them. So how’s that for taking off the pressure?

In another post, I’ll tell you everything I learned about pitching. All I really want to say in this installment is that I had a brilliant time. The GVC RWA did an absolutely fantastic job of arranging everything. They hold this Conference every year, and if you have a chance to attend, I strongly encourage you to attend.