Sorry I’ve been gone for so long! I traveled to Las Vegas for a Writer’s Workshop and I was busier than I anticipated. I’m going to give you a day by day so it’s not too overwhelming. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pictures. I was too busy taking in the sights!
Friday-
We traveled down to Vegas from Northern Utah. It was a great day for the drive. We made it to St. George where we stopped at Barnes and Noble. We were in the car for over 4 hours so it was nice to take a break. I held myself to two books and I ended up with a couple manga. I’ve read through them both over the weekend and heartily enjoyed them. I won’t do a full review but I might do a summary of them both. We made it to Las Vegas fairly early. We stayed at Excalibur which was fun. Unfortunately, the pools hours were from 10-5. So, we didn’t get to swim at all. That night we did a little shopping and had a yummy dinner.
Saturday-
I was up and at the Westgate hotel to sign in early. The first section was about traditional publishing vs. self publishing. It was very informative. My understanding of self publishing was out of date so it was good to learn more about current practices. It was especially interesting to learn about the differences between traditional self publishing and assisted self publishing. We also discussed building your platform, which was valuable to me, not only as an author, but as a blogger as well. We also had a speaker on editing and the different types of editing. The last speaker of the day was Brendon Burchard, author of The Motivation Manifesto. He spoke on motivation, framework, and visualization. It made for a day that was an excellent blend of information and encouragement. Saturday night we had dinner at the Luxor buffet. It was so yummy! I especially liked the desserts! We finished the night with some shopping. I found an adorable vintage shirt from Tatyana Boutique in Planet Hollywood.
Sunday-
It was another day at the conference. We heard from Dr. Christiane Northrup and that was so fun! Her personality made her fun to listen to and she had an excellent writing exercise that she taught. After that we heard from Amy Weiss, author of Cresendo (coming in May). She has published both fiction and nonfiction so she discusesed the differences in publication of the two. After that Reid Tracy and Kelly from KN Literary talked about book proposals. They went very in depth on each aspect of the proposal when submitting to Hay House, Agents, and other publishing houses. This was by far the most informative part of the conference. I learned SO much. After being under the impression that all you needed was a cover letter and your work, I was in for a big surprise. It will be a lot of work, but I feel much more prepared! The final speaker of the event was Nancy Levin. Her emphasis was on healing before you write about your trauma. It was a very interesting and I enjoyed it. I definitely want to read her book.
Sunday night we went to Martin Short and Steve Martin’s comedy show. They were playing in The Colosseum at Caesars palace. It was a bit of a pain getting there, but the show was fantastic! I laughed so hard! It was a fun show and I’m so glad we went, even if we were in the nosebleeds.
Monday-
It was a long day. The drive home is always longer than the drive there. We stopped for Sushi in St. George at Sakura (one of my favorite sushi restaurants.) It was a nice break but it meant we hit some traffic later which was irritating. But we made it home to our kitty safe and sound! And the cuddles I got were definitely enjoyable.
Overall-
It was a great weekend. I learned a lot and I’m excited to implement what I learned! I’m going to include a list of book recommendations I got as well as books that were mentioned that I’m thinking about reading. If you’ve read any of them I’d love to hear what you thought.
Platform by Michael Hyatt
The Motivation Manifesto by Brendon Burchard
Writing the Mind Alive by Linda Metcalf
Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
The Color Purple by Alex Walker
The Universe Has Your Back by Gabby Bernstein
May Cause Miracles by Gabby Bernstein
Spirit Junkie by Gabby Bernstein
Jump and Your Life Will Appear by Nancy Levin
I’m sure there is a lot that goes into publishing a book that the mainstream doesn’t know. It’s great that you were able to learn about your craft and do some other fun stuff. Steve Martin and Martin Short must have been hilarious! What a once in a lifetime thing to experience. I hope you had fun and learn a lot. What type of book do you want to publish?
I’m ghost writing a self-help book currently! I’m not sure if I’m interested in writing my own book, I’m mainly focusing on my blog. But I guess we’ll see what happens!