In October of 2015, I attended the Surrey International Writer's Conference for the first (and only, so far) time. I was so inspired, energized, had such grand designs...

More like delusions of grandeur! 

Flash forward to 2018, I did very little with the insight, knowledge, skills, and connections from that conference. My life went riiiight off track, for many reasons. If you follow my writing, you'll learn these reasons as days go. But my post today isn't as much about how I've gone off track but how I'm getting back on track! Back on the scene.

I met so many people that week, from agents to writers to publishers. Did very little follow up at the time, except with the lovely Jill Marr, an agent, with whom I then again dropped the ball. So, today, I dug up my program from the SiWC and followed a whole heap of people on Twitter. So if you were recently followed by me, there's a very good chance that we've actually had a conversation. One writer I've followed for ages is the incomparable Michael Slade. I am a HUGE fan of Headhunter and there was no way I was going to pass up a chance to meet and learn from him - and I did - that's us together below! (enter fangirl squee here) Anyway, I'm not trying to namedrop or humblebrag but rather give my head a little shake and say, come on Jen, you did allll this before, build on it now! And I am!

Back then, I had entered two submissions, neither of which were accepted. Hit pause.

March, 2018, I've submitted three very different works (one fiction, two creative non-fiction) to three very different publications since February 28. One, I've already received a very kind rejection letter about, but that's ok. Because that's all part of the process. You don't know unless you try. You don't get published unless you submit (or self-publish, as I did with La Sinistre, just because I wanted to). You don't learn unless you attempt, and even make mistakes. One of my friends commented once on how failure is sometimes crashing and burning, but at least it can be your own gloriously-claimed crashing and burning that you OWN and that you learn from.

So that's where I am at. I am trying, I might crash and burn, but I also will, at some point, fly! 

This day we write? Heck yeah!!

And Jill, should you happen to read this, you can expect to hear from me again. (enter confident wink here)