Get You A “Tribe”…And An Update

Several months ago, a friend of mine from grad school invited me to join a local writers’ group. I was hesitant at first, given how overfull my schedule is already, but it has turned out to be the BEST decision I’ve made in a long time.

Having a group of people who can give me feedback, support, and encouragement (and to whom I can give feedback, support, and encouragement) has done wonders to keep me accountable and motivated to write. They’re also just fun to hang out with: caring, clever, and funny, so I always look forward to meeting with them on Zoom once a week!

Another consequence of joining the writing group was that they put the Superstars Writing Seminars conference on my radar, and as a few of the others were going, I decided to attend too! I’m SO glad I did. Superstars is a yearly conference in Colorado Springs, organized and attended by people like Kevin J. Anderson (!!!), with whom I ended up having a one-on-one career counseling session (!!!). Besides its incredible collection of celebrity authors/narrators – Ray Porter, James A. Owen, Jim Butcher, Cindy Gunderson, Todd McCaffrey, and more – it also provides a deluge of useful info for writers at all stages of their journey. From writing/plotting strategies to everything pertaining to the “business of writing” – query letters, self-publishing, marketing, tax codes, and a breakdown of nearly any tool you might wish to use in your writing journey (e.g. TikTok, Draft2Digital) – it has it all! Most importantly, it fosters an incredibly supportive community that calls itself “The Tribe.” Enthusiasm and encouragement rule the day; everyone there truly believes “a rising tide lifts all boats” when it comes to the book world.

In other words, I now have both a small and a large community of people on whom I can lean to help me achieve my goals (and for whom I can also provide support). It’s absolutely wonderful, and I highly recommend it to anyone who’s trying to make their way in this writing world.

(View from Cheyenne Mountain Resort, where the Superstars Conference was held)

All that being said, I also have an UPDATE!!! I pitched Her Undying Thirst to an agent at the Superstars Writing conference, and she requested my full manuscript! I had been planning to self-publish it soon, but now that I have at least a glimmer of hope on the trad publishing path, I’m going to see how all that goes before I commit to self-publication. I will keep you all updated as the process continues!

In Proximum, Regina Vestra