The second week of June of 2024 was a magical jump-start for my author career. I attended my first writers’ conference!

It was the Write-to-Publish conference at Wheaton University in Wheaton, Illinois. The conference is a division of the Christian Writers Institute, an excellent online institute from which I’ve taken many of my online writing courses. I have had the pleasure of meeting new friends. I have also met Brett Harris, who, along with his twin brother Alex, wrote “Do Hard Things.” I also met Steve Laube, a literary agent who runs the Steve Laube Agency, and whose courses I’ve taken on the Christian Writers Institute. His advice on book proposals and LLC’s was just what I needed. And of course, I met other authors. I was so happy to buy my very own copies of “Wisteria” by Ginny Graham, the “Heirs of Neverland” series by Kara Swanson, and the “Curious Realities” series by Sara Ella (and yes, I got these books all signed). I’ve already started reading these new books, and I’m already loving them! Yeah, I have always been the fairytale and fantasy freak (and proud of it).

And oh yes, I visited the Marion E. Wade Center. The place where you can view the books, works, papers, and even personal belongings of great British authors whose works have influenced Christianity and the literary world itself. Yes, this includes C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien! This right here is the very wardrobe owned by C.S. Lewis himself!

Talk about inspiration! I peeked inside. No Narnia, sadly. But you can look at these pictures of the very writing desks used by Lewis and Tolkien themselves!

It was so neat to see all these things by big-name fantasy authors admired by everyone. Hey, maybe someday, my own writing desk will be famous!

So why is a raven like a writing desk?

These were only a few of the highlights of the conference. I enjoyed many classes, fellowship with other writers, meetings with editors and agents, an invitation from Steve Laube to send Enclave Publishing a book proposal for my King Arthurian fantasy trilogy (WOO! Fingers crossed!), and a loud outdoor infestation of cicadas!