Scenes from the Midsouth Conference in Nashville, Tennessee

The woman on the far right is Kristi Valiant.  She was awarded Honorable Mention for the Illustrator Contest held at the Midsouth Writers Conference.  The thing about Kristi is, not only is she filled with talent and an incredibly hard worker, but you can tell she really enjoys what she's doing.  She is in my SCBWI (The Society of Children Book Writers and Illustrators) critique group in Evansville.  Kristi is also the new Regional Advisor for the SCBWI in southern Indiana.  I'm pretty certain I speak for everyone in the critique group when I say, we are proud of her as well as grateful for her sharing her opinions honestly.  She is a very knowledgeable person. 

This picture was taken at the conference as well.  The woman on the left is Christie Atherton, the leader of our Evansville critique group. Like Kristi, she is a person with a lot of talent and working hard at her craft.  Standing with her is a woman from her online critique group.  Yes-- Christie is in two critique groups.  She also writes for the Evansville Courier & Press and goes to school.

I managed to get Laura McGrail (sp?) in a picture too (she's in the blue and white shirt).  She traveled separately from the rest of us--her husband and daughter came along to have fun in Nashville while she attended the conference.  Laura is a School Psychologist in Henderson.  She travels  once a month to meet with us at the Barnes & Noble in Evansville.  She's another talented writer...

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of Aimee Blume : (  We roomed together at the Embassy suites where the conference was held.  She is a feature writer for the Evansville Courier, a musician (plays the bag pipes), a chef, a teacher, and writer of fantasy fiction.  I didn't get a picture of her because while everyone was socializing Friday night, she was up in the room working on an article.  I intend to rectify that one of these days soon!  Oh yeah, she also rescues animals!

  Between these women, the book "Writing the Breakout Novel" by Donald Maass, reading in the genre I write, learning from the experts at conferences, and working on grammar and punctuation, I should finish editing my manuscript one of these days and I'll be darn happy about it because when I say finish I mean I'll like it myself.

A Model of the Church and Farm my Dad Grew up on Made by Ordean Synstelien

 Two weeks ago Bruce and I went to Knoxville, Tennessee. We saw the Smokey Mountains, listened to bluegrass music, and visited some of my relatives. My uncle Ordean has a workshop where he spends time making things out of wood and polishing rocks. He really does nice work-- the lid on the baptismal font in the front of the church even lifts off!

The model below if of the Lutheran Church my father's family attended. Note the hymnals-- they donated the 'new blue hymnals' in memory of my dad's brother, Duane, who was hit by a train as a teenager.

            

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

 

 My uncle, Ordean, made a model of the farm he and my dad grew up on. There weren't very many pictures to go by so he got together with his brothers and sister to remember how things were inside and out.



His work is very detailed.  I really felt like I'd stepped back in time.  Life was a lot different then.  I could see how much more work was involved with everything they did, but that was the way it was--it was ordinary to them. 

This is a model of the house they lived in (above).  The school (below). 


This is a picture of the school they went to.






The restrooms were a little different back in the day.

 

Attitude

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on

(left)Katherine Martin, Donna Feagley
 and Diana Kellogg(right)
Doyne Moreland (background)

(Taken at the LakeRidge Crossing Clubhouse)

the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Charles R. Swindoll quotes (American Writer and Clergyman, b.1934)

Katherine Martin (center) founded C.J.'s Bus in response to her personal experience surviving a disaster.  This bus goes to disaster sites to help care for young children that have parents busy with what the weather placed before them.  The bus is named after her child C.J. who died in the 2006 tornado that hit Evansville and Newburgh.  The other women in the photograph are from the Altrusa International of Evansville club.  They are presenting Katherine with baby dolls and match box cars for the kids on the bus.