I attended the DFW Writers Conference this past weekend and had an absolutely wonderful time. The weekend started with a pre-conference mixer on Friday evening, open only to members of the DFW Writers Workshop and the agents and editors who had been invited to the conference. I’m not normally comfortable in such social settings, but I did manage to have several great conversations with my fellow DFWWW members and with a few agents and editors.

I had recently finished the second draft of my murder thriller, the title of which I have changed from Nightmare Killer to The Tattoo Collector (although that new title is also subject to change). I did sign up to pitch that novel to an agent as well as talk about the new memoir I just started writing, which will be called something like Nude : My 40 Years as an Art Model. My pitch session was scheduled for Sunday morning, so I spent Saturday networking, going to classes, and listening to a lunchtime interview with our first keynote speaker Dave Eggers. My favorite of those classes was called “DROP THE PEN!: What Every Writer Should Know About Real Police Work” which was presented with style by David L. Williams.

After the lunchtime keynote address, I was one of eleven raffle winners who got a ten minute one-on-one consultation with bestselling author Dave Eggers. He and I had a fantastic conversation about the memoir I just started and about art modeling in general. Dave had gone to art school and still regularly attends figure drawing sessions.

My pitch session on Sunday morning went well. The agent requested that I send her part of the novel, which I intend to do once I’ve decompressed from the conference. The keynote speaker at lunch on Sunday was author and actress Evangeline Lilly who is probably best known for her roles in Marvel’s Ant-Man movies, Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit films, and the TV show Lost but is also the author of a series of children’s books called The Squickerwonkers. My granddaughter’s sixth birthday was two days after the conference, so I bought her a set of those books for Evangeline to sign. I also managed to get a photo with Evangeline who was a delight to have at the conference. She was there for the whole thing, attending classes and other events. She certainly didn’t act like movie star that weekend; she was one of us.

So many people at the DFW Writers Workshop put their heart and soul into the conference, especially Brooke Fosse and Brian Tracey and a whole bunch of volunteers. This was my first writers conference since 2015, but I’m already looking forward to the 2024 event.