Oh Where are You Sharpened Pencil?

"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: I wanted to know what I was going to say." ~Sharon O'Brien


This weekend, it will be quiet for some of us here. It is conference time again (hooray!) LTUE (Life, the Universe & Everything: The Marion K. ‘Doc’ Smith Symposiums) a free conference offered by the amazing people of BYU. Because of this, I am reposting a post from last years conference week.

So, Let it Begin

Today, an abundance of people (including myself) shall be at our first writer’s conference of the year. Am I excited? Oh, so much! I have been packing my backpack for weeks with the essential must haves:

MnMs (because I have a noisy stomach and really, no one wants to be startled by that thing!)
Pencils (even a pen, because I have broken a pencil a time or two and writing with plain wood just doesn’t work well. I did try to chew off the wood, but I had wood shavings stuck in my teeth for a week!)
Paper (To write on… and make spit wads to launch at people who are making me jealous). (j/k I would never do that, and that incident in New York last year - Not me.)
Tissue (For crying into because I’m still revising my book and want to show it off)
Crackers (Please see MnM’s above).
Notebook (At the conference last year I brought home piles and piles of notes! I expect the same today).
Deodorant (this one is pretty self explanatory).
Couple of chocolate bars (because chocolate is the magical food made by tiny magical creatures from a magical land *sigh * and it’s so, so good!)
A little extra coinage (for silly things like, food, bottled water, gas – stuff like that).
Antacid (There is a funny story behind this, I promise, but just not enough time to disclose. So sorry, and if you’ve heard the story * head hung low * you have my deepest sympathies).

So there you have it! My list of stuff that I am at this very moment dragging through the halls with other devoted writers, breathing in the fumes of excitement and hope. If you see me, feel free to ask for a handful of MnM’s, hopefully I haven’t eaten them all yet, but it is very possible that I still have a few good sheets of paper left for spit wads.