Friday's Highlight: LDStorymakers Conference

     Remember that post a while back about the Whitney Awards? (If you don't remember, click here.) Well, in that post I mentioned LDStorymakers which is associated with the Whitneys. LDS = Latter-day Saints, so it's made up of people who happen to be LDS who are also writers! But you don't have to be LDS to attend the awesome, upcoming writing conference, which is full of great support for any old body, you just have to be LDS and published in order to be a member of the organization. Make sense? I'm not a member of LDStorymakers (not published and all), but I am going to the upcoming conference --because I need all of the writing help I can get! This post is about the LDStorymakers conference. Let's proceed.

     The conference will be held from May 4 - 5, 2012 at the Provo Marriott, with an intensive boot camp on May 3rd (same place). Registration is open NOW and will close when the attendance is capped. So go register quick if you are interested! There's even a first chapter contest for unpublished writers (deadline Feb. 17th)!

     Author Rachel Anne Nunes began LDStorymakers in 2002. It was only a small online group of writers at that time, but grew big enough to hold a conference in 2004. Now it's a huge deal in the Utah writing community, which, if you pay attention to book news, is a huge deal in the publishing world in general.

     Author Kevin J. Anderson will be the big, big guest speaker this year. I was told that a class/workshop from him usually costs $1,000 or something, so this conference is a great opportunity to get some great advice for a great price! Other guests include super agents who will be doing pitch sessions, which I think are now full though...but you can check on that if you register. There will also be a slew of great authors present, both teaching and taking workshops at the conference. I'm so excited! Here's the general schedule, and here's the detailed PDF file of the schedule which is jam packed with writerly goodness! Yumm! Let me just throw out some names: Tristi Pinkston, Janette Rallison, Danyelle Leafty, Clint Johnson, David Wolverton (aka Farland), Elana Johnson, Jennifer Neilsen, Kiersten White, Howard Taylor, Jeff Savage, Rick Walton. You get the picture. Pure awesomeness. And there are just so many more great authors attending that I'd pass out from awesome overload if I tried to type them all.

So go check out LDStorymakers --it's going to be magical!

     And guess what? LDStorymakers is having a "Show Your Love" contest. Whoever can give the most hugs and kisses to the attending authors wins something amazing. No. I'm just kidding. (Because that would probably get you arrested.) The contest is to show your love for LDStorymakers by talking about it on your blog (voila!) or twitter or Facebook and you could win a seat at the VIP table at the conference gala! Here's the link for the contest!