Remembering Gary

You know, just writing yesterday’s blog has brought back a ton of memories. Mostly about Gary Provost, whom I heard several people speak highly of at this year’s conference as we reminisced. Gary, also known as The Writer’s Writer, spoke at the conference I coordinated in 1989, then came back to speak at Pennwriters in 1995.

The Pennwriters conference is usually the second weekend in May, unless that weekend celebrates Mother’s Day. In 1995, Mother’s Day was May 14. So the Pennwriters conference was moved up a week that year. Gary was our special guest speaker. I was outgoing president, and sat next to him at dinner on Friday night. He wasn’t feeling well. He had a tremendous backache. I and the others at the table felt for him. What writer doesn’t have back problems, or get a backache that ‘just won’t quit’ now and then. He had also been traveling a lot, he said, and that can be hard on anyone’s back.

He completed his workshops the following day—another example of an author dedicated to delivering what he promised--and left the conference as soon as he could to go home and rest. Three days later he was dead of a massive heart attack. I later learned that backaches are a little known (at the time, anyway) symptom of what is called an asymptomatic heart attack. Today every heart attack website I checked lists back pain and nausea as something to watch out for. Not all heart attacks start with chest pains.

He was only 50, the same age I am now. Shocked along with the rest of the writing world, I wrote an article for the newsletter in his memory. Looking him up again yesterday, seeing the legacy his kind and gracious widow Gail has carried on in his absence, brought back all those memories. Gary and Gail asked me to be one of the first distributors of their Video Novel Workshop—an idea well ahead of its time. But, not being a salesperson of any kind of stripe, I didn’t do so well for them. In the end, I donated my copy to the Pennwriters library.

Still, my quote is on their video novel workshop promo page, and it lists me as the author of Ashton’s Secret, the same (but hugely improved, thanks to all I learned from Gary) book that is currently available on Amazon (with the purple cover) and will be released in ebook by The Wild Rose Press on June 26.

I’ve listened to all of Gary’s cassette tapes, over and over and over again. Watched the Video Novel Workshop. Read most of his books on writing. Corresponded with him directly. As I said yesterday, Make Every Word Count was my favorite of his books, and I recommend it to this day. I noticed just now when I clicked on the link for it from Gary’s site, it took me to the same Amazon page I had been on yesterday, and the number of copies had gone down by two.

Coincidence? I think not. Bless you, whoever you are. Your writing will improve immeasurably, I guarantee it.

The only thing left for me to do now is attend Gary’s Writer’s Retreat Workshop, a ten-day workshop currently running $1650, all materials, meals and lodging included. Not this year—I’m already going to RWA nationals in July, but it’s certainly something to think about for 2010. And it’s within driving distance….how could I have missed that all these years? I really need to step away from the keyboard now and then and see what’s going on in the world.

So anyway, that’s my little trip down memory lane, and I’ll be back some other time with memories of this year’s conference. I found the program, by the way. After looking for it for an hour, it was within reach from my keyboard. As my mother says, “If it had been a snake, it would have bit you.” I found it accidentally (of course), while searching for something else (of course), which I still haven’t found. Definitely time for a serious office cleaning.

P.S. I did find out why Tim Esaias was tossed out of the organization during the 2009 conference. It was at the Saturday morning business meeting. Apparently during a polling of the membership on some issue, he was the only NAY-sayer. So the president disenfranchised him on the spot. I’m sure he’s back in the organization’s good graces by now, especially after his wonderfully inspiring keynote speech. More on this later, too :).

Sunday's Inspirational Quote

Four weeks ago today the 2009 Pennwriters conference ended. Amazing how time flies. But between recurring car troubles and my parents visiting for a week and several other projects I needed to get off my desk, I simply haven’t had time to sit down and reflect on the conference. I do know it was one of the best conferences I’ve ever attended anywhere, and for that, kudos go out to Annette Dashofy, conference coordinator extraordinaire, who managed to make the whole weekend look effortless. Check out her Diary of a Conference Coordinator blog here.

My biggest surprise was to check the conference schedule the night before and find out it started at 9:00 a.m. on Friday instead of noon, as it has in years past. (Although not in recent years past, but I was fixated on noon for some reason.) I managed to get there around 11:00 a.m. and check in before heading on down to a delicious—best conference food I’ve ever had—Published Author’s Luncheon with two guest speakers.

The first was copyright attorney Heather S. Heidlebaugh who impressed upon us the absolute necessity of having our work registered with the copyright office, and the second was former Pennwriters keynote speaker D.L. Wilson, author of Unholy Grail, whom I was unfortunately unable to stick around for, as my workshop on dialogue had inadvertently been scheduled next door at the same time.

So I slipped out of the luncheon to prepare myself for my workshop, which was the best attended of my workshops for Pennwriters over the years, and went off without a hitch, except for the fact that due to chemical sensitivities to perfume and such, I developed a tickle in my throat and started to lose my voice during the presentation.

Finally I had to ask if anyone had a piece of gum or cough drop with which to keep my throat lubricated so I could get the words out. I didn’t plan to give my talk unprofessionally chomping on a piece of gum, but you do what you have to do, and I kept thinking of friend and fellow author Susan Meier, another past president of Pennwriters and former keynote speaker I had once witnessed giving an all-day workshop in the midst of a horrendous cold, and the image of Susan gamely carrying on and delivering what she had promised the group despite her obvious misery inspired me to keep going.

The workshop went well—I handed out 19 of my 20 handouts, and just before the end D.L. Wilson stopped by for moral support and asked a question about dialect I had skipped during my presentation due to keeping an eye on the clock, enabling me to deliver my workshop in full. Thank you, David :). After that, I headed upstairs for my editor/agent appointment, which as anyone who has been to one knows can be a harrowing or even devastating experience, both of which I have survived in the past, but this time went extremely well—her last words to me were, “How soon can you get it to me?”

It doesn’t get any better than that.

After that, I was free to relax and enjoy my weekend. Which is exactly what I did. Twenty years ago I was the Pennwriters conference coordinator. How things have changed since 1989! When I did the conference, it was an optional Friday night cocktail party—I still remember Susan’s awesome dress!--and a one-day conference on Saturday, with one headline speaker--in my case the late and totally great Gary Provost—lecturing for most of the day. My, how we made that poor man work. But we wanted to know everything he could possibly tell us about writing. I still regularly recommend his book Make Every Word Count, which is long since out of print can only be found on Amazon, used. The other speakers that day were Victoria Thompson, Carla Neggers, and Alice Orr. But we only had one speaker scheduled at a time.

Now we start at 9:00 a.m. on Friday and closing ceremonies are at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, with three choices of workshops to attend at any given time, a slew of editor/agent appointments, a banquet with a headline speaker, a business meeting breakfast, an awards luncheon, the aforementioned published authors luncheon, an authors’ autographing tea—loved those brownies!!--a cocktail party or some other social event (in previous years we’ve gone to the racetrack or on a riverboat cruise, or had a murder mystery play or masquerade party—come as your favorite literary character), and read and critique sessions long into the night. Not to mention the bookstore, merchandise table, basket raffles, writing contests and numerous other activities in the hospitality suite. See what I mean? Annette and her committee did an amazing job. See Annette's photo album of the conference here.

I’ve attended 19 of the 22 Pennwriters conferences to date. That’s a lot of people met and a lot of memories to relive, and relive them we did. I can’t remember when I spent so much time laughing and just having a non-stop good time. I spent most of my down time hanging out in the lobby, reminiscing with old friends about conferences past, and making new ones, including my roommate, fellow Wild Rose Press author Sharon Donovan. The hotel we were at was the same one we’ve been going to in Pittsburgh for years, despite many name changes, and there never fails to be a wedding or a prom night full of elegantly-dressed attendees to entertain us and fuel our writers’ imaginations as we sit in the lobby schmoozing.

My only regret from the weekend is that I didn’t get enough one-on-one time with some of my favorite people, fellow writers I only get to see once a year at the conference. It was like my high school reunion. Never an idle moment, and much too short to fit everyone in. But I did my best to catch up with everyone I could, despite attending more workshops than ever before, because the line up was just too good to pass up. In years past, I was on the board, and so busy attending meetings and dealing with moment-to-moment glitches, that I missed the entire conference. Nobody realizes how much goes on behind the scenes at these things until you’ve been in the trenches, volunteering your heart out for the good of the organization. There were other conferences where I was so busy kibbutzing in the halls or hospitality suite, that I didn’t make it to a single workshop.

Not so this year. But I’m afraid I’ll have to tell you more about that next time, because to refresh my menopausal memory, I have to find my conference program, which isn’t happening this morning. Apparently a thorough office cleaning is in order :). I even checked the Pennwriters website, but all the information has been taken down in preparation for next year’s conference.

So more on the workshops, and the inspiration of banquet keynote speaker Lisa Scottoline and awards luncheon keynote and fellow (albeit currently former) Pennwriter Tim Esaias next time. (Tim seems to think he was thrown out of the organization—all in good fun, mind you--during the conference). Since I’ll be contacting him this week on another matter, I’ll see if I can get the scoop :))

Until then, consider attending a writer’s conference near you. You never know what will come out of it, and you’ll be making memories to last a lifetime.