The Best Book Events

I have to start getting my material ready for my next workshop. It's going to be in Dayton Ohio(in October)on finding a literary agent. Actually, I'm doing two. The other one is getting your book into bookstores, the same one I did in Dallas last month. I must say the Black Writers Reunion and Conference in Dallas was very well put together! Tia did a great job. Now, I would participate in that one again. Some other good ones are The National Book Club Conference held in Atlanta, our former Summit at Sea Cruise (this one is the most fun and first on my list), the Miami BookFair, and the Pen to Paper Literary Symposium which is the one I'm doing in October. I encourage anyone who needs direction on publishing, marketing and promoting to attend as many of these book events as possible. They really help!

Lots of Changes!

Wow! I can't beliiiiieve January was the last time I wrote in this blog! And well... I changed my mind about med school and all that. After doing more extensive research (Optometry was what I was strongly considering), like actually visiting some doctors and seeing what the field is really like, I decided that's not for me. For one thing I just can't seem to get writing out of my system!

When I said that I wanted a career change, a part of me was well... frustrated by my 9 to 5 job. They had just announced lay-offs two months earlier, and although they were planning to ax us soon, it seems like they were doing everything they could to get us to just quit. That way they wouldn't have to pay us any severance. Not that they had to anyway, because technically it's a gift. I felt like, dang here I put my little magazine and writing organization on hold and went back to this? I stopped writing full-time for this? No way! Somethings gotta change so I don't fall into this rat race again only to be let down by corporate America... again. This was my first layoff. It wasn't that I was heart broken (well a little), or worried about how I was gonna make it. I just felt like I took two steps back.

Anyway, I did make a change. I started my own business (again). Another writing business. Only this time I'm not trying to run 2 or 3 different businesses and handle a million different things all at the same time. See, while they were busy getting our severance package ready, I was busy test marketing my business. It's a Resume Writing and Consulting business by the way. I started it back in December of 2005, one month after they announced the layoffs. I was doing it part-time, and once I realized that if I put my all into it I could do it full-time, I made plans for that... to go full-time in June. And that's what I did. I have a beautiful office, steady clientale, and I feel like I'm making a difference by helping people. I can still write my books, and do workshops and seminars. I love this! Making a living doing my own thing couldn't be better. I haven't looked back since, and I don't plan to.