Colorado Writing Conference

I attended a regional writing conference last weekend and had a good time. I needed to be re-energized and re-motivated, and that happened. I came home exhausted, but excited about possibilities again. It was especially helpful to hear the stories from recently-pubbed authors about how they got there. And how long it took. There wasn't much of a selection of agents/editors, so I didn't set up a pitch appointment. Or, at least not a selection that was helpful paranormally. In fact, some of the agents/editors didn't even handle fiction, which was odd because that was the focus of the conference. And, yet again, I was acutely conscious of the arrogant-to-the-point-of-being-rude attitude held by some young publishing professionals. At this conference, one of the young agents waved her hand dismissively while she talked about how she doesn't accept query letters, and woe be upon the fool who dares to send one. It was helpful to listen to her, because I'm sure we wouldn't be a good fit, so I won't bother. On another note, I'm back in the dead zone regarding all my own writing. No word from the other agent who has the full, or from the pub that's had it for 5 months now. I sent them a note, asking about the status of my submission, and hopefully that will let me know if the return packet got lost in the mail or if it's still languishing on a desk somewhere. No word from the other agents who had asked for 3 chapters, etc. No word from the e-pub I submitted my short story to. And Dorchester has had the requested 3 chapters/synopsis for an entire year. I can't even imagine how long it would take them to read a full! Sigh.