Writing Conference and Other Summer Stuff

     Last Saturday I went to the Successful Writer Conference in Tulsa, which I also attended last year, where it was in Wagoner. (Most people would say "second annual", but Dr. Eversole always says that you can't say "annual" until something is held at least three years in a row.)
     It was held at Tulsa Bible Church, and it was an uncommon experience. Uncommon because there was a bunch of other people around who also cared about writing well and who were seeking to get better. That was a good-strange, though. Met a cool retired guy named Jerry; we talked for a while during lunch. He was a missionary in Africa for twenty years before starting and directing a ministry for international students at TU. We were very much outnumbered, though; I'd guess about forty-five women attended the conference to five men. There was this common-sense-full agent named Terry Burns who was one of the speakers; his sessions were really great. One focused on the rules which needed to be followed in order to have a chance at being published, and the other focused, basically, on how to do our work of fiction(or whatever) as best we could, trusting that the Lord will do what He wants with what we do, in order to accomplish His purposes. It was kind of a sermon, almost.

     In books I've read recently...did a thorough mark-everything-all-up reading of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird(I love that one), and read a bunch of nonfiction. Reagan: The Hollywood Years, by Marc Eliot, was very interesting. His idea was that everyone always talks about Reagan the politician, but in order to really understand that Reagan, we needed to understand Reagan the actor. And then it goes into his childhood and college years, which led up to going to Hollywood; it's a good read. Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, by Andrew Lycett, was disappointing. It was extremely British; full of high-class snobbishness. That could have been overcome; after all, Fleming lived just as those walls were coming down. (He was about fifteen years younger than Agatha Christie.) But more drearily; the biographer felt he had to give every single detail of the life-histories of anyone who came into Fleming's life at any point. That was what was so unbearable about it. But I did finish, just because I hate to leave books half-finished. (That reminds me, at some point I need to finish The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. I got a little less than halfway through while we were visiting at the Guenthers a couple weeks ago.) Anyway, the biographer used referenced a lot of British terms without explaining what they meant, so that was a bit of a distraction. Fleming was a strange man, was about all I got out of it. Starting a biography of George Burns and Gracie Allen called Say Goodnight, Gracie! The Story of Burns and Allen, written by Cheryl Blythe and Susan Sackett. (Easy to remember the authors, because they're both also the names of famous families of literature; the Blythes of Lucy Maud Montgomery and the Sacketts of Louis L'Amour.)  
     The other books I've been reading I bought at the conference. Blogging for Writers, by Robin Houghton, which provided some useful info. Mostly that resulted in tweaks to my writing blog, You Keep Using That Word... Also A Writer's Survival Guide to Getting Published, by Terry Burns, and Writing in Obedience: A Primer for Christian Fiction Writers, by Terry Burns and Linda Yezak. Normally I wouldn't buy someone's book just because I heard them speak, but he was so good that I had to scoop up two of the nonfiction ones. Both of his books that I got were pretty much expansions of what he'd said during the sessions, so they were good purchases.
     And my favorite baby-name book of all time, the very appropriately-titled Very Best Baby Name Book in the Whole Wide World, collected by Bruce Lansky. That was the one sitting around the duplex in Broken Arrow when Mom was pregnant with Courtney, so I'd sometimes look at all the different names while offering suggestions(like "Orin Morgan Megan Bo Coburn III"...but I was four/five, so...yeah.) Anyway, baby-name books are extremely helpful when finding just-the-right-name for a character. It may just be me, but I have to have the perfect name right off in order to understand who each character is. Because what do you first learn about somebody when you meet them? Their name! Everything else follows from that bit of information. Especially now on the internet.

     Watched the entire Toy Story trilogy last night with the commentary on; that was an espresso shot of inspiration and reminder of why I love storytelling so much, with possibly a clue as to what the next step would be? I don't know. Just dreaming. Besides, I can't draw. But one of the animators who designed most of the sequence where Woody escapes from Sunnyside, according to director Lee Unkrich, can't draw very well. And he said that he wasn't much of an artist, either. And Pete Docter has said that he's never been that good at drawing, technically, either. Anyway, I have checked the Pixar website every couple months over the past year to see if there were any available intern positions. (There hasn't been any.)
     With Inside Out coming to theaters next week, I've got to hurry up on my ranking of all fifteen Pixae movies....

     Starting a new project with Ashland, should be neat to see where that goes. We're thinking either something completely off-the-wall and new, or a further adventure of Diana and Jason. We'll see what happens there...

     Spent a lot of time with Amy this week; reading books, playing board games, that kind of thing. It's been kind of nice.
     The Stanley Cup Final got started on Wednesday; so of course I watched that. Amy did, too. And then for parts here and there everybody else did, too. Continuing the I-can't-even-remember-how-long streak of "Teams I'm Cheering For" losing, Tampa's early lead got wiped away by two quick Chicago goals late and the Blackhawks prevailed over the Lightning. I think that streak might've started with the Thunder's loss to the Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals... The Warriors beat the Cleveland LeBrons Cavaliers(yuck) last night; didn't watch that. American Pharaoh could become the first horse in forever to win the Triple Crown on Saturday.
   
     Rags enjoys Pixar movies and hockey games, unlike Cary Grant movies. (How can you not like Cary Grant? Every time anyone watches one of his movies, she always hides somewhere far away or falls asleep immediately. Strange cat...) Caleb's Great Pyrenees puppies Andy and Thelma Lou are really cute and friendly. And calm. The goats are all giving milk now; one of the doelings has already sold, and the other bucklings will be ready to sell pretty soon. Sassy gave over half a gallon of milk last night. Courtney and Mom are pretty happy about that.