Sedalia Writers Conference

Anytime Darrell Laurant is involved with a writing conference, I know it will be a great experience. The 4th Annual Sedalia Writers Conference the weekend of April 16th and 17th was different, however. This time the experience was more than great; it was more like fantastic, perhaps the best I've ever attended. Small enough to interact with other writers, those attending were eager to share their knowledge.

I rode with fellow Lake Writers Betsy Ashton and Karen Wrigley to Sedalia, a community in Bedford County nestled at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains. From 7:00 to 9:00, we mingled and talked with other writers, and listened to Kathleen Grissom, our scheduled keynote speaker. We returned to Sedalia Saturday morning for lots more.

Karen Wrigley, Kathleen Grissom, Betsy Ashton, Sally Roseveare
Photo courtesy of Betsy Ashton

Keynote speaker Kathleen Grissom wowed us with her story of how she came to write The Kitchen House, an historical fiction novel, and how she managed to get the perfect agent and have her book published with Simon and Schuster, a large main-stream publisher. In her soft voice, she read portions of her book, and, of course, I teared up a couple of times. I bought her book and have started reading. It is excellent.


Darrell Laurant, a long-time columnist for The News & Advance in Lynchburg, is a writer who always comes up with the perfect first sentence for each column he writes. Darrell talked to us about freelance writing. He started me thinking about branching out, perhaps writing for magazines.

Darrell Laurant
Photo courtesy of Betsy Ashton

Amy Allen talked about marketing, public relations, media relations, advertising, publicity and promoting authors' books. I plan to use some of her ideas. Amy's business is called Ruth Communications.

Dawn Dowdle is an editor and also a literary agent. New in the business, she is hoping to pick up more clients and find publishers for her clients.