I ate too much, talked too much, flitted from place to place too much and had the most creatively inspiring and awesomely fun weekend.
I loved meeting new friends and catching up with old ones (not that they’re old, but you know what I mean.)

You know how they say that writers are different? Well, I think they may be right this time. At least, we usually feel different in a crowd. Most of us embrace that difference but every now and then, it’s good to be surrounded by people who are just as different as you are–making you the same!

The synchonicity at a writer’s conference feels SO GOOD! Like the world is on the right path and all our wave lengths are in accord. (Now’s the time to give me a 1960’s “Groovy”.) But really. Remember the precious times in your life where you feel like you are exactly where you are meant to be at that particular second, and you are totally surrounded by good intentions? That’s how it felt this weekend.

Absolutely awesome!

The Gift of Dyslexia click the cover to go to amazon.com

For my right-handed spouse, my mouse is a great source of frustration-especially when I move it to the right side. But my arm gets tired. And my mind doesn’t seem to mind the switch. To me the buttons aren’t on the left or the right, they’re on the inside or the outside.
If this doesn’t make any sense to you, but it does to someone you know, then let me tell you about this great book I found while researching my latest novel.

The Gift of Dyslexia has been on my bookshelf for ages. I picked it up from a bargain bin years ago. I was searching for the right words when I finally opened it. One of my characters has dyslexia. You’d think I could have used real-life examples, but that’s the thing about dyslexia. It’s different for everyone. And here’s the real kicker–on different days, at different times, it’s different for the person who is dyslexic.

Understanding what I just said is not has hard as it first appears. Read the book.
Everything about the way my thoughts track and my mind spins is described so very accurately in Ron Davis’ 250 pages. I can’t vouch for his theories on why dyslexia happens. Nor can I confirm or deny his training methods, but he’s got the processes inside my head exactly right.

If you are a spouse, a parent or a teacher to anyone who you think may be dyslexic, please, please, please read this book! You’ll make your life easier as well as their lives.

BTW, you can pick up a used copy from Amazon for as little as a couple of dollars if they have used ones for sale. The title above is a link. Well worth the investment!

Then a church friend invited me to a writer’s retreat.  She said the idea just popped into her head to ask me to go with her.  Divine Intervention?  Definitely.

So off we went to southern Arkansas to a great bed and breakfast called Mountain Thyme owned my Rhonda and Mike Hicks. (Rhonda, I didn’t get a snow photo. Send me one and I’ll post it.) Annette Smith led this retreat that I will never forget.

There were about a half-dozen of us, in all stages of our writing exploration. Anette led us through some quick timed writing exercises, gently guiding us into digging deeper into our work.

And the block was broken!

Here’s one of the timed pieces I wrote

This big fellow got confused with our freezing-to-spring temperature swings. He was moving in slow motion, hiding his head beneath a leaf and thinking the rest of him was hidden.

I moved him someplace safe so predators (like my husband who believes in the ‘no good snakes’ theory) couldn’t get him.

I know what kind of snake this is. Do you? Take a guess.

Some people get cut flowers.  Others get candy.  But I got something so much better!  I got a freezer full of meat.  Hurrah!

A beef salesmen drove near my DH’s job selling sealed meet in a box (like Omaha steaks but a different brand) and hubby knew it would be the perfect gift for me.

I’ve already tried the filet mignon.  Yum.  Yes, meat is the perfect Valentine’s Day gift.

I asked for a snow day today and my boss said no.   :{  I’ve got to get my pages written and since I don’t even have to change out of my warm, fuzzy p.j. or leave the house, there’s not excuse.

I have the meanest boss.

And yes, for those of you who know, that boss is me.  But I know this for a fact:

If I don’t write it, they can’t buy it.

So, I’m signing off and getting back to work.

Later….

I LOVE writing conferences.  They renew and validate and inspire me.  I’m especially excited about my local chapter’s writing conference.

I’m co-coordinator this year.  Yes, that means I’m the big kahuna (translation: the one responsible if anything goes wrong).  But everything is going write–make that right–so far. We’ve got seven agents and editors, a big-time publicist and a CRM for Barns & Noble.  Check out this list:

• AGENTS
  Laura Bradford, Agent, Bradford Literary Agency
  Terry Burns, Agent, Hartline Literary Agency
  Melissa Jeglinski, Agent, The Knight Agency
  Beth Miller, Agent Assistant, Writers House
• EDITORS
  Wanda Ottewell, Senior Editor, Harlequin SuperRomance
  Laurie Rauch, Executive Editor, Samhain Publishing
  Jessica Sebor, Editor, Random House/Bantam Dell
• BOOKSELLER
  Elizabeth Hadwin, CRM, Barnes & Noble
• PUBLICIST
• Sarah Reyes, Fresh Fiction

Plus we’ve got three tracks of workshops for everyone from beginners to uber-published and 2 networking parties for playing and schmoozing.

I’m so proud of our efforts this year. (I was in charge of agent invitations.  I did well, huh?)

It’s almost too late to come, but you can still  register for the conference  here.

Drop me a comment for inside scoop or questions.

First off,

Remembering to check your favorite blogs every day is a pain and often gets forgotten. But wouldn’t a teeny-tiny bit of your life be easier if you could get links to the newest blog posts right in front of you the second your bring your computer to life? Then you can choose to click on the titles and read those yummy posts right then, or wait until later, like when you’re stuck on the phone with your mother or waiting for the pharmacist to answer.

You might want to print this out while you set up your computer. Don’t worry. You can’t mess it up! (And if you do, just drop me a comment and I’ll tell you how to fix it.)
As with life and art, there are several ways to get a blog feed on your computer. I’m only going to tell you about one. It’s the one I use, so of course, I’m biased, but I think it’s the most convenient.

First, we are going to rely on dear old Google to help us out. Google has lots of freebies. Today, we’ll use their personal Google page called iGoogle.

1. Where you usually type in website addresses, type igoogle.com and enter
2. Make this page your homepage.

• Look at the top of your page for Tools and click it
• Select Internet Options
• Click General
• in the big white box that has a picture of a house next to it type in http://www.google.com/ig
• at the bottom of the page, click the OK button

Hurrah! That’s the hard part. And it wasn’t even hard, was it?
You will see that Google already gave you some stuff on your page, weather, an offer to sign up for gmail, a clock , maybe a video and some blogs they like but I’m not too enthused about.

Techno Warning: Here’s a bell and whistle. Skip this if you want to.
Up in the far right corner, you’ll see a little underlined link Sign in . If you have gmail or a blogspot account or any number of other things, you may already have a google account, which is your gmail address and your password. If you want to sign in, you can. Advantages to signing in are that you are making your page in cyberspace and can access it from any computer, your desktop, your laptop, the hotel computer, your iphone, etc. Otherwise, if you don’t sign in, this iGoogle page will only be visible on this one computer that you are sitting in front of. And if someone erases your cookies, then your SOL.

Back to the essentials:
Get rid of any of the stuff that Google gave you and you don’t want. Here’s how:

1. On the title bar of the box you don’t want, clock the tiny, faint box that is farthest on your right. ie on the CNN title bar, I click the tiny, faint box to the right of all the other tiny faint boxes.  This takes you to a different page that shows more of the stuff you don’t want.
2. Look at the title box again. This time it stretches all the way across the page. See the underlined link that says Delete? Click on it.
3. Google will ask you if you’re sure you want to delete it. Click the OK button. (You can always get it back later if you change your mind.)
4. Now you’re back where you started. Rinse and repeat until you have only the boxes you want to keep. Hint, that video box slows down my page a lot, so out it goes on my homepage.

When do we get to the blog part, you’re asking? The answer: Now!

1. Type in the web address to the blog you want:  www.conniecox.com
2. See the little orange box with the white curved stripes on your toolbar? Click it!
3. This takes you to a strange looking version of my website. Look in the vanilla-yellow box and see the green-plus-sign-and-gold-star symbol.
4. Click on the sentence that says ‘Add this feed to iGoogle.   (Sometimes it takes a few seconds for this link to appear. Just wait on it.)
5. Google wants to make sure that you’re sure, so click the Add to iGoogle button

And voila’. You are now on your new homepage which will be the first page you see when you turn on your computer.

See the box that has my blog title in it-Connie Cox: Writer.  That means everything you just did worked perfectly! You’ll see the titles of my last three blogs in your new little box.
Now you’ve got some choices on what to do next.

My preferred choice is to click on the title and it will take you to my blog.  (While there, please leave a comment so I’ll know I’m not alone out here in cyberworld)

Or, you can click on the blue plus sign and see what my blog has to say right from your homepage. Only problem here is that you can’t leave a comment. But if you add a lot of blogs, this is a real time-saver.

Ready to add more blogs? Start over at 1. Type in the web address
Here are a few of my favorites:

* Everybody Needs a Little Romance
* Rachel Gardner, Literary Agent
* WOW-Women on Writing

Now, copy this web address

http://www.conniecox.com/techno-corner/bringing-home-the-blogging/

and send it to all your friends that might want to know about how to read their favorite blogs easily, too.

Whew! Enough for today. Good job!

Who Dat!

In honor of the Saints going to the SuperBowl, I made a big pot of red beans and rice.   Yum!Yum!
Usually, red beans and rice take a loooong time to make, but I came up with a quick way that tastes great(at least I think they were good.) Click Recipes (at the top of the page) for my recipe and feel free to share your own recipe.