So, I went to the Oklahoma Writers Federation, Inc. annual conference yesterday and today. Did I have fun? Mostly, yeah, I guess. Was it worth $125? That’s yet to be seen. It was nice seeing some people I only see there. I met Sara Saint John for the first time. She’s a very nice lady who got to do her very first signing at the conference.

Of course, the reason I went was for the agent appointment. That went well. She wants to see my book, so I’ll be sending it off in the next day or so. She seemed, shall we say, to have a healthy skepticism about my ability to pull off the “very interesting” concept of Amara’s Prayer. Hopefully that will turn out well. Cross your fingers, say a prayer, sacrifice a goat, or whatever you do for good luck for me, would ya?

One thing that is just maddening about the OWFI conference is the abject ignorance of 80 percent of the attendees. “Do I need to double space my query letter?” Good Lord! You have an agent from NYC in Oklahoma and the only thing you can think to ask when you interrupt her lecture is whether or not you should double space your freakin’ query letter? Once the first dumb question is asked the floodgate is open and the chances of getting to hear the rest of what the speaker had to say are pretty much gone. What’s even worse is that it seems like it’s the same people asking the same questions year after year. If it was up to me, nobody would be allowed into the lecture rooms without signing off that they’d read at least one book on manuscript formatting.

One of the highlights was a session I went in when I simply didn’t have anything better to do. There’s a local all-black acting troupe called Rhythmically Speaking that was brought in to talk about oral storytelling. They were fantastic. I bought one of their CDs, thinking I might be able to use it in class. It would be nice to bring them to the school. Their show “Sweet Biscuits” would be good for English and social studies or Oklahoma history classes.

Speaking of school, on Thursday I was officially offered a full-time position at Western Heights High School for the 2007-08 school year. That was a nice relief! It looks like I’ll even have my own class room next year, too. That’ll be an incredible luxury. Having each class in a different room and lugging around everything I need for each in a backpack has gotten to be tiring. Plus, just having “my kids” in someone else’s room keeps me a little on edge.

Time to do a little more reading.