League of Utah Writers Annual Round-up and Shoes

This past weekend I attended the League of Utah Writers Annual Round-Up in Logan, Utah.  I was honored to attend seminars taught by Daniel Coleman, the author of ‘Jabberwocky’, Horror and Dark Fantasy Writing by Rick Chiantaretto (which was awesome because he gave the entire lecture while wearing vampire teeth), Writing Action by Larry Corriea, Showing Your Story by Maxwell Alexander Drake, and Thrill and Horror for YA by Alexander Gordon Smith (author of the ‘Furnace’ series).  The round-up was concluded by the very entertaining, amazing, and humble Rudy Ruettiger, a hero of mine since the first time I saw ‘Rudy’.

Attending conferences like these always reminds me of why I write.  Being around others so full of enthusiasm for the craft always sends me home full of excitement to continue writing.  I love creating stories, going on adventures, and living the lives of characters who teach me even as I write their story.  Writing completes a part of my soul that yearns to be out sword-fighting, saving livings, riding dragons, battling pirates, and changing the fate of nations- the types of things either not allowed by society (being run through by a sword can’t really be as much fun as it looks in the movies), or are hard to find (dragons are a bit scarce, and national fates are slightly complicated).  I feel as if I have indeed lived a hundred thousand lives through my own stories and books written by authors with the same quest for adventure as my own.

Reading and writing remind me of a lyric by Damien Rice in his song ‘Sleep, Don’t Weep’ when he says, “So do what you must do to find yourself, wear another shoe, paint my shelf,”  The line ‘wear another shoe’ describes how I feel when I wander the bookstore looking for a new story, new shoes to wear, another adventure to live.  I feel as if writing gives me the opportunity to wear shoes I might otherwise not have the chance to experience, and I hope others enjoy the shoes I’ve crafted for them, be it barefoot across desert sands, flying on the tips of the wind, padding down the street in wolf paws, fighting with the claws of a dragon, galloping across the plains on the back of a wild horse, or dancing the deadly duel of the shifters.  Whichever shoes you find yourself wearing, know that there are millions out there just waiting for your feet.