When the student is ready.... my immersion weekend!

They say when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Well, this student is armed and at attention with ball point, spiral binder and laptop in hand. I'm spending my birthday weekend with best selling author and the all-round amazing Hollis Gillespie at her Shocking Real Life Book Writers Boot Camp.

Tonight was just a preview of what I know is going to be a life changer. Those of you who know me well, know that I've been promising (threatening?) to 'write my book' for oh, say, what is it, years, now? Well, girlfriends and fellow multi-taskers, it's time for the rubber to meet the proverbial road... or better yet, for the fingers to keep on pounding the keyboard.

As with all of Hollis' offerings, tonight alone has already proved worth the price of the retreat. Just as though she'd been eavesdropping on my interior conversation, I got the answers to what I now realize are some of the burning (and rarely spoken aloud for fear of seeming nuts!) questions every writer ponders:

• yes, ALL writers suffer from that good old 'I'm not worthy' otherwise known as 'fraud syndrome' (Really? Really!)
  
• the very best place is to start where you are and write like nobody will ever read it!
• just get it out of your head and onto the paper - tell those internal censors to put a sock in it!
  

I'll be up bright and early tomorrow with my potluck offering for lunch in hand (my favorite - classic southern homemade pimento cheese!) and looking forward to filling my mind and feeding my soul with the thoughts, input and ideas that come from a gathering like this. Just me and 12 other would-be-will-be-published writers, listening to the wisdom of those who've passed this way before and come back to share details of the roadmap. No GPS required!

Stay tuned!