Thursday, August 07, 2008

A Fond Farewell and New Direction

Last night my Rose City Romance writers, the Portland Chapter of RWA, said a fond farewell to longtime super member, Stephanie Rowe. She is moving back to Boston and taking her lovely baby girl with her. She's missed her home town for a long time and is now moving back to be with friends and family. We are so going to miss her... she just has that supportive nature, you know? But our loss is the New England Chapters gain... and like she said last night, it's not like we're not going to see her. We writers are a mobile bunch!

Good Luck Stephanie!

In other news, I finally finished the rough draft of Laguna yesterday. Or the revised rough draft... is that an oxymoron? I still have some tweaks to go through, and my Cp's need to tear it apart, but I'm pretty happy with the new direction.

Speaking of new directions, I had a lovely long talk with my agent over nationals and we did some excellent work. As a result of that, I now have a clearer picture of where I'm going. I even created my own personal mission statement that will help me narrow my focus down. Really positive stuff! If I only brought that back from nationals with me, it still would have been worth it... luckily, I brought back so much more, good business contacts, great memories and new friends.

6 comments:

Keri Mikulski said...

That's great, Teri! :) It's nice to feel focused and refreshed. :) How's the running going? BTW, is Stephanie Rowe the same author that wrote SMART BOYS AND FAST GIRLS - Stephie Davis? I love her work. :)

Anonymous said...

I was so, so sad I had to miss her going-away party last night, but things went sideways with the place my son was supposed to go and I couldn't make it.

I'm going to miss Stephanie terribly. I'm thinking we need an en masse Portland RCRWer trip to the NE Conference, yeah?

Yay on the revised rough draft. And Uber-Yay on the talk with your agent. Direction in your career is GOOD.

PJ Hoover said...

It's great you know where you're going! This puts you way ahead of the curve.

Shannon McKelden said...

I was sad to hear Stephanie was moving to the East Coast, too,and I'm not even a Portland chapter member!

By the way, it was great to see you at conference in all your fabulousness! Keep up the great work, Teri. And I'm thrilled about your conversation with JB...it's wonderful to know where you want to go with your career. :)
Shannon

Sheri Perl-Oshins said...

Oxymoron - that's so funny! Congrats on finishing. You must feel elated!

I love the idea of a personal mission statement. You'll have to post about that so we can all make one too.

Sheri Perl-Oshins said...

I read this really great article today about this woman who, on her 40th birthday, decided to take up running. It made me think about you.

For her, she said she was never athletic but knew if she didn't start now, she would never get into shape. So, as a writer, she needed a deadline and set her sights on a half marathon. She lost all this weight, has a new lease on life, and just feels fantastic.

You still at it?