I’m Going to the GCLS Annual Conference 2022

This July, I’m going to be attending the Golden Crown Literary Society 2022 Annual Conference in Albuquerque New Mexico. This will be the first time the conference will be in person since 2019. It had to go virtual in 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic.  

I’m excited but also nervous. This is a big step for me. Three years ago, I was still working up the nerve to share any of my writing, a year ago I was struggling to find the courage to submit a manuscript. Now I’ve got a book coming out.

I almost didn’t register for the conference. Social situations, especially those that involved meeting new people are deeply stressful for me. In the past, I’ve always found attending conferences to be overwhelming.  

I think this will be different, at least I hope it will. From what I have seen, the WLW literary community is a positive and supportive one. Every author, editor, and reader I’ve interacted with has been kind and helpful. I think there is room for even someone as shy and awkward as me.

The GCLS conference seems to be well set up for new authors and people attending the conference for the first time. There is a whole section of the GCLSC hub that provides advice to conference newbies and they’ve been good overall in providing information for the conference.

In other exciting news, I’m going to be on an author spotlight panel. (11 am Friday, July 8th. The moderator is Renee Roman, and the other authors will be Lynn Ames, Victoria Avilan, J.E. Leak, and Ali Vali) I am a little terrified about speaking publicly but I just need to read from my book for a few minutes and maybe answer a question or two, I can do that.

The one thing I do feel a little weird about is that I won’t technically be a published author yet when the conference occurs. Love and Duty is also available for pre-sale but it won’t be officially released until September, so I won’t be doing a book signing or selling copies.

The conference should still be a good chance to promote Love and Duty and maybe generate some interest in it. My publisher, Bold Strokes Books, sent me some promotion postcards with a book summary I can hand out.

I want to be part of this writing community and I think I’m ready to meet other writers and readers in person. I’ll write a follow-up blog after I get back to let you all know how it goes.