Away at the AWA

I spent last weekend at the Appalachian Writers Conference at King College in Bristol, Tennessee. King is a picture-postcard-pretty private college. The campus is lovely, the dorm accomodations were very nice, the food was wonderful. The campus and buildings aren't, however, handicap-accessible. When you have a heel spur and an ingrown toenail (on the same foot), walking is difficult—especially on hills, stairs, brick sidewalks, etc.

Somehow, thanks to some physical therapy sessions before I left, some really good orthotic inserts, and a temporary handicapped parking tag, I managed.

I had a good time and increased my knowledge. The best session I attended was the one by Dot Jackson, former reporter for the Charlotte Observer and winner of the Appalachian Book of the Year award for Refuge. She told about how long it took her to get the book published. She'd almost had it sold to Scribners many years ago, but the editor who liked it died. Nobody was publishing Appalachian fiction back then. For years the manuscript sat under her bed; then a friend kept it in his refrigerator (a safe place for manuscripts) for a few more years. Finally someone who lived in her house many years ago remembered it. Finally, Novello Press published it.

While I was at the conference, I managed to get a rejection letter from Keene Publishing—the second this manuscript has gotten this year. The genre isn't a popular one.

Maybe I should put it in the refrigerator for a while.