I am so grateful that I got a chance to attend this year's in person Rocky Mountain Chapter SCBWI's Letters & Lines Conference. 

I felt shy and intimidated. I was surrounded by amazingly creative and talented artists and voices, award winning authors and illustrators and industry experts. I was told by one fellow attendee that I would never get my books into schools or libraries because they don't buy self- published authors. I wanted to creep away and hide. At my critique connect my pages of a new project and story idea that I am working on received the best critique - an honest one. The honest ones are hard to hear. And after creeping away and having a good cry, I realized that they were right. Of course, they were right. How could I be so blind and not see it? 

I was at a low point - emotionally and physically when I attended an amazingly uplifting session - called, "Show Up: How to put yourself in the path of luck with Megan E. Freeman, Author." 

My 2 takeaways from this session were: -

• The Universe is in constant motion - nothing ever stays the same. Megan refers to this as "Momentum." 
• We have agency - we can control how we react to this universe that is in constant motion. 

And then I thought about it. (It helped A LOT that Megan gave us chocolate - thanks Megan!) Isn't it wonderful that the Universe is made for momentum, for movement? And for every little thing that happens - I can choose how I am going to react. 

I believe wholeheartedly in my Caitlin and Rio Series. I know that I am the only person who could write the series in the way I wrote it. I know (and hope) that I will have readers who will love the stories and the characters as much as I do. I also know that I have lots to learn - to improve my craft so that the words I put on the page are the best words to tell my stories. I have more stories to tell... I can feel the words bubbling and jostling- they want to come out.

At the end of the weekend what I came away with is this -

• Celebrate the small stuff. Celebrate often. 
• Never stop wanting to be better.
• Never stop wanting to learn.