Clarity, your Potential, the Future of Books, and Other Random Highlights from LTUE

So it's been a bit of a crazy week, and I have yet to post about the LTUE conference last weekend (and I haven't dropped by your blogs for a while-- but I'll be seeing ya'll soon!). Without further ado, I give you the highlights of the Life, the Universe, and Everything Conference!

1. Friends! I made a bunch of new friends, made contact with some old ones, and got to have lunch with some blogger-buddies-turned-real-life-friends. (Below: Erin Summerill, Melanie Fowler, Chantele Sedgwick, Ruth Josse, Katie Dodge, Pat Dodge, me, and Peggy Eddleman. There were other awesome people too, including Shelly Brown who took the photo, but I didn't get pictures. Sad.)

2. At Dan and Robison Wells' story structure presentation, Dan pulled me up to the front before things got started (he was my instructor for a conference critique session a few years ago, so we know each other a bit). They were going to be asking the audience for story ideas to fit into the structure, but he said they wanted to start with a solid idea. Then he asked me what I was working on. I gave him my logline for TUGL and he said, "That's awesome! Can we use it?" So the brothers pared down the idea to its most basic and threw it out there to the audience. It was SO COOL to hear all the different ideas that came up from the simple "people store memories in external objects" part of my own story. (Plus, I'm excited that Dan Wells thought my basic story idea was awesome.)

3. Learning awesomeness about writing from the pros. Here are a few snippets:

• L.E. Modesitt on clarity: "If it doesn't the hell say it, it doesn't the hell say it." Write what you want to say, don't write around it.
• Brandon Sanderson on dealing with shiny new ideas: Write the idea as short fiction so you can get the buzz out, then go back to your current project. (I'd never thought of that, but it's a fun idea!)
• Tracy Hickman on your potential: "You have not yet written your best work." Maybe that's depressing to some, considering all that you've written, but it makes me excited. We have so much ahead of us!
• Dave Farland (I think) on the future of books: Your future is in your audience, your challenge is to connect with them, and your solution is to write quality books.

So, my friends, there you are! Two days of exhaustion, motivation, and inspiration shortened into one blog post. :) Now, tell me-- how has your week been? What new writing achievements have you made? How are you folks in general?