2014 ACFW Conference Highlights

Conference selife - I allow one
of myself per year ;)

It's not often that you leave a place knowing--and feeling--that people truly understand you. For me, that place is the ACFW Conference. Though this was only my second year attending, I feel as if I've been a part of the ACFW family for much longer than that. They are warm, welcoming, and above all - they understand my weirdness!

The ladies out for dinner at the Spaghetti Factory

What's that, you may ask? Weirdness? Well yes...in fact, having a conversation about the voices in your head is common place at a writers conference and it's normal! Not to mention when you get a group of us romantic suspense writers together all we tend to do is talk about ways to kill people...without getting caught. But, not to worry - it's only in our fictional worlds of course.

For me, thinking about this year's conference causes my eyes to do this funny watery thing and my throat to get a little constricted. Honestly, the Lord brought about amazing friendships (ones that happened even in the span of 5 days!) and I know they will last.

Some of the highlights
(represented by photos because...well, you know me and photography)

Brandilyn Collins as the MC for the conference. She does such a fantastic job each year! (P.S. For a little treat, visit her amazing website and you'll see one of the headshots I took of her last year right there on her page! Eeek!)

Worship by this amazing woman of God! Rachel Hauck does such a beautiful job in leading us to the throne each year at the conference. Her sweet spirit and genuine heart for the Lord pour out in her words and through her beautiful voice! I was personally encouraged by the song choices and the time spend before our Father in worship.

Chatting with this amazing woman!!! My dear readers, I talk about her a lot but I can't say enough great things about Ronie Kendig! Catching up with her at the conference was definitely a highlight - and I smile in anticipation of our continued friendship now that we're within "meeting up" distance - yea!

Haha...another highlight - bunny ear selifes with this guy! Chip MacGregor is hilarious and kept photo bombing my shots of the conference with his deceptive and sneaky bunny ears! It was only right that we got a selfie of it.

Being in St. Louis right by the Arch. Wow! Our hotel was in the best location ever. This shot was taken from our room window at sunrise - talk about a view! The staff was so friendly and the hotel itself was lovely. I particularly loved the park right out the front door where I took my headshot clients to capture the beautiful natural light and green foliage.

Another highlight: these people (and sooo many more I didn't get to take pictures with).

So...can you tell I had an amazing time at the conference? I'm so sad that it's over! I typically get to see these people one time a year (which is definitely NOT enough) and leaving is always hard. I'll probably do a more 'writing oriented' update later, but for now this post has helped me relive a small portion of the conference plus it has updated you, so I'd call that a win! ;)

If you went to the conference, what were some of your highlights???

ACFW Recap (part 2)

The monument

As I said in my previous post, I attended the ACFW Conference in Indianapolis last weekend. I had the privileged of meeting so many amazing authors and writers - some published, some on their way. It was such a blessing to spend time with hundreds of like-minded people.

As Brandilyn Collins (the MC for the weekend) said, we just had to remember that there were "normals" about. When you get that many authors in one location, we tend to be a little lax about the interesting life a writer leads. It's not uncommon to hear writers talking about their characters as if they were real people or even see someone talking to themselves, more than likely arguing, because their character is trying to do something the author hasn't anticipated. Yes, normal people may not understand, but at ACFW there were hundreds of people who would!

View from our hotel room...so beautiful!

I had the personal privileged of rooming with my critique partner Deb, JoAnn (a former {Writer Wednesday} guest), and Laurean. We had so much fun! It's always great to meet people online through the ACFW email loops, but nothing beats being in person. We all shared our experiences at the conference together and there was always lots of laughter in our room!

Deb and I at the airport

It was also such a fantastic thing to talk over new projects and get feedback from Deb. She's such an encouragement to me and being able to chat in person was so great!!

**Shameless plug: check out Deb's books!!!

Tosca and I <3 br="">

 In addition to all this writing fun, I also got to have some photo fun too! For those of you who don't know, in addition to creating suspenseful and romantic plots, I also love to photo real-life people too ;) Check out my photo blog if you get the chance: E.A. Creative Photography. You can also find me on Facebook here.

I had the distinct pleasure of taking headshots for many authors and agents in attendance at the conference! Not only was it great to have a bunch of sessions lined up to capture the beautiful natural light and fun setting of Indianapolis, but I got to meet some amazing people! I met multi-published authors, aspiring authors, agents, and even New York Times Bestselling Author Tosca Lee (pictured at the right). As I like to say, I kind of have a bit of an author crush on Tosca and it was such a fun opportunity to share my passion for photography with her. She is such a beautiful person and a fantastic author :)

Hayley and I

THEN - as if that wasn't enough - I got to spend a night on the town with my dear friend Hayley! She attends college in Indianapolis and we were able to spend some time hanging out, sight seeing, having dinner, and catching up on life!

The monument at night

Beautiful fountain by the monument lit up at night!

Capital seen from the monument

Love the lights :D

Well...there you have it. A snapshot of my time at ACFW. In between the photo fun/craziness, I also attended sessions, met with some wonderful agents and mentors, and tried my best to soak it all up. I've come to see that this is definitely a direction the Lord is taking me in. I don't know yet what that will look like or just how He is going to direct my steps, but I have confidence in His plans.

It's interesting...one last thing I'd like to share is just more of a feeling than anything else.  I don't know if you've experienced something like this, but the whole time I was in Indianapolis, I had the overwhelming feeling of being exactly where I needed to be. I was a peace. Sure, I was nervous as anything to meet with agents and to "pitch" my book or even just to talk about those things, but the whole time I never once doubted my presence at the conference. I know the Lord prompted me to sign up to go (even when I wasn't sure how I'd pay for it) and I know that He sustained me while I was there. To sum it all up, the Lord taught me (again) how good and trustworthy He is. What a blessing!

For anyone who attended ACFW - what's one thing you walked away with (writing or spiritual or both)? I'd love to hear from you!