I only made it through part of the student banquet because my back was killing me, but there were many fun things. The best ones were designed by the knitter, of course.

It’s a miserable day with wind gusts up to 50 mph and many people are traveling home. I’m so grateful I decided to stay another night. The weather is supposed to be relatively ok tomorrow. Plus I’ll be tired. Believe it or not, sitting all day and knitting can be tiring, especially when one is learning new techniques! Many of us are exhausted.

I haven’t written anything except blogs all weekend. Back to writing on Monday, I hope.

I hear the weather is moving East after this. How’s everyone holding up with the February weather?

Karin (bushiethepoet)

The big news at the knitting conference is a new sock contest. Winners will be announced at Stitches West 2009 and the Grand Prize is not 3,000 but 6 GRAND! Lots of subcategories can win 500 each. They want major creativity–think Cat Bordhi, Debbie New, Lucy Neatby–people who have come up with totally new ways to knit socks.

Everyone, needless to say, is buying sock yarn. The “Socks that Rock” booth was mobbed at the preview last night. What it’ll be like in the regular market is impossible to say.

700 plus people are registered for classes and the Fashion Show tonight.

All I can say is, Wow! I’m having a wonderful time.

Yours knitting happily,

Karin (bushiethepoet)

“Like” is a mild word for it. I’m obsessed.

Well, I’m at the perfect place for obsessed knitters–Stitches West 2008. It’s a 4 day knitting conference, this year held in Santa Clara at their convention center. Yes, a knitting convention. What do we do? Listen to speakers, take knitting classes, and most of all shop for yarn, yarn, and more yarn. I have to be careful on the shopping. Very careful. I plan to stay out of the Market as much as possible.

Meanwhile, I get a nice room at the Hyatt Regency and I get to relax. I’m not writing for About.com, so I plan to write only my own creative stuff.

Knitting feeds creativity. It is creative, for one thing, it promotes quiet thinking, and the use of color stimulates the brain. I bet you didn’t know that!

What do you do to refuel your batteries when you’re exhausted like I am?

Karin (bushiethepoet)

So far I’ve spent at least 20 hrs in the last week working for them, and my life has been insane. I’m exhausted and I have no time to even shower. It’s just like when I was working at the clinic 20 hrs a week and teaching 4 classes in the fall. I decided I can’t do this. It’s not worth it. I was so proud of possibly having a paying writing gig and such a great forum, but I have a day job and a life and I don’t want to destroy it.

So instead I’m going to focus on my memoir and poetry, prayer and devotionals, the things I was writing when I was an MFA student in Creative Writing and loved it so much. And I’m going to stop worrying about the commercial value of what I’m doing. I’ll do the medical work to support myself–it pays way better than writing things my heart isn’t in.

I hope you find what you love to do and are able to do it.

Karin (bushiethepoet)

You see, at my last writer’s conference, Glorieta Christian Writer’s Conference, no one was interested in memoir. They claimed that unless you were famous it was a hard sell. But I submitted this piece to the anthology anyway.

I assumed I hadn’t been accepted, because I didn’t receive a letter or email. But yesterday I was browsing through the conference brochure, and there was my name. They misspelled my first name, but I don’t care.

So, at the last minute I decided to change my pitch and pitched my memoir. It was much harder to pitch. This book is not easy to sum up in ten seconds, or even three minutes. BUT, three agents said go ahead and send them chapters, and one said send a query letter to her partner who handles Christian books. That’s the most success I could hope for.

Never let it be said that miracles can’t happen. I had truly given up on this book. It still might not place with an agent, but at least I’ve got some chances.

I wish you equal or greater miracles in your writing life.

Karin (bushiethepoet)

Finally, it’s at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, with a really great conference rate for the room.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself, and am inspired and encouraged about book writing. Book writing is not dead. And did you know that iUniverse makes its books available as e-books now, i.e. for the Kindle? Pretty cool if you want to self-publish.

Meanwhile, I’m at the SF Writer’s Conference. I left Modesto at 6 am after getting to bed around midnight. We’ve had sessions all day, the best being the one on creating a 10 second tag line for your book. I tried it out on an agent and he said I explained my book very well. Unfortunately, he couldn’t take it because he has another client with a similar book.

This is my newest book, tentatively titled. _Why Your Doctor Won’t Listen and What to Do About It_. This book helps people communicate to doctors who won’t listen. The agent was nice enough to suggest several other agents who might be interested, and I’ll have the chance to meet with agents Sunday a.m., so I’ll keep trying.

Meanwhile, I’m going to bed.

Karin (bushiethepoet)

Never let it be said that writing isn’t hard work. I wracked up a major headache today with all the staring at the computer screen and the tension over whether what I did was right or not. Format is a major issue, as with so many things we write. And format is picky, not especially creative, just hard work.

Tonight I’m taking a break to refresh the old cerebral cells, and then I’ll be back at it tomorrow morning, hopefully early.

Anyone else going to the San Francisco Writer’s Conference this weekend? I can hardly wait. Part of why I’m working so hard now for About. com is so I can meet all their deadlines before the conference starts.

Karin (bushiethepoet)

I think I’ll take the natural approach: if it feels like work, don’t do it.

It’s a struggle, because right now I have deadlines to meet and a lot of things happening in my writing life over the next two weeks, but I also need rest. So I am not going to work on the hard-core stuff today and I will take time to do some knitting.

What are you doing to find some time to rest even from writing?

Karin (bushiethepoet)

Sorry to have been gone so long. I’m back and am modifying my website. In addition to a little personal blogging, I am going to try to focus on writing.

Currently, I am very busy trying to qualify as a guide on About.Com regarding headaches and migraines. I just started a 17 day intensive Prep program. Wish me luck. I also just started a new blog under drkarinforno.wordpress.com for medical questions and answers. Feel free to visit me there for those types of things.

 I am trying to integrate medicine and writing in my life more currently. It’s hard to decide what I want to do. I don’t enjoy the rush and pressure of medical clinics, but I don’t mind medicine itself that much and the information is actually interested. I’m contemplating two main book projects at the present time. Tentative titles: 1. _What Medicine Can’t Do: Health Care and its Limitations in the 21st Century_, a book of philosophical and practical musings on health care, our trust in it or lack thereof, and its limitations at the present time. and 2. _Somebody Calling Your Name: Knowing the God Who Loves You_, a book on how God is not an ogre but a loving God, based on my personal experience.

What do you think?

Let me know if you find the medical topics or the Christian ones more or less interesting and if the titles pique your interest. I’m open to suggestions!

Karin (bushiethepoet)