Last night I took my 16 year old brother to my chapter meeting. Yes, I know it sounds weird, but he wants to write historical fiction set in Roman times, and Julie Kenner was giving a talk on using Robert McKee’s STORY and screenwriting techniques in novels, so I thought it would be interesting to him, since it wasn’t romance focused.

Evelyn Rogers, the person whose picture you see when you look up “lady” in the dictionary, is a founding member of SARA and she is retiring from romance writing, so last night the chapter toasted her. So a lot of people who don’t usually come to meetings were there last night: Martha Hix, JoAnn Power, Pam Morsi, Miriam Minger. These ladies were some of the people I met at my first SARA meeting. The energy last night was on level with the energy I felt at my first SARA meeting. And I wondered if it really was as I perceived it, or if I was just seeing it differently through Mike’s eyes.

I remember at my first meeting, hearing about Debbie Gafford and Delores Fossen talk about the gains they were making as they sought publication. I remember that Martha’s Terrific Tom had just sold to SSE, I think, and how excited she was because the heroine was a big girl. At last night’s meeting, Michael heard about an author who sent out 5 queries and got 3 requests, as well as revision requests on another book, and another author whose book may be going to auction. It’s very heady when you’re new and you hear these success stories, and see that they happen to real people.

Mike took copious notes during Julie’s talk, and got a kick out of the chart she had of the three act structure. I fear he’s a plotter, not a pantser. Sigh. He left the meeting fired up, and just so excited, because there was a room full of people who GOT him (and someone did say he was so cute, he liked that). I felt the same way after my first SARA meeting. It was almost overwhelming.

My dh gets after me, because I’ve been reluctant to go to meetings sometimes. I’m too tired, I don’t want to drive in all that traffic, I don’t want to miss LOST. But nearly every time, I come home excited and energized, renewed and motivated. If only I could bottle this feeling today and save it till the hour or so before the NEXT meeting. Or if I could just remember how I saw it the first time, and think about creating that same atmosphere for another beginning writer.