Writerly Wednesday!! Presence and Presents ~ :)

First of all, I want to thank my wonderful blogger friends who checked out my aspiring author interview over at Abby Minard's.  I love getting to know you all through interviews, tag-lists, I-got-an-award-and-must-now-list-seven-things-about-myselfs type stuff!  I hope you enjoyed getting to know a little bit more about me!! :)  And if you missed it...feel free to click HERE.

My writing advice today is simple.  At the Pike's Peak Conference, Deb Dixon (CEO of Belle Books) was a keynote speaker at one of our lunches and she said something that really kind of hit it home for me and for a lot of the other attendees:

"You must be present to win."

This adage applies to many areas of life, but for writing specifically - I took it to mean that you have to be in the now, you have to be actively present, writing, editing, networking, getting out there and working on your craft.  You also need to be present at conferences, online, and in the slush piles.  You must be present to win!

Case and point:  (in a round about sort of way...)

I don't usually consider myself a "winner".  Raffles, drawings, games, stuff like that?  Nada.  However, the company I work for is a HUGE supporter of Primary Children's Hospital and every year we have a slotted time-frame to hold as many fundraising events as possible.  I usually try to hit as many as my budget allows, but this year my schedule wasn't working with me.  I'm also leery to go to these events by myself.  Sure, I "know" the people hosting them.  But, I'm a shy gal and feel more comfortable if I have my daughter, one of my sisters or friends to go with me.  Well, this wasn't an event for my daughter...and beg as I did, none of my friends were available to go.  I almost didn't go.  But, yesterday morning I read a blog post (tee hee!) about the rewards of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone sometimes.  So, I picked up the phone and RSVP'd and went by myself.

And guess what?  I WON!!!  Not the game, mind you.  I still can't win at those.  But, I bought extra raffle tickets and CLEANED HOUSE on prizes!!  Check this out:

WOO HOO!!  Fancy perfumed soap, free hair cut, free deep conditioning treatment, candle, basket full of chocolate, spatulas, gourmet cooking mixes...BAKED GOODS mixes!!

And these super cute Emory boards!!  SOOO cute, right???

WINE!!

 I'm hauling this into my house last night, remembering I need to come up with a writing post today, and Deb Dixon's words came to mind.  Perfectly apt.  Had I stayed home, stayed comfortable, sat on my tush and watched tv all night...well.  To top it all off ~ I ate one piece of chocolate last night after I'd decided on the subject of today's blogpost and the message inside the wrapper was this:

Now, if that's NOT a sign, I don't know what is.  :)  You must be present to win.  Presence = Presents!!  What do you think?  Are Deb and I on to something here?  Put yourself out there, my friends!!  Hammer out that first draft, edit the crap out of it, revise, revamp and QUERY!  And I hope to see some winners very soon!