Poets, Witches and Writers

As it might be imagined from the title of this blog, some of my favorite people are Poets. Among those favorite souls are also Witches and other Writers.

Last weekend I was an invited guest at the Harriette Austin Writers Conference, at the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia. Held in the Georgia Center and sponsored by the Continuing Education Department, after a one year hiatus, it was the 14th year of this remarkably successful conference. There were eager writers and poets everywhere!

I had the great pleasure of greeting old friends and making some new ones. In the old friends department was, of course, the lovely and gracious Harriette, herself I was sorry to see that in the announcements there was no mention of the fact that she was the Lifetime Achievement Award winner at the 39th Annual Georgia author of the Year Awards. I believe the page is still up regardless of the fact that the website is undergoing radical changes.

Then there was the talented author of diverse genres and most excellent Southern gentleman, Hawk McKinney, who I hope will join us by presenting a Webinar some time soon; the prodigious and marvelous Terry Kay; the often controversial Bill Bray and his friend (and mine) Bowen Craig, who helps me move plants twice each year at the change of the seasons and who likes to tell people that he's my sometime houseboy; Chris Roerden, author of Don't Murder Your Mystery with whom I exchanged the "I'm older than you are" conversation (I won) as we sat together at lunch one day. My dear friend and "blood buddy" (we donate blood together), author of the Biscuit McKee cozy mystery series, Fran Stewart participated in an Author/Agent panel, after which I fled for home, being too exhausted to stay for the big dinner.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Lydia Crabtree, a real live Witch who is very unwitchlike. An author and teacher of pagan ways, I look forward to getting to know her better. See her own blog report on the conference.

I sat in on several of the workshops, mostly looking for future Webinar presenters and have two that I'm sure I'll be announcing soon: Bobby Nash on Graphic Novels and Peter Reinhart on Writing Cookbooks.

More later...