My Pretty Awesome Weekend with Best-Selling Authors and Smash Mouth

Oh my gosh. Where do I start? Last Thursday began the AuthorWise Convention of BookWise. It was awesome. I was able to attend classes given by best selling authors. I got to meet many of them, including Marc Brown, the creator of the Arthur children's stories. He was really funny and nice. I also met, but had not previously heard of, Antonio Sacre. He is a wonderful story teller of Cuban and Irish descent. I also met Heather Graham, aka Shannon Drake, author of many best selling novels that span many genres. Another class I attended was with Mark Ludy. He is quite a dynamic personality and very engaging. Others I met and heard were Carla Neggers, Richard Paul Evans, and Mark Victor Hansen. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to bring my camera until the end of the convention.

H and Heather Graham. We were pretty sweaty from the concert.

Mody asked me if all of the speakers were getting me motivated to sell for BookWise. I told her that it has all actually motivated me to start writing again, to really devote myself to it. Through these speakers, I can see that it is a very doable, possible thing to write, get better, and publish my work. Marc Brown started out writing Arthur stories doing nothing different than what I have done numerous times,...making up bedtime stories for my kids. I even remembered one story in particular that I came up with a long time ago that I thought was a really good one. It has all really got me thinking about it again.

As if all of that wasn't awesome enough, the second half of the convention was kicked off with a concert by Smash Mouth. H, Mody, and I got to attend. The audience was only about 300 people, very intimate and they really rocked. I even got to go up on stage once with some others and dance. They played all their hits and more, and then they played some Van Halen, which H loved. After the concert, we hung around and chatted with some other convention-goers. As we were heading out the back, we saw a few people going into a backstage area. We decided to check it out, figuring that that was where the band might be, and that there was a chance we'd get turned down anyway, so why not try. We walked and and were waved in and told to go right ahead. The guy pointed us to the sectioned off area where the band was hanging out. We got to chat with them for a long time, take some pics, and get to know them a bit. It was pretty great. Steve Harwell, the lead singer, was chatting with H about how he's going to start in racing. Paul DeLisle, the bass guitarist, was telling us how he just bought a house. It was just like hanging with friends. It was awesome. Right after we left, Mody and I started trying to call everyone we knew to tell them that we just met Smash Mouth.

Paul DeLisle (bass), Me, Mody, and Greg Camp(guitar).

H, Me, STEVE HARWELL, and Mody.

So, that was Thursday and Friday of the weekend. Stay tuned for more of the weekend. Have I peaked your interest in BookWise at all? Check them out. They say that next year's convention will be even bigger and better.