Well, the San Antonio Readers and Writers 2003 Fiction Writer’s Weekend was a wonderful and successful event!

The participating authors were Victor McGlothin, Vanessa Morman, Frederick Williams, Evelyn Palfrey, Toschia Moffett, Allissa McVea, Ja Adams and myself, Mark Rockeymoore.  On the first day of the conference, myself, Alissa McVea and Ja Adams met in the lobby of the Marriott River Center and drove from there to the Carver Community Center, where the welcoming reception was held.  Fred Williams, his wife, Venetta Williams, along with Addie Armstrong and Elaine Dibartolo, welcomed us with open arms!  Victor McGlothin, Toschia Moffett and Vanessa Morman met us there and we then proceeded to have a wonderful panel discussion about the craft of writing and some of the things that go into making a book, from the first conception, to the final edit. The interaction with the audience was wonderful, with many questions being fielded by the moderator, Fred Williams.  Even though we got off the topic of The Craft of Writing every once and again, the impressions of the authors and the audience alike were very positive and uplifting. 

The second day, the authors had the morning free.  We then met at 11:30 to travel to the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), where we were scheduled to meet with UMOJA, a black student organization, and give a panel discussion about the creative process and writing in general. We got there just in time to see UMOJA perform a step show in the black Greek tradition. That was a great prelude to the panel discussion!  We then proceeded to the conference room, where each of us authors introduced our books, and ourselves then fielded questions from the students. It was a diverse audience and the conversation was dynamic and lots of fun. Most of them were not writers, but there were a good number of poets and a few hip hop artists in the audience, and we basically related their work as well as the work of students in general to the greater craft of writing, and I'd like to think that we opened a few minds and helped a few more come to understand that writing does not necessarily have to be a task, as most students seem to think it is.

That evening, we went to Borders bookstore in North San Antonio for "Jazz and Coffee with the Authors and Book Signings", which was off the hook! Evelyn Palfrey was present at that and subsequent events, bringing life and color to the proceedings with her energy!  There was an Old School Saxophonist that played, along with his keyboardist.  Of course, as a fellow Saxophonist, I was all up in his grill asking questions and soaking up that peculiar ambience that comes with jazzmen of a certain period, of which there are too few left. Each of us authors got to read an excerpt from our books.  It was a fun evening and only my second experience at a 'real life' book signing.

The next day, Saturday the 1st, was my birthday. It was a wonderful day! We had to get up real early to go back to the Carver Center, where we gave readings in the morning and afternoon and participated in panel discussions about the images of black and brown in writing. The readings were fun, the discussions were dynamic and there was a lot of audience participation and interest.  That evening, all of the authors got together for one last dinner at Landry's, on the San Antonio Riverwalk, where I was surprised with a birthday song and brownie. That just topped off the entire weekend!

I must add that the most important part of the weekend was meeting and interacting with the other authors. When writers get together in person to share space and ideas, it is off the chain! Being in the company of other creative people who know the process of writing in and out, who go through the same creative struggles that I do, and who think the same way about reading and writing is almost a religious experience! We are some interesting people, we authors.  But we get along together so well!

Out of 8 of us, 4 of the authors had book deals with major publishing houses or were in the process of getting deals. ALL OF THEM had first been self-published. The experiences of all of the authors were impressive and each spoke from the heart.  The successes of Victor McGlothin in particular as a best-selling author were incentive enough to make it all worthwhile. 

If you, the readers, get nothing else out of this update and report on the conference, take this with you: THE ACT OF CREATING YOUR OWN BOOK AND PUBLISHING IT YOURSELF IS THE WAY TO GO ABOUT REALIZING YOUR DREAMS OF BEING A WRITER. So few black and brown writers get picked up from major publishing houses just by sending manuscripts in. Most of us self-publish, go on book signing tours using our own money, and basically sell books wherever we can, just like Master P selling his CDs out of the trunk of his car when he first came out!

There is a revolution in writing going on right now, brought about by the Print on Demand (POD) publishing companies that have taken over the net. Because I worked for 2 of these companies for a total of 3 years (1stBooks LTD and Conquering Books LLC), I have an insight into the business that has helped me to become even more independent. At this stage of the game, I can create my own book from scratch and get it published myself WITH JUST AS GOOD QUALITY AS ANY OF THE POD PUBLISHERS. Anybody can do it! My point is that THERE ARE NO LIMITATIONS. We can all be as successful as we want to be, as long as we make the commitment to bettering our craft. And why else are we here, if not to share our work and our passion with the world?

The weekend was awesome! For aspiring writers and writers yet to be published, events of this type will be your bread and butter in the years to come.  I encourage you all to keep writing, keep dreaming, and keep the faith that has passed down to us through generations of writers and dreamers.  The world, and universe, is ours, if only we claim it!