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Some of you might remember that for many years I was deeply involved with BAWL, the Bay Area Writer’s League. Primarily, I produced BAWL’s annual Writer’s Conference. One of my former students, Becky Ellisor, is the current president. Recently, after years without a conference, Becky resurrected that event at BAWL. The dates were Saturday and Sunday, May 30 and 31. Somewhat to my surprise, she asked me to be one of the speakers. (She also asked my daughter Anne Marie to speak. No surprise there.) Anne Marie’s subject was “Romance 101” and she gave her speech on Saturday morning. Becky asked me to speak about my Journey as a Writer, which I did, because I always like talking about myself. I stayed home on Saturday, but when we arrived at Atrium 2 on Sunday morning, some of my former students were waiting for me. They grabbed and hugged me, exclaiming how happy they were to see me after so long. Let me tell you that the feeling was mutual. I was scheduled to speak at 10:30 AM in what I remembered was a huge tiered classroom. You can imagine how surprised I was to get in there and find that room full. I didn’t think to get a head count, but the room was packed to the ceiling with former students and a bunch of total strangers. Well, you know me. I don’t know what stage fright is, especially when I have an audience of writers. I had wondered beforehand whether or not I’d be nervous, but I find writers so interesting that I’m always relaxed. And when a speaker is relaxed, the audience will be, too. That’s my theory. Time was limited to about fifty-five minutes, and Anne Marie watched the clock for me. I had my speech at hand, but my middle name is “Digression” and pretty soon we were all laughing as I told them what an obstacle my husband Stosh (Anne Marie’s father) had been to my writing. Anne Marie was right there to corroborate everything I said. Stosh never doubted that I would be published. “I know how smart you are, Barb,” he told me, “but our lives would change if you published your novels. Please don’t do that.” My audience roared when I said Stosh was both wonderful and a pain-in-the-ass. Most agreed they had an obstacle character in their own writing lives, and they seemed to enjoy all my writing anecdotes and were vastly amused at my acerbic take on editors. Thanks to Becky Ellisor for honoring me with a Lifetime Membership in BAWL. The wall plaque is beautiful. Most of all, thanks for inviting me and Anne Marie to take part in this first BAWL Writer’s Conference in many years. This was merely the precursor of all the wonderful writing conferences to come. A toast to Becky for making me part of BAWL again.
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