The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference 09

My brain is fried today after a week packed full of instruction, inspiration, and networking at the 2009 Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. I left town immediately after church last Sunday and arrived in the mountains around 5 PM. It was pretty much non-stop all week. Classes, workshops, interviews, and general sessions filled the calendar as about 350 writers, agents, editors, and publishers gathered to learn how to continue expanding the gospel through the art of writing.

Pictured with me is Angela (Angie) Hunt. Angie taught "The Sophisticated Novelist" class Monday-Thursday morning. She is an excellent teacher and incredibly accomplished writer. Angie has sold over 3 million books! She is a best-selling author of more than 100 books. She was a delight to sit under and we hated it when it was time for the class to be over. Angie's husband is a youth minister in Florida. I told her that I was going to call him and make him an offer he can't refuse at TNC so that I could have her around as my personal writing coach! (Watch out, Tommy Wafford!)

I encourage you to add Angie's books to your summer reading list. Check out her website.

I also spend some time talking to and hearing from Chip MacGregor. Chip was recently listed as the #2 literary agent in the country by Publishers Weekly, the "Bible" of publishing. I read Chip's blog every week. He is a wealth of information regarding the publishing/writing world. He was one of our keynote speakers as well as a classroom instructor. I appreciate the time that Chip invests in this business and wanted to give him some props. By the way, this guy is really funny. I was in tears laughing at him during his keynote speech.

If you are a writer or if you are interested in becoming a writer, this conference is a great start. This was my third time at this particular writing conference. I highly recommend it.

Some other folks that I learned from and laughed with are:
Steven James
Terry Whalin
Cecil Murphey (author of 90 Minutes in Heaven and 111 other books)
Ron Benrey
Al Gansky
Jonathan Clements (My favorite person at the conference - because he's my agent!)