It's Time to...Breathe

It's that time of year again. The leaves are changing colors, a chill is in the air, and I've made my yearly October trip out to Michigan to see some of my family and attend a great writers conference: Breathe.

This year's conference was held October 18 & 19

At around 100 attendees, this intimate conference has done so much to encourage me on my journey as a writer. This was my fourth year attending Breathe. I've never been to a huge writers conference, but so far I don't feel like I've missed much. Breathe provides the opportunity to hear from great keynote speakers as well as offering a good selection of workshops on various topics. It's hard to choose when all of the workshop descriptions sound so interesting.

This year some of my favorites were Susie Finkbeiner's workshop on "How to Train Your Dog...er...Blog." It was full of great ideas which I hope to implement here. Tracy Groot's enthusiasm was contagious in her workshop about "Coming Strong to Every Scene." Shelly Beach and Wanda Sanchez inspired us, as usual, in their workshop: "Prodigals, Prisons, & Perps: Writing Real about the Tough Stuff in Life."

As I choose to highlight a few of my favorites, I feel bad that I can't share what I learned from all of the other wonderful workshop speakers and the authors who spoke to our whole group. Twila Belk and Latayne Scott both did a phenomenal job as they shared their wisdom with us. Sharon Brown's devotions on Saturday morning keep coming back to mind as I think about whether I'm really awake and paying attention to what God is doing around me and in me.

I didn't take many pictures this year, but now that I'm home I wish that I had. It was so good to see friends from past conferences and hear about the projects they're working on. I thank God for the chance to get to know such amazing people over the last few years and I pray that those relationships will continue far into the future.

This picture was actually taken with Shelly Beach

and Wanda Sanchez at a conference in June, but they

were at Breathe, so it still counts, right?

If you like to write, I highly encourage you to consider attending Breathe in Grand Rapids, Michigan next year. The dates will be October 10-11, 2014 and the keynote speaker will be Julie Cantrell, bestselling author of the wonderful novel Into the Free. You can find out more at Breathe's website: http://breatheconference.com

I'll be there! I hope you will be, too.