The Beginning...

It all started in February 2009. I gathered some much needed courage, boarded a plane, and wondered if this was the biggest mistake yet. After all, I was a Canadian. Why was I trying to figure out the publishing world of the US? Arriving from the snow kingdom, I was glad to see the swaying trees, flowers, and warm sun. As a familiar bond of common faith engulfed me, I felt a wonderful sense of exhilaration. Regardless of where we traveled from, or what accents we brought with us, we all came with similar purpose. We wanted to communicate better in order to influence our world. From workshop to workshop, class to class, I have met wonderful people. I was encouraged. Yes, the publishing industry was going through some major changes, but there have never been more opportunities to get published. The message was clear. Today's writers need to be excellent at their craft. But I have also heard one other message. Authors need platform. By the end of the conference my head was spinning with all the techno jargon. I'm a people person. Technology wasn't exactly my forte. I got teens to do that. As I was leaving the conference, I wondered how would I ever navigate through this. It was one thing to sit in my office, play with scenes, type dialogue, and make sure that I showed not told. What was all this talk about social networking? What was a platform anyway?