I love going to the beach in the summer time, and over the years, I have made quite a few trips to Myrtle Beach, S.C., by way of U.S. 52. I can almost see each little town and landmark one by one in my mind.
One of those little towns is Wadesboro. When I think of Wadesboro, I think of going around the big curve and stopping at McDonaldís for a mid-morning breakfast of a ham-and-egg biscuit with a Coke. After Saturday, April 2, I cannot think of Wadesboro anymore as just a place on the way to the beach. I attended a writerís conference there, and it was awesome. I found out about the conference through an advertisement in the Salisbury Post, and thought, why not go? Itís free.
I came away from the conference feeling like I had made new friends from Anson County. After talking with several writers in the local writersí group, I learned the conference had been organized by them. The local writersí group was started about 20 years ago by Sandy Bruney. When Sandy came home after a weeklong conference at Duke University, she said she felt a let-down. So, she placed an ad in the area newspaper asking if there were other writers who would be interested in forming a group. The meeting was held at the library, and much to her delight, there was interest, so the writersí group was formed.
This is the third year for the Carolinas Writers Conference. It was funded this year by a grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council, located in Greensboro. Darrell D. Stover, the statewide coordinator, told how thrilled he was at the success of the conference. He said the logo for the North Carolina Humanities Council is ěOne People ó Many Stories.î That logo could be seen coming to life through the activities of the day.
I enjoyed all the sessions but especially found helpful the presentations by keynote speakers Omar Tyree and Robert Macomber. The smaller sessions included authors such as Susan Sloate and Linda Evans. Susan is a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon.com, with her book, ěForward to Camelot.î Her presentation was directed at giving information that could help authors promote their books on that site. She said, ěAs a professional, every edge you can get is important.î Linda Evans presented helpful tools about self-publishing and marketing. One of her suggestions was to make use of social media.
As I drove away Saturday afternoon, I was thinking, ěWhat a wonderful day!î The 18-mile stretch of road from Wadesboro to Norwood, with nothing in sight but one rolling hill after another, didnít seem so long because I had much to think about. Little did I have a clue, five years ago when I began writing poetry, that I would be attending a writing workshop in Anson County five years later. Writing has become a whole new journey, and one where I am enjoying the ride. So many times, to achieve the goals we want, we try to hurry the progress. Yet, we cannot hurry our professional progress, anymore than we can hurry the way a child grows, or I could hurry the time it took me to get home from Wadesboro to Bear Poplar.
As a writer, I know I must crawl before I can walk, but attending conferences such as the one in Anson County has certainly helped the growth spurt. One of the common themes I heard throughout the day was to spread the word about the Carolinas Writers Conference. They, too, want to grow and would like for more writers to attend next year. If you are interested in this group, and what they have to offer, you can find them at www.ansoncountywritersclub.org.

Dicy McCullough is the author of the childrenís book, ěTired of My Bath,î available in local bookstores including Creative Teaching and the Bible Bookstore, as well as amazon.com.