The WRITEsmall contest officially begins today, though I will not throw out the entries I have already received (overachievers make the world go around).

I have spent the last two days at the James River Writers Conference an interesting assortment of activities for writers put on BY writers. The emphasis is definately fiction but with nods toward much more. Of course, I'd like to see more poetry- always- but that's just me.

Notables (among the notables): Reb Livingston of No Tell Motel, Ron Hogan of Beatrice, K. Lorraine Graham, and lots of locals I'm way too tired to link to right now.

Good panels on day job vs. unemployment, blogging (Hey!) and whatever we talked about yesterday. Got a totebag, too!

Recommended (with reservations- check out the panels to make sure what you might be interested in is there, it might be nice to have a 'craft class' and something for teachers- though since one whole day is on Friday it may not matter) On the whole, the staff (aka as JamesRiver Writers) and the folks at the Library of Virginia did a great job with the set-up- Major kudos for organization.

More on this stuff later-