Kim Wilbanks

God could write his message across the clouds for anyone to read but he chooses us to write it – Mark Hancock, Co-Director of Florida Christian Writers Conference

These were only a few of the enlightening words I heard this past weekend at the Florida Christian Writers Conference.  What a marvelous learning experience!  I’m so thankful that I took that leap of faith and attended this conference . . . all by myself!

I don’t consider myself a writer, or an author . . . yet.  I just know that I have so many words in my head and in my heart that I want to put down on paper (or in this case, a computer screen).  Words that may encourage someone or point them to God.

There were some amazing people at the conference and I heard some amazing stories.  I listened intently to the teaching and words of advice from those much wiser.  It was exciting to be learning new things!

As much as I anticipated all that I would learn, the thing that I most feared about the conference was eating breakfast alone on Thursday morning.  I didn’t know a soul.  Who would share a meal and some conversation with me?

I found a friendly face and set my tray down. I later discovered that it was Marti Pieper, the author of a blog post on introverts attending a writers conference (http://martipieper.com).  In just a few minutes, another woman sat down across from me.  She commented that she was some what of an introvert.  How cool is that?  Two introverts sitting at the same table with an author who happened to write a blog on introverts at a writers conference.  My new friend and fellow introvert is Maggie Bruehl.  You can read about her work here (http://thebruehls.com/author/maggie/).

This lovely lady is one of the friendliest and most gracious women I have ever met.  Lucinda and I have a friend in common, my good friend Kelly.  I also learned that she is from the small town in Georgia where my mother was born.  She is an author and a speaker and a great encourager!  You can follow       Lucinda Secrest McDowell at EncouragingWords.net.

https://lucindamcdowell.wordpress.com/

I also had the pleasure of meeting and taking a class with Edie Melson.  She is an expert on social media and writes a blog for military families and for writers.  I can’t wait to dig into her book and hopefully become more efficient with my social media.  (Besides that, she was just really nice).

Follow Edie at http://thewriteconversation.blogspot.com/

For my Continuing Class, I attended Writing Devotionals and Devotional Books taught by Dianne Neal Matthews.  I learned so much from this great instructor!  She has written several devotional books.  Check her out here:  http://www.diannenealmatthews.com/

Finally, I took a class called Blogging 101 where I met a kindred spirit in the instructor Andy Lee (she’s a girl).  In our conversations we discovered that we are both former middle-school teachers who love God’s word.  We also both have 23-year old daughters, born in June of 1991 who are each getting married this year!  Andy gave me so much encouragement and advice for my blog.  Find out more about this remarkable woman at wordsbyandylee.com.

I met so many other people, from fellow attendees to people working the conference.  I even got to know someone from my  hometown writers group a little better which was fun!

Now, I am excited to write more on this blog.  Please bear with me as I tweak some things on the site.  Hopefully there won’t be any more posts like “Contact Me” that you may have seen last weekend.  Thank you for being here!