I’m a mom learning to balance my family, faith, and writing career.

ACFW: Friday Night and Connecting with Agents

When I last wrote I had mentioned I had a really great conversation with Steve Laube, one of the agents who liked my One Sheet in the late night chat and who I had an appointment with the next day. But I didn’t share any details.

There’s not much to share on the writing side of things (yet!) because we didn’t talk WIP. There were several of us starting to gather in the lobby. Randy Ingermanson, Meredith Efken and I had already made ourselves comfortable. I sat in a lone chair and Meredith was on the couch. Then Steve arrived and sat down on the end of the couch which was next to where I was sitting. I can’t remember who struck up the conversation first, but we chatted about lots of things. Our common friend Rene Gutteridge, the time I was supposed to meet him and Rene at a small conference but instead the night before I was to leave, God asked me to give up writing. That led to a conversation about his family, my family, homeschooling, and why I started Writer…Interrupted. His engaging smile and genuine interest in what I was saying made me feel comfortable and like I was talking to an old friend.

Some time during the evening Chip MacGregor showed up and started Tango dancing with Meredith. It might have been during my conversation with Steve, but it was interesting to watch and learn that Chip was a ballroom dance instructor. Talk about your multi-layered character!

While he was dancing and well, being Chip, I thought about when I would have the time to talk with him about my WIP. A friend had referred me to him and we had chatted through email, but every time I saw him he was engaged in a conversation. And I wasn’t about to talk shop with him during the late night lobby chill session, so I just enjoyed the growing camaraderie in the group. I’m not sure what time it was when I started to drift, but I didn’t want to pull myself away from this fun group.

When Chip announced he was calling it a night, I decided to join him in the elevator for the ride up. It was a short three story ride, but with our frazzled brains we managed to squeak out a conversation. He remembered we needed to meet and I had to remind him that he liked my One Sheet in the late night chat. I told him I’d been trying to catch him but every time I saw him he was meeting with someone. He said he was just chatting with people, but I said I didn’t want to “jump on him.” He followed up in typical Chip fashion, “oh, you should have just jumped on me.”

He told me to catch him tomorrow and I did. But that’s another story for another day… and definitely worth waiting for!

If you’re dying to read about the previous ACFW posts, here they are:

ACFW Day One: Living to Tell the Story

Meeting James Scott Bell

ACFW Thursday: Late Night Chat

ACFW: Friday



Categories: Conference Confidence |November 12th, 2007 |

5 Comments

  1. Mary

    Fun, I could almost imagine being there! You got to hang out with some neat people…

  2. Cathy Wst

    Gina, I love the pic on your homepage, it’s awesome!
    I’m glad you had some positive experiences at the conference. I always tend to get freaked out and run in the opposite direction of agents and editors, but I did have a couple of good experiences this year. I guess I’m learning to step out of my comfort zone.

  3. Gina

    Thanks Cathy. I took the pic at the ACFW conference and had a blast at the photo session. I’m getting more comfortable around editors, agents, and big name authors and have realized over the years they’re just regular people who really want to help.

    Mary, hopefully you’ll be in Minnesota next year!

  4. Mary

    Hopefully! I actually have a wonderful friend only 45 minutes from the conference, and I haven’t seen her in years…more reasons for making it work!

  5. chip

    So…why didn’t you jump?



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*Copyright 2006, Portrait of a Writer, Gina Conroy*