The Weekend Traveler

For the next few weeks, I'm turning into a weekend traveler. I'm out on ether Thursday or Friday and back on Sunday. It's one of those schedules that looked good on paper but as the dates approach, I'm wondering what compelled me to agree months ago and some times well over a year ago. I'm committed to helping new writers and training other professionals.

Tomorrow I'm headed to Amarillo, Texas and the Frontiers in Writing Conference. I met some great folks there several years ago and look forward to seeing them again and making new friends. If you check the link you will see that I’m teaching a couple of workshops. I could have pulled out my old notes and handouts and used them with the group. It's tempting since it is in a different part of the country from where I've taught the information in the past. I've attended such workshops where it feels like the speaker has pulled out their shop-worn notes to try on a new audience. As an audience member, I don't like it so I'm not going to do that to others. Instead, I've put some extra effort into reworking my materials and bringing new information. It takes more effort but I believe it will pay off in the long run.

On a completely different topic, from time to time I read the Church of the Customer blog and enjoy their information. I found this post fascinating about how a blogger took a customer service matter and turned it into a PR nightmare for CompUSA.

If these entries about the writing life are some times sparse during June, just remember that I'm a weekend traveler this month--and on the road the next three weekends in a row.