KANSAS AUTHORS CLUB’S 103rd ANNUAL STATE CONVENTION AND WRITING CONFERENCE

Story ID:	3243
Written by:	Gail Lee Martin
Organization:	Kansas Authors Club
Story type:	Diary/Journal Entry
Location:	Wichita Kansas USA
Year:	2007
Person:	Gail, daughters & friends

KANSAS AUTHORS CLUB’S 103rd ANNUAL STATE CONVENTION AND WRITING CONFERENCE
Pen Life As Art
Write From The Heart

My full convention reservation for the two day affair of $70.00 has been paid and my daughter, Cynthia Ross has reserved our non-smoking room we will share at the Holiday Inn Select at Kellogg and Rock Road, Wichita, Kansas. I packed my bag after deciding which outfits to wear during this special yearly occasion for all members and guests of the Kansas Authors Club.

Cindy and I have attended every convention since we joined in 1990 when Cindy entered their non-member contest and won a 2nd Honorable Mention tie with her poem “Coyote.” The convention was held in Liberal, Kansas that year and they invited her to attend to receive her award. She wanted to go but Liberal is a long away from the central part of Kansas where we live. 214 miles in fact but western Kansas has long stretched of highway with no towns. Not really a good place for a lone woman to travel. So I went with her for company and to share the pride in her receiving a state writing award. Part of her award was a year’s membership in the club. I decided at that time to join the club too. After all I was only sixty-six year old, surely I could learn something about writing that would be benefit. My writing up until that time had been just family histories.

I’m was so excited when another of my daughters, Karen, decided to go and be my escort/chauffeur. As we drove up to the hotel we were impressed and pleased to see a large banner strung across the front of the hotel welcoming us to the convention. Inside the hotel the convention registration tables were set up in the lobby just to the left of the hotel registration desk. Karen checked us in and showed me the way to our room that we were sharing with Cindy. After unpacking and hanging up our clothes to let the wrinkles shake out, we went back down stairs. At the conventions checkin tables we received our identification badges and a goody bag of interesting items related to writing.

We started meeting friends from all over the state that I had made during the seventeen years of conventions. Ten of those years I had been the state appointed archivist so had attended two state officers meeting each year as well. Kansas Authors Club is divided into seven districts that take turns hosting the state convention. We had arrived on Friday evening to be on time for the Youth Contest awards the club had sponsored. The young winners arrived with the parents, grandparents and even some brought their school teachers.

The youth contest manager, Mary-Lane Kamberg, welcomed everyone and soon turned it over to the award presenters, Christie Breault and Deb Seely. As each winner was announced they received an Olympic style medal, certificate and booklet publishing all the winners entries. Some winners even read their entry, then cake and punch was served to all. This night of honors and fellowship will be remembered by the young writers and their parents for a lifetime. Photographs of each group of winners were taken and are on the Kansas Authors Club Web page, www.kansasauthors.org

Following the award ceremony a read-a-round was held for those who wanted to share something from their writing or just listen to others read aloud. Ralph Allen Jr. was the Facilitator and kept the readings of stories, articles and poetry moving along. When my turn came I read “The Lady Bugs Are Back” that I had posted on OurEchoes number 2472.

Finally back to our room for the night. My two daughters and I were too wound up to think of sleeping as we each shared our memories of the grand evening we had just attended and Cindy had helped take place. She even cut and served the three large fancy cakes for the youth contest, where she had the opportunity to congratulate the proud winners and their parents. Finally sleep did come with dreams of two more full days of this 103 rd. writing convention in Kansas. Continued soon
photo #1 KAC 2007 convention program booklet.
photo #2 Deb Seely youth award presenter.
photo #3 2007 Youth published winning entries.
photo #4 Gail and friend, Dorothy Masters.
photo #5 Ralph Allen Jr. Read-a-Round facilitator.