The conference is in Hebrew. So, no matter what language you write in -- Hebrew, English, Russian, French, Amharic, Klingon -- as long as you understand Hebrew, you'll be able to enjoy this get-together, and benefit from it.
Like many others who attend writers' workshops and other such get-togethers, I am a frustrated, would-be Writer. Yeah, I write. Always have written, and I am still a graphomaniac, still writing, but haven't published a single book. In theory I know a lot about creative writing. I even led a workshop on creative writing, years ago. At some point, I bravely sent a collection of my short stories to one (only one!) publisher. The stories were rejected. I didn't have the guts to submit them again; I just sulked at my desk. Now where would we be today, had Graham Greene (to name but one writer) sulked at the first rejection, rather than forged ahead, rewriting and resubmitting his manuscripts. Okay, so I'm no Graham Greene... but you get the point.
Besides -- I've been telling myself -- I simply have no imagination! I can blog to my heart's content about where I've been and what I've done. But actually inventing a plot and characters? Not to mention an entire new world? - Forget it; won't happen. Each year, NaNoWriMo comes along, and each year I say to myself -- Maybe next year...
But say you've had the sitzfleisch to complete your stories, or your novel. What next? How do you get the darn thing published? As a translator and an editor, I've seen many manuscripts -- both fiction and non-fiction -- at that intermediate stage. Some have seen the light of day via publishing houses; others have popped up on Amazon, having been published as an ebook by their authors, with a little help from experts; and some are still dormant on hard disks, "clouds", or good old-fashioned desk drawers. Publishing one's manuscript is a complex project, and most of us need advice, guidance, encouragement and virtual hand-holding. I think this guidance and encouragement is mainly what I'm looking for in this upcoming conference.
So, come Wednesday morning, Oct. 11th, meet me at the Turning Point conference, ZOA House, on the corner of 26, Ibn Gabirol and 1, Daniel Frisch streets. Ta-ta for now!
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See also Racheli's Facebook page about her Hebrew editing software, and about the conference:
https://www.facebook.com/ivri.guru/
נקודת מפנה 2 -- כנס הכותבים, 11 באוקטובר 2011, בית ציוני אמריקה, תל אביב.
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