The ice caps are melting. The Amazon is burning. The economy is tanking. Hate is rising. Temperatures are soaring. National problems fester. Hurricanes roar.
And for a full three days later this week, starting on Friday, I’ll be in the news-free bubble known as Colorado Gold. Here’s what I’ll be thinking:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
I’ll block out the news, talk to my friends, soak up some time with writers, and appreciate the fact that we are lucky enough to live on this particular planet, the third rock from the sun, and get to spend time thinking about writing and publishing stories. (Just think, if we had been born on Mars, we wouldn’t be here.)
I grew up a news junkie. Can’t explain why, but the news fascinated me. By the time I was in eighth grade, I knew I wanted to be a reporter. Huntley-Brinkley? Every chance I got. The Boston Evening Globe? I would sit on the couch in the evenings and read it when my mother brought one home from work downtown.
I spent nearly 20 years as a reporter and television news producer. I like knowing what’s going on. But lately, it’s been an unrelenting assault. Watching national news is often a soul-crushing experience. As my friend Billie Best pointed out in her recent, excellent Adventures in Elderhood blog post, negativity is being supersized. “Too much gloom warps my psyche as much as too many martinis,” she wrote. “It distorts reality.”
Amen.
That’s one of the reasons, to me, why Colorado Gold is a welcome time. What’s better than three days of all of us writers (many of whom love to distort reality, others who work hard to explain it) hanging out and thinking about our shared, collective art? It’s always a blast to meet new writers and find out what they’re writing—and why.
At Gold, the world out there fades away. The world out there matters less.
So thank you to Suzie Brooks and Pam Nowak for all their work as co-chairs, putting the conference together. Thanks to all the presenters who submitted workshop ideas. Thanks to all the agents and editors who are coming to Denver to meet with writers of all experience levels. Thanks to all the guest writers bringing insights and inspiration. Thanks to all the volunteers who make the whole thing hum along.
Going to Colorado Gold is nearly as good as another experience I think we all love—reading a book so good you forget where you are, or what you’re doing.
I will not be there—I sincerely hope to next year!—but I hope you all have a great time! My schedules again wouldn’t allow it this year—it’s just the time of year for us.
However.
Focus on the good and the fun and the writing there! Renewing friendships! Making new ones!
I’m a firm believer in that we all get what we focus upon. How can this not happen? If all that we see and focus upon is death and destruction and insane clown possees, how can we make room for anything else? I agree with you and Billie, everything appears to be getting supersized…*but it’s because we continue to allow such things to happen*. If we were to turn our attentions away from those things we dislike and no longer want to experience, then focus upon what we’d LIKE to experience, those other things will fade away…and I mean in very real, positive terms, not in some pollyanna head-in-the-sand fashion. Focus and DO good…but don’t hate those things that you don’t agree with. Instead focus on the good stuff! Focus on love and peace and doing good, not lambasting those things you don’t like! Don’t give such things ANY energy!
And focusing on this conference IS a step in that direction! Focus on the fun and good that this conference is…and when it’s over, bring those feelings of good and positive energy with you into your daily lives. Learn to turn away from those things that upset you. If you keep focusing on the stupid clown circuses being shown in the media, what do you expect?
Change your perspectives.
Focus your attention elsewhere.
Stay positive!
DO good!
Otherwise you’ll keep re-experiencing what bothers you…so how can you expect change when you keep doing the same things you claim to not enjoy?
Thank you, Frank !
Amen to all that! Hope to see you at Gold, Mark. I also second the emotion for Pam and Suzie – what a monumental task to pull this all together.
Seriously, “monumental” is right !!
Loved this, Mark! So true! Pam and Suzie have outdone themselves with speakers, workshops and intensive classes. I’m looking so forward to the feel-good frenzy of smiles, hugs, and learning that comes with the Colorado Gold!
The best kind of frenzy & inspiration! Thanks, Janet.
I’m missing Colorado Gold again this year but have high hopes that I’ll be there in 2020. I hope you all have a glorious time and come away motivated and energized. I’ll soak up some second-hand energy from those I know will be attending from our area (including this year’s WOTY)!
Like you, Mark, I’m a news junkie and also a political junkie, so in addition to the news, I watch debates, speeches, town halls and conventions. I used to watch all that stuff regularly for information, but these days I watch it in small doses for entertainment. As for facts, are there any left? I’ve been searching everywhere. 😀
Thanks to everyone who made Colorado Gold a success, including you, Mark!
Pam and Susie rocked it! Fabulous. And you, too, Mark, with your camera and smile.
One of these days, I’ll be back. I can promise you that!
Also, very exciting news! Remember the very first time I met you–at CO Gold in 2011–when I was frantically scribbling a brand-new idea for a book in my notebook next to you? (A polar bear kills his zookeeper, and the zookeeper becomes a ghost?)
Well, one hundred years later, I just typed THE END on that project last month. It’s now in my agent’s hands… Please keep your fingers crossed–and thanks again for all of your great advice back then. You have inspired me more than you know.