Posted By Ron on August 15, 2010
American Icon 2, 2006
American Icon 2, in 2006, signified the beginning of my involvement with Pikes Peak Writers. The 2006 PPWC was the very first writers conference I had ever attended and that came about as a fluke. I’d been engaged in email exchanges with an agent in New York who told me she would be at a conference in Colorado Springs in a couple of weeks, and maybe we could talk.
A writers conference in Colorado? Who’d ever heard of such a thing? But, of course I said yes, I’ll be there.
I scrambled the rest of that day and found TWO writers conferences in Colorado. PPWC and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Colorado Gold. That same day, while researching the conferences, I learned that a friend I had worked with for years not only was a writer, but was having a launch party for his debut novel The Nymphos of Rocky Flats that very night. Did I go… you betcha! The first of many since that night.
Prior to 2006 PPWC, I did what all smart newbies do and attended Pam McCutcheon’s pitch workshop at the old Cottonwood Artists School — and made a couple dozen new friends. At conference, Monica and I sat in the back of the room on Saturday night, looked up at the speaker’s table and said, “Maybe someday we’ll get to know some of those people.” Doh… I’d been talking and joking with “those people” all weekend long.
After conference, I attended the May and June Write Brains, and heard about American Icon happening July 7th. I signed up right away because it sounded fun. And, I thought what the hell, I’m a good writer, I can do this. *Snork*
So, I’d been thinking about a laptop (after seeing many of them at the conference) and made a deal with myself and Monica. If I won a prize at American Icon, I’d buy a laptop. Since this was my first time at it, I figured the $800 or $900 would be still safe in the bank when all was said and done.
We stopped in Manitou Springs and bought a good luck t-shirt. I wore my lucky buffalo bone neck-piece…
“The barometer of Andrea Bellows’s life grew in her curls….” I started out.
At the end of the night, Laura Hayden announced the winners… “Ron Heimbecher for Best Chick Lit.”
What? What the heck is Chick Lit? No matter, I had a new laptop thanks to Andrea Bellows’s curly brown hair.
Now, four years later, my laptop is wearing out, another American Icon (Icon 6) has passed, and my ‘guinea pig-go first’ reading was my last “official” act as president of Pikes Peak Writers. The next president and board of directors will be elected on September 7. Between now and then, I’m transitioning a all of the web work and a few remaining administrative things.
American Icon 6, 2010
It’s been a great four-year ride with a bunch of fantastic, passionate, and dedicated people, and I’ll still be around. For the next year, I’ll remain affiliated with the board of directors in a consultancy position as immediate past president, and I will see all of you next April for the 2011 conference.
In the meantime, I’m racing to catch up with my roots, the emerging media and ePub projects that started me writing in the first place. Yup, time ta dance with the one what brung me. — And… I’ll be eligible for prizes in Icon 7.
B^)
Godspeed to all of you in the quest for your dream.
Ron Heimbecher, President, Pikes Peak Writers
Category: Events, General |
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Tags: American Icon, Board of Directors, PPW, PPWC
It’s always a thrill when one of our own releases a debut novel, and it’s even more of a thrill when she takes some time from a busy book tour to present the third and final of our Sizzling Summer Write Brain series. Longtime PPW member Deborah Coonts spiced up her Finding Your Unique Voice with anecdotes of her publishing journey from unsold geopolitical thriller manuscripts to finding her own voice with leading character Lucky O’Toole in her debut novel Wanna Get Lucky? (“Watch out Janet Evanovich” – NYT Best Selling Author Gayle Lynds)
It’s also always cool to see a big stack of unsigned books turn into a completely empty stack of signed books in backpacks, purses and in-hand by the end of the evening.
You can have the same kind of fun these people had at American Icon 4. See that thing behind them? It’s a cash bar. But you have to wonder…
The “celebrity” judges for PPW American Icon 6, August 6, 2010, 6:30 PM at the Colorado Springs Marriot are: