Are you a writer? Are you an aspiring writer? Ok… do you dabble secretly in a journal or hidden notebook and daydream of seeing your name on the cover of a book on the shelf of your favorite bookstore?

The biggest takeaway from my 12-month writing journey is the importance of community. You can create the most beautiful masterpiece of a sentence, a plot, a story, but without perseverance, the whole thing goes down the toilet. Without writing friends and cheerleaders, it’s easy for perseverance to become a burden that is easily ignored and traded for dishes, vacuuming or reading that awesome novel by a writer that has what it takes (vs you that clearly doesn’t. oof.)

The West Coast Christian Writers’ Conference was this weekend in Southern California. I attended online where I found new community and so much more.

First, I want to give a shout out to the Bitsy Kemper, award-winning author of Mommy & Me Micro-Moments: Nurturing Faith, Sharing Laughs, for being a phenomenal online host. She ran around with all of us online attendees in tow via Facebook Live, showing us the venue, snagging authors, organizers and literary agents to chat with. She kept us engaged, hosted zoom meetings, answered our questions, and did at least 25 giveaways. Who doesn’t like a good giveaway??

By the end of the conference, I’d made a few new friends and received much encouragement and motivation to just keep going. My tank had been running a tad low. Now, my tank is full and I have a few gas cans filled and ready to go when I need them.

The workshops were educational and the Keynote, Barb Roose, was exceptional. I’m also kind of fan-girling Laurie Davies (the author, NOT the politician) right now. Her debut, Emotional Hoarding: Letting Go of the Stuff that Keeps you Stuck, is coming out March 2026. Some of y’all need to preorder this right now.

I’m not published… oops, sorry Bitsy… I am PRE-PUBLISHED. In all reality, I am a nobody in this industry. At this conference, I didn’t feel like a nobody. Everyone, those published and those not, rubbed elbows and celebrated each other without inhibition. It just felt good.

We all start somewhere. Join me in putting the pen to the paper, and building community.

And I strongly suggest you consider going to the 2026 WCCW Conference next November. It’ll change your writing life, and honestly, it’ll change your non-writing life too.