Writing Heaven

I often wonder if I'm actually a writer.  I know that's nutty when I've written a book, and have written stories since at least the 7th Grade.  Still, I perpetually worry that after all of this practice and effort I'm not actually good enough to be a writer.  Today, for the first time in my life, I think I finally know I'm a writer. 

Today I went to a local writing an event and a fairly well known author whom I respect, and whose work I enjoyed, read a single page of my work and basically told me that all that's stopping me from being published is connecting with the right agent.  She gave me feedback on the page (good, solid feedback) and then said something like, "But you're doing so much right with this, I can't imagine you wouldn't get several requests for partials just based on this."  [Partials are when an agent likes your work and asks for part of your manuscript]  She also said that the fact that even one agent got to the point of requesting my manuscript for Rell meant that "You're probably already doing everything right."   She suggested that I go to writer's conferences in order to meet with agents face to face, but then reassured me that the query letter process would eventually work for me but warned it might take a long time. Now I've read this kind of stuff in a magazine article before,  but to hear someone say it after having just read a piece of my work was encouraging in whole new way.

To top it all off, when our group ended, she stopped to give me the name of a specific agent she knows. She told me that I could send my latest book to him (when I'm finished) and that I could tell him that she suggested I send it his way.  Networking gold!

Anyway a true entry about this event would be six pages long, but this, I admit, was the highlight for me:)