Life-Changing Convention

What do these following items have in common?

BooksJustBooks.Com @ http://www.BooksJustBooks.com/
DermatologistRX.Com @ http://www.dermatologistrx.com/
Fax Express, Inc. @ http://www.faxexpress.com/
INetU, Inc. Dedicated Servers @ http://www.inetu.com/
Infinity Publishing @ http://www.infinitypublishing.com
Instant Publisher @ http://www.instantpublisher.com
The Writer @ http://www.writermag.com/
Stories.Com @ http://www.stories.com/

Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore hotel
Baltimore, MD.

And 49 people who share the same addiction.

Fax Express, Inc. and INetU, Inc. Dedicated Servers have the modern-day equipment and Internet services to help you keep in touch with the friends, family, editors, publishers and agents that frequent Stories.Com. Then you have The Writer, which is a magazine designed to help writing enthusiasts learn the tricks of the writing world. These helpful tips may make BooksJustBooks.Com, Infinity Publishing, and Instant Publisher needed sites to further your publishing dreams come true.

These aforementioned websites, except for Stories.Com, were sponsors to an annual convention that was held at the Radisson Plaza Lord Baltimore hotel in Baltimore, MD. This life-changing event brought together, for the first time, 49 writing enthusiasts who are addicted to a website community.

The first main event for the first annual Stories.Com convention was a brief buffet dinner followed by Open-Mic Night. The first person on the stage was The StoryMistress and she read a moving letter that she wrote for our beloved The StoryMaster . Her words and their embrace afterwards started me on an emotional roller-coaster ride. I wasn’t alone with these feelings either, just looking around the room seeing how this affected everyone was worth the whole trip for me.

Some of the more notable performers on the stage this night were 6149 who sang an original song. Zoo - Salted and Roasted played the acoustic guitar accompanying pathrhino as he performed a couple rap lyrics. Also a small group of members took over the stage and presented a live campfire creative.

For some of us the nightly festivities didn’t end after the microphone was turned off. We ventured out in the streets of Baltimore with devc leading the way, but only after a few “Venting” chants. Imagine twenty of your favorite Stories.Com authors roaming the streets of Baltimore at midnight shouting “Hey Waterbaby” or “Hey Moo” or even “Hey Master and Mistress”. Yes we got some strange looks from non-members but it was so much fun.

The next morning started off in what felt like only minutes as the night ended. We met in the banquet room for a continental breakfast, wearing our bright yellow Stories.Com convention T-Shirts. After our dinning pleasures we were set free once again into the streets of Baltimore, Maryland. This time there was no night to hide our un-caged, animal antics. Did this fact subdue our desires to get out and have some fun…Hardly.

We broke into smaller groups and we each did our own thing. The group I was with decided to tour around the harbor, do some shopping and invade the Hard Rock Café. This group also devised a plan to reward the dedication of The StoryMaster and The StoryMistress by giving them a gift of our gratitude.

After our many excursions we all returned to the hotel and became writers embarking on a book signing tour. It is nice to dream isn’t it? Actually, we all returned to the Radisson to prepare for the Formal Dinner. It was nice to see all of us addicted writers exchange our t-shirts, our chewed pencils, and ragged notebooks for an evening gown or a nice suit and tie.

The champagne toast was another time to have tissues close at hand. Writers, when given time and a microphone, can think of many things to say. We all had to thank the creators of Stories.Com for the affect it has on our lives. This toast wasn’t a time to make friends but a time to strengthen our heartfelt emotions towards one another.

Sunday was upon us all too quickly; we were checking out of our rooms and gathering in the ballroom for brunch and the Creative Auction. The StoryMaster turned out to be quite the auctioneer and bidder. There was a plethora of items just waiting for our bids. Some of these items included a framed poem from HawaiianPeach , a Bovine Bessie Wastebasket, and recorded tape of PathRhino’s raps.

I hope in these few words you can see what I mean about how this convention changed my life. I hope that these words help to make up your mind about attending next year’s convention on August 15th thru 18th, 2003. And I hope I can read how much attending a future convention meant to you.