Besides being a social event and a chance for good conversation and connection with people, Mo*Con also made me think. Standing outside of the building on Saturday of the event, I found myself in a conversation with Kelli Dunlap. The panel happening at the time was about the writing business, and I had decided to skip it and use the time to head home to let my dog out and go get my copy of Orgy of Souls (to be signed by Maurice and Wrath). Upon telling Kelli this, she asked me, “are you a writer?” I wasn’t sure what to say… I mean, at this point the whole convention had made me actually consider writing more. But how do I answer that question?

I blog. I journal. I do like to write. And I never seem to have trouble having the words flow pretty freely. And it is something I enjoy. But had I ever tried to get a story published? Not even close. So I didn’t know what to say. Kelli termed me a “hobby writer” and told me that that was perfectly okay and not to let anyone tell me any different. She’s right, at this point. But even my “hobby writing” hasn’t been much of a focus lately. But maybe it should be.

One thing I took away from Mo*Con was the feeling that I’m lacking something. I’ve heard that to be happy in life, you need a good balance of all your “life areas”. One of those life areas is spirituality. And to me right now – I believe that connection and creativity are a big part of what spirituality is in my life… two things that I found in abundance at Mo*Con. As far as creativity goes – I’m not much of an artist, but I DO like to write.

So I’ve decided. In an effort to increase creativity and gain some spiritual balance in my life, I’m going to write more. There’s no rhyme or reason to it, and no publishing of stories will be sought after any time soon. Heck, I don’t even know if stories will be written. But something will be. Right now, my focus is just doing it. It’s easy to get caught up in the things in life that it feels like have to be done, and to not do the things that really are necessary for fulfillment that just don’t seem as pressing. But I need the creative outlet. I need the channel for paying more attention to the world around me and the wonder it contains. So be it blog post, journal entry, or whatever may flow out… write I will.

I guess I am a writer.

And now – back to reality. After a weekend full of… well, not normalcy – I’m just trying to get back in the swing of things. This weekend was Mo*Con, the annual convention that my friend Maurice has hosted for the last 4 years here in Indy.

I could probably never do Mo*Con justice trying to describe what it is, so I will just link you to his blog and tell you that really it’s mostly a family reunion for Maurice and his writer friends. Now what does that have to do with me? Well, I’m not entirely sure… let’s just say that I’ve met some of these writer friends and they tend to be pretty cool people, so I really just decided to come join the fun.

I enjoyed the panels that I listened to. One was about writing and relationships that I thought had some points that I believe could be applied to relationships among non-writers as well. I especially liked Kelli Dunlap’s comment about how for a good relationship to have the proper balance, there needs to be “my time, your time, and our time”. There was also some good conversation to be had surrounding this topic.

Another good panel was the one about religion and faith or the lack thereof. Wrath James White gave a “sermon” about atheism and why he chooses to not believe there is a God, followed by Maurice’s account of why he does believe in God. Following this was a panel about the subject along with some more good conversations over the course of the weekend.

The poetry was good, the food was good, the art was good, but probably the best part of the weekend was the people and conversation. I made some new friends, spent time with some old ones, and overall got to spend some quality time with interesting and intelligent people. I feel like lately I’ve lost a bit of myself, gotten caught up in the shallowness of society and forgotten some sides to life, some sides to me. The part of me that sees (and seeks) wonder and creativity and connection in the world. The part that doesn’t care about trying to match up to society’s standards of what should be chased after or found interesting. It might have only been a couple of days, but there’s an uplifting of spirit that I obtained from Mo*Con that I hope continues to last.

Among the people I met, re-met, or re-connected with this weekend are Kelli Dunlap, Alethea Kontis, Michelle Pendergrass, Wrath James White, Jason Sizemore, Linda Addison, John C. Hay, and a few more. It was good to spend time with Maurice and his clan as well. In some ways, I almost felt out of place considering I’m not a professional writer and felt like more of a fangirl. But hopefully they didn’t mind too much.

I really admire Kelli and Alethea. They seem like confident women that were an encouragement to a girl that’s struggled to find her worthiness lately. And people like Jason and Wrath are proof that not all guys are into the skinny blonde Barbie image that our society seems to want every girl to kill herself to obtain.

So I come out of the weekend with a renewed sense of… something. Maybe it’s creativity. Maybe it’s my own worthiness. Maybe I just needed a bit of a vacation. But whatever it is, I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out and where it might take me.