Sunday, February 27, 2011

An Awesome Conference Experience!

I was so blessed to attend the Woman to Woman Conference at my school (Corban University) yesterday! The Associated Student Body generously offered to pay the way for up to 50 Corban girls, so I was able to go for free and hear author Robin Jones Gunn speak, as well as attend some great classes!

Robin Jones Gunn is the author of the "Christy Miller" series, the "Sisterchicks" series, and many other Christian novels and non-fiction books. Her latest book (coming out in May), co-authored by Tricia Goyer, is called Praying for Your Future Husband, and it was so awesome to hear where the idea for this upcoming release came from! I have to say, I have not yet had the pleasure of reading her work, but after this conference, I am definitely eager to do so!

Robin is a fantastic speaker--so sweet and personable--and I got to meet her, take a picture with her, and have her sign a book for me and a book I bought for my sister! *Squeal!* Yes, I was a tad bit star-struck, as you can probably tell! When I met her, I think I might have sounded quite silly:

Amber: "I'm sure you hear this all the time from people you meet at conferences, but I hope to be a novelist someday, too. I have a blog..."

Something like that! ;) Or how about this?

Amber: "Your talk this morning was so good. It made me cry."

Robin: "I hope they were good tears!"

Yes, they were! Both of the talks she gave us were excellent. Anyway, she was so kind and she gave me a couple of hugs!

She also pointed out that the nice volunteer who was selling her (Robin's) books just so happened to be an author, too, and now I'm going to be reviewing her book(s) here on my blog! How fun is that? Her name is Tracey Jane Jackson, and she has a Civil War Brides series that involves time-travel and romance. Sounds pretty interesting! (She said her books aren't specifically Christian fiction, but they are clean historical romances.)

Well, there's just so much to say about the conference that I'm going to do a series of posts about it! I'm planning on having a post for each of the classes I took (Contentment, Fitness Myths, and Spiritual Discipline), as well as a post about the main talks given by Robin Jones Gunn. I hope you enjoy them--I'm quite excited to share what I learned with all of you! (And I just love the connections between these classes/talks and some of my New Year's Resolutions, as well as the Contentment Reading Challenge!)

8 comments:

Renee said...

Your excitement is contagious, Amber! So glad God blessed you through those ladies. I look forward to all the great encouragement you'll have to share with us in future posts.

Vince said...

Hi Amber:

You’ve got my interest up! I want to hear more about "Praying for Your Future Husband" as soon as possible. Maybe you can get a ARC. I’m looking forward to your posts on the conference. I’ve been to many conferences and I’ve also been a speaker at many of them. I’d love to hear what you liked best.

Vince

Casey said...

I'm so glad you had a good time! I wish I could have been there to listen, that one book sounds REALLY good!!

But it was good that I was able to be home this weekend, sis ended up winning a scholarship for her piano playing abilities and I was glad to be here. I'll see you soon I know! :)

Amber Holcomb said...

Renee Ann,

Thank you! :D I'm happy to share the excitement and the blessings I received from the conference!

~Amber

Amber Holcomb said...

Vince,

I'm so glad you found this post interesting! :) I don't know if/when I'll be able to review the book, but it does sound good, and I'll definitely have to keep it in mind! I'll plan on sharing her story about the inspiration for the book when I post about Robin Jones Gunn's talks in a few days. :) She's such a great speaker!

That's neat that you've been to so many conferences and that you've been a speaker numerous times! :) I'm eager to share about this specific one, as I think that even though it was specifically a women's conference there was so much we talked about that's great for everyone to be reminded of! :D

~Amber

Amber Holcomb said...

Casey,

Thank you! It would have been awesome to meet you there, but I'm glad you were able to stay at home and see your sister's piano recital. :) (Not to mention staying safe what with all that snow recently!) Please tell her I said congratulations!

I hope we get to meet soon! :)

~Amber

lindsayw said...

Wow, I'm so glad you got to hear her speak! I was very disappointed that she wasn't able to make it to Chapel on Friday. I love her books, and I am glad to hear she is also a great speaker!

Amber Holcomb said...

Lindsay!

Aw, thanks! :) I didn't make that connection about chapel, but I remember she said at the conference that she was stuck in San Francisco the day before, so that makes sense. I'm sorry you weren't able to hear her in chapel. :(

She is definitely a fabulous speaker--made me cry during the very first general session! I'm glad to hear you love her books! I'm eager to read one of them soon. :)

~Amber