Meeting my Idol- Heather Graham

In March of 2012, my best friend Stacey Hays (and contributor to this blog) who lives in Bowling Green, Kentucky sent me a text that author Heather Graham was going to be at the Bowling Green Writers Conference in April. I immediately text back, asking what the dates were so I could check my calendar. As soon as she told me the weekend and I saw that I was free, I got on Southwest’s website. I could book a flight on Friday morning and come back on Sunday afternoon in time to pick up my son from his dad’s.

So before I got confirmation from Stacey that she was able to drive to Nashville to pick me up at the airport on that Friday morning, I bought my plane ticket.  That was $200 well worth it!

I got to meet my idol Heather Graham, it was surreal. Heather gave a lecture at the conference. We made sure that we were front and center in the auditorium. I came 500 miles to see her! I couldn’t wait to hear about her writing experience and her books. I fell in love with her as an author with her historical romance novels. Her trilogy set during the Civil War is still one of my favorites that I have read over and over again.  

After the lecture she was doing a book signing. I was ecstatic to meet her in person. I couldn’t wait to tell her how much I loved her novels and how much joy I got through her books, not just her historical romance novels. She was so humble, nice, down to earth, and genuinely happy to meet her fans.

She gave great advice as well. After learning that I was an aspiring author she encouraged to keep writing and she recommended that I join the RWA. She gave me her personal e-mail address so that we could correspond and I could keep her informed on the progress of my writing journey. I have written her a few times and she even wrote me back!

After coming back from the Kentucky Writer’s Conference, I had a renewed drive to continue with my writing. The year before had been hard on me personally, but I needed and wanted to get back to something that I loved to do, which is writing.

Thank you, Heather Graham for helping to get me back on track with my writing.

One year later, I am unable to make it to the KY writers conferences, but I am still working on my writing. I have taken some time off here and there…but I am back at it.