Thinking For Myself

birthday present to myself

Sanibel Island Writers Conference 2012

http://www.fgcu.edu/siwc/

for a while now I had been looking for a writing conference or workshop

featuring an author that was on my short list of

favorite authors

someone I felt I could really get something from

they tended to be in New York, or Europe

Santa Fe, San Francisco

I knew one day it would happen

Sanibel Island is about 75 miles south of me

near my dad's, I know it well

(there is even a campground...)

nice place

and the best part is

that the featured lecturer Susan Orlean is my hero!

here is her blip

Susan Orlean is an American writer whose book The Orchid Thief,

which profiled the Florida orchid expert John Laroche,

was adapted into a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman

and became the cult Spike Jonze film Adaptation.

the cool thing about her

is that she writes non-fiction that reads like fiction

that is what I try and do

the full title is

The Orchid Thief : a True Story of Love and Obsession

here is what Susan herself says about the book on her website

In 1994, I headed down to Florida to investigate the story of John Laroche, an eccentric plant dealer who had been arrested along with a crew of Seminoles for poaching rare orchids out of the a South Florida swamp. I never imagined that I would end up spending the next two years shadowing Laroche and exploring the odd, passionate world of orchid fanatics. I certainly never imagined that I would willingly hike through the swamps of South Florida -- but that's what writing a book does to you. I found myself as passionate about the project as the orchid fanatics were about their flowers, and that is ultimately what the book is about. I'm proud to report that the book was a New York Times bestseller, a Barnes and Noble Discover book, a Borders New Voices selection, an honoree in the American Library Association and New York Public Library books-of-the-year selections, and the subject of the movie, Adaptation. http://susanorlean.com/books/the-orchid-thief.php

it is a great book and I really recommend it

another book of hers I love is