Dinner was the most interesting part of the first day of the conference.

When I say it that way it sounds like a bad thing, that the first day of the Oregon Christian Writers Summer Conference was a bust, but that isn’t so. Sometimes you meet the most interesting people around the dinner table.

After getting checked in, and receiving my obligatory nametag, (I’ve never liked wearing a nametag) I found my room, but was only able to relax for a few minutes, before trotting off to the conference.

The first item was a panel discussion with literary agents. There were probably more than a hundred people in attendance. Every seat was used and they brought in more. Agents are important to writers. I listened to gain insight on their perspective, but I don’t need an agent right now.

Next was a panel of magazine editors. I don’t write for magazines, but I was willing to hear what they had to say. Ben Wolf of Splickety Magazine, intrigued me. His magazine specializes in flash fiction, entire stories told in 1,000 words or less.

Several years ago, my son James had written several flash fiction pieces. That was my first introduction to them and I had no idea where or how to market them, but here was a man asking people to write them. I wanted to tell James.

Next was dinner in the banquet room. I saw my friend Julie Zander and we walked in together. Each table had a centerpiece with the name of a speaker at the conference. The named person would sit at that table. I noticed the table with Ben Wolf’s name on it. We sat there with Julie on my right.

Ben arrived moments later and sat one space over on my left. The chair between us was empty. I had just starting talking with Ben about his magazine and what type of submissions they were looking for when Randy Ingermanson sat between us. I’ve read several of Randy’s books including Oxygen and The Fifth Man. Julie knew Randy. Randy knew Ben and Julie and for the next hour I got to know both Randy and Ben as we talked about Amazon, the future of writing and magazines.

It was a great start to the conference.