By Steena Holmes, NYT & USA Today Bestselling Author
When I tell people that I’m going on a writing cruise I get one of two reactions.
“A writing cruise? Really? You’re just looking for a write-off, right?”, or “Are you serious? A working cruise? This is legit?”
Regardless of which response comes up, I smile and admit that coming onto the 2015 Cruising Writers cruise was one of the best things I’ve done for my career and my writing in years.
Yep. You heard me.
ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I’VE DONE FOR MY CAREER AND WRITING IN YEARS!
(Sorry for the shout out but I really want you to hear me!)
There are two reasons for this.
The first is purely selfish.
I signed, as an author, almost four years ago with The Knight Agency and while my own agent wasn’t on the cruise, the head of the agency was - Deidre Knight. Now, not only do I already love Deidre because we have a friendship that we’ve been building over the past five years (I met her at another conference and we have kept in touch), but she has an amazing presence that does an author good. You know? Sitting down with her - whether for an hour or over dinner or if you’re pitching to her…you are going to walk away from your time with her believing you can do anything when it comes to your storytelling.
On a side note…did you know that she signed authors she’d met on this cruise? So…if you have ever thought about submitting to Deidre and working with her - you are literally on a cruise ship with her for seven days. That’s seven days of eating dinner with her, of sharing your heart with her and seven days of building a relationship with her.
That’s seven days you will NOT get anywhere else.
Trust me. Sure, you can go to a conference and pitch to her - but that’s only fifteen minutes with her compared to a whole week.
And this goes for everyone on the cruise…not just Deidre but also Reece Hanzon from Jolly Fish Press.
My second reason was Margie Lawson.
As an author, my goal is to continually grow in my craft, to have my readers fall deeper and deeper in love with my writing because I go deeper and deeper. After meeting Margie and sitting in her sessions and have her spend time with my manuscript…I can honestly do this - go deeper with my storytelling. My next novel that comes out in February - my editor mentioned my growth - my growth that was all due to putting to use what Margie taught me. Since the cruise, I have sat in two other sessions with Margie - but those sessions were only 1 hr long rather than being able to learn from her for a whole week.
Honestly, just being on a cruise with Margie, being able to set in her sessions for the whole week, getting that one-on-one time with her…that alone makes coming on this cruise worth it all!
Not to mention…all your food is included in the price, you get to visit amazing islands and go on excursions (tubing through caves and snorkeling in amazing reefs)
If you come on this cruise with me - I promise you will not regret it!