by Lindsey Brackett @LindsBrac

In 2014, I attended my first BRMCWC—my first ever writer’s conference. Before I got up the courage to tell other people I wanted to write, I never knew conferences existed. A local friend encouraged me to attend BRMCWC with her, and the unexpected connections I made at that one conference have lasted long past those four days. 

So much so that my podcast partner, Kristi Ann Hunter, a regency romance author, jokes I know everyone—or at least way more people in Christian publishing than she does (and she’s been at it longer). When she asks me to teach her to network, I tell her only one thing:

Be open to the connections. They come about in the most unexpected ways. 

Like at my first BRMCWC when a message popped up on my phone. My friend Jennifer, I met her at a bloggers’ event, told me to go meet her friend Bethany Jett. You’re both there! she wrote.

That link opened the doors for my first flash fiction publication and my early work as an editor—and conference teacher. Meeting Bethany brought me to a team of writers, including historical novelist Kimberly Duffy, who is now one of my critique partners and closest friends. Together we revived Spark Flash Fiction, and while I’ve since moved on to different opportunities, Spark continues to build an outstanding team for publishing romantic flash fiction. Each team member came from a connection made through a conference. Leslie DeVooght was my first coaching client from the Florida Christian Writers Conference. She sought me out because we both write southern women’s fiction. Jennifer Purcell was a newbie writer who sat in on a critique session I taught at an event local to us both. Hope Welborn introduced herself to me at Blue Ridge 2017 because she read my column in her hometown paper—and she invited me to my first ACFW group where I met Kristi.

We chatted with this topic of embracing the unexpected connections with Eva Marie Everson on our podcast, A Rough Draft Life, discussing how you never know where one chance meeting may lead you. At that first conference, I pitched Eva my then-unfinished manuscript and her words helped me guide me toward finishing. Later she acquired it for Firefly Southern Fiction, and we built a friendship as well as a professional relationship, which has opened more and more doors for my future. 

Sometimes the connection is as simple as saying, yes, I’ll sit with here with these strangers at dinner. I’ll close my book or laptop in the coffee shop when someone asks to join me. I’ll set down my phone and look into the eyes of the person across the table. 

Three Ways to Make Connections:

1. Introduce yourself as a writer by genre—especially if you know the person you’re meeting writes similarly (this is how I connected with Patti Callahan Henry).
2. Make a lifestyle connection over geography, family life, or favorite coffee.
3. Listen for who else they know that you may know too—because the world is smaller than you think.

We can’t navigate this industry alone, and this is why we need each other. For friendship. For encouragement. For opportunities. For networking. For laughter and late nights and loving our neighbor as ourselves.

Be open. Smile. Say hello. Follow up. And let the divine connections change your life.

Lindsey P. Brackett has taught middle school, read radio obits, and directed musicals but her favorite job is writing women’s fiction inspired by her rural Georgia life and Lowcountry roots. Find her podcasting at A Rough Draft Life, stress baking on Instagram, and writing at lindseypbrackett.com.