By DiAnn Mills @DiAnnMills

The Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference will be here before we know it. Networking, before during, and after the conference helps us establish personal and professional relationships during the power-packed 5 days and maintain them year-round.

Take time to read all the information about the conference. For networking, familiarize yourself with the following:

• Study the faculty bios, websites, publishing needs, and guidelines. Make a list of those who could be a good match for our writing.
• List faculty members whom we’d like to engage in a 15-minute appointment or sit at their table during lunch or dinner.
• Explore the classes and select the ones that will help address our needs and goals.
• Apply for any practicums or continuing classes that indicate a limited class size.
• Decide if a mentor could enhance our conference experience and make those arrangements. Details on the conference mentoring page here.

Are you questioning what the above bullet points have to do with networking?

Answer: Any contact with faculty and other conferees instills confidence and enriches our experience.

Other steps we can take to network, before, during, and after the conference:

1. Request membership in the Blue Ridge Facebook Group:

Here we discuss writing and publishing goals, support, available contests, genre night, what to wear, apprehensions, encouragement, expectations, humorous events, requests for a roommate, shuttles from the Asheville airport, food and dietary requirements, Facebook live events, and support for whatever else is on the conferees’ mind.

2. Social media posts are encouraged before, during, and after the conference. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Search for and use: #BRMCWC

3. Explore, subscribe, and share the Blue Ridge Reader Connections and their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram connections.

4. Explore, subscribe, and share Your Best Writing Life, a podcast designed to help writers achieve their goals. Also connect with the podcast’s Facebook group for additional insights.

5. Our conference chaplain Linda Gilden and her volunteers are praying for you. Toss aside those jitters. God has you covered.

6. Mentoring Moments is a Facebook Live event hosted on the Blue Ridge Facebook Group. This is essential to prepare first-timers and those who have questions about how best to prepare for the conference.

7. Reach out to make new friends. Stretch yourself to sit at a table during a meal in which everyone is a stranger. Smile!

8. Bring your professional business cards and distribute these during meals or fellowship times. Encourage other conferees to contact you or ask if you can check in with them after the conference.

9. Develop a schedule to share Blue Ridge Blog posts via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts.

10. Pray for God to give you wisdom for every aspect of the Blue Ridge Conference.

Lifelong relationships are established at the Blue Ridge Conference. I’ve known writers who have found critique partners and formed online critique groups. I even know a couple who were married as a result of a conference. Now is the time for you to begin pre-networking with the wonderful writers at the Blue Ridge Conference.

For those of you who have been to the conference, what advice can you give?

DiAnn Mills is a bestselling author who believes her readers should expect an adventure. She weaves memorable characters with unpredictable plots to create action-packed, suspense-filled novels. DiAnn believes every breath of life is someone’s story, so why not capture those moments and create a thrilling adventure?

Her titles have appeared on the CBA and ECPA bestseller lists; won two Christy Awards, the Golden Scroll, Inspirational Readers’ Choice, and Carol award contests.

DiAnn is a founding board member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, an active member of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers, Advanced Writers and Speakers Association, Mystery Writers of America, the Jerry Jenkins Writers Guild, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. DiAnn continues her passion of helping other writers be successful. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country.

DiAnn has been termed a coffee snob and roasts her own coffee beans. She’s an avid reader, loves to cook, and believes her grandchildren are the smartest kids in the universe. She and her husband live in sunny Houston, Texas.

DiAnn is very active online and would love to connect with readers on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, BookBub, YouTube, LinkedIn. or her website: diannmills.com