Post-conference thoughts

What a conference! The Emerald City Writers' Conference was the BUSIEST conference I've been to so far! Probably because this is the first conference where I've volunteered to work :) I enjoyed the work, but I found it challenging to get to any of the workshops. I was only able to attend a few: Allison Brennan, Jennifer Ashley, and Julia Quinn. I spent a lot of time pouring champagne up in the hospitality suite, chatting with out-of-towners and making new friends. GSRWA is an incredible chapter. Soooo many successful, motivated authors and all of them willing to help you realize your dream. I love them already!

The editors and agents held a panel discussion on Friday night after dinner and I enjoyed hearing the "other side" of the writing business. It's a funny thing: writers and publishers are dependent upon each other. Why is there such a big gap between them? Thank God for agents and editors! I didn't hear anything new from the panel, but it gave me a chance to get to know them each a little better. For instance, I found out that they're all human and not, in fact, superheroes. This cut the intimidation factor back quite a bit.

After agonizing over my pitch for a week, I finally decided to trust my own instincts. I found a short pitch that included the main plot points, encapsulated a bit of the tone of Err Apparent, and sounded like something I would say. I didn't trip over the words. The best news was that my appointment was with my first choice: Kevan Lyon of the Sandra Dijkstra Agency (The Sandra Dijkstra Agency!!! Diane Mott Davidson! Lisa See! Amy Tan! Need I say more?). That made my day. I'd already researched the SDLA and just needed to know how to get an appointment. So obviously, I was anxious to get an appointment with Kevan Lyon. Of all the editors and agents at the conference, she was THE fit for me considering Err Apparent is an urban mystery with a strong romantic element and Falling Short is a mainstream women's fiction with a small romantic element.

I realized rather quickly that it must be difficult for Kevan to remember any one person she sees at these group appointments. She immediately put us all at ease, and I breezed through my first pitch without any trouble. One drawback to the group pitch is you really don't get a chance to get to know each other at all. All I have to go on is the way she portrayed herself during the editor/agent panel and the few minutes during the group pitch.

She didn't do anything hideous; come to think of it, that's pretty much all she can say about me, too. Which is good.

I'm giving myself a week to polish the first 50 pages (again) and rewrite my synopsis. Currently, the synopsis is written as a series of notes for myself, so I have a bit of work to do to turn it into good reading material. As soon as I send that off, I need to finish the revisions to Err Apparent so I can start on the novel I pledged to write at Cherry Adair's Write the Damn Book challenge. Since Falling Short is going to take a complete rewrite (what else is new?), I figure it's the perfect book to write after Err Apparent is off to my trusted beta readers.

Motivational tip of the day: Cherry Adair said, "If you can't write a page a day, what the hell are you doing at this conference?" I have soooo many ideas for other stories, so it's tempting to start something new, especially after a conference when you feel like anything is possible. Work on three novels at once? Sure! Why not? Alas, I make notes and write random scenes to save for later.

November is coming...NaNoWriMo...Allison Brennan made me feel better about the way I write my novels. She said it takes her 300,000 words to write a 100,000 word book. I'm glad I'm not the only writer who has to write organically. My short stories are always that way; why did I think novels would be any different?

Back to work, polishing and rewriting.

ECWC Conference

I'm off to the Emerald City Writer's Conference in the morning. An entire weekend, devoted to writing! I get to stow my other hats in the closet and just be a writer. Wow!

This week, I've been working on my pitch for Err Apparent. Had I known the pitch would be so difficult to write, I'd have started a month ago! I think some writers find the pitch or query very easy to do, but for most of us, it's agony.

to be blunt, it's been a learning process for me. I've had to think about what is at the core of my story, and what makes my story unique. I'm a panster, not a plotter, so I don't have a detailed outline or long synopsis. I have...well, I have the story. What else do I need? LOL!

With the help of my WIP group (Writers in Progress), my one-sentence blurb has gone from "an urban romantic mystery about a woman who works at an art gallery who is framed for the murder of a wealthy gallery client" (blech) to "Framed as a murderer, gallery assistant Rebecca Allyn needs to redraw the lines between herself and her politician father, and paint the cop she dare not love out of the picture."

You see what I mean about the learning experience ;)

I'll try to post my two-minute elevator pitch, but I keep changing it - again, with the help of the WIPpettes.

Off to pack and tweak my pitch and then try to get some sleep. Conferences are so exciting! But I will miss my dear friends Madison Leigh and Viansa Blake. They were so much fun at the NECRWA conference.

Learning to Walk Again

Last night, my sisters and I sifted through decades of my father's photos and that was just from one of his many large boxes of photographs. The experience was bittersweet. The memories and the decades of his life surrounded us. Yet how can the vitality and diversity of my father's life be depicted in something as two-dimensional as a photograph? There was so much more to the man than boxes of photographs can reveal to the world: the ups and downs of his life, the people he knew and loved, the dreams he held.

The task of presenting his life in photographs at the memorial seems daunting.

I'll be travelling to Mexico to visit my mom later this month. I feel the clock ticking away the time I have left with her, and with all I'm experiencing in mourning my father, I want to embrace the days she has left.

My house is a mess: the laundry and dishes and vacuuming and dusting have all seemed so unimportant, and the remodel work has been on hiatus. But I think my husband feels the same as I do: it's time to pick up one foot and put it in front of the other. Work and dreams and goals have all been difficult to concentrate on, but now they are welcome distractions. We're easing back into our lives, trying to figure out where we left off.

Madison Leigh encouraged me to look into a local contest. Thank you, Mad :) I'm polishing the first 7 pages of my mystery manuscript in preparation for the GSRW Emerald City Opener Contest. Even though the Emerald City Writer's Conference is in October, the deadline for the contest is only days away, so I'm brainstorming titles. The Art of Deception was only a working title - it fit the very first draft of the story. The revised version is so much better than the first draft that it deserves a more appropriate title.

So, 7 polished pages and a better title. First one foot and then the other.

NECRWA Conference

For my first conference, I couldn't have chosen a better conference to attend. The workshops applied to all genres: going deeper with point of view, setting as metaphor, weaving in backstory artfully, critiquing, the business of writing. The guest speakers were witty and insightful. Everyone was approachable. And meeting my friends? Well, that was worth every penny spent.

What I found at this conference was validation. To describe the validation in cliche: Writing is a lonely business. I can't think of a better way to describe it. Like all other writers, I pour my heart and soul onto the page and hope that someone will enjoy the words I've conjured into (hopefully) living, breathing characters. Publication is wonderful, as are critique groups, for making you feel like a real writer, but a conference makes you feel like you're part of the writing community.

More later. I still need to process all that I experienced! The fun with my friends, the professional input, the increased motivation...there's just too much to fit down in one post.

NECRWA Conference

ONLY ONE MORE DAY!

It feels like I've spent days getting ready, from making arrangements for the kids for while I'm gone to deciding what shoes to wear with my LBD.