FCRW conference recap

Back from my first writers conference… here are the details. Warning – long post ahead!

Friday night was an introduction dinner, followed by a panel and Q&A with the 2 editors and 2 agents who would be with us for the weekend. There were between 50 and 60 people there for the dinner, and it was a great time to say hi and meet the people around you. I had the good fortune to blindly sit next to Carla Swafford, president of the Southern Magic (Birmingham) chapeter of RWA. Wonderful person, and we talked a bit about the Birmingham area and what we write. She was a finalist in the Beacon (the writing contest that goes along with this conference) – good luck Carla! Also at my table was a woman named Catherine, who had just found out about the conference through Sisters in Crime – I’ve never checked their website out, but she was quietly intrested in everything going on.

Met a woman named Ellen who lives only a few miles away from me, and we chatted about local coffee shops, shopping, and living at the beach. One published local author, and her agent (Caryn Johnson, who was one of our weekend agent guests) also sat with us. Another member of the local chapter, then Mardis, agent from NCP, filled out our table.

Short Q&A pannel after dinner with Madris (New Concepts), Caryn (Firebrand), Vivian Beck (Vivian Beck Agency), and Melissa Jeglinski of Silhouette. Melissa was very warm and down to earth – somehow I had pictured her as this powerhouse take charge woman, and although she definately had an air of self confidence, she was also the most approachable of the four. If I were to pick one to sit down with at a bar, not knowing who they were, she would be it. Caryn was very funny. Sharp, witty, a bit of New York in her speech patterns – quick and to the point. Vivian was more slow and thoughtful in her resonses, but came accross pretty much exactly as in her chat here last week. “Write a good story that wows the readers, and you’ll find an agent / editor”. She’s from the south and has a slow, thoughtful way of speaking. And Madris was also very southern… detailed, open, and thorough in her responses.

Joan Johnson is the Keynote speaker, and she said hi briefly. The comment of the night that stuck in my head was when Melissa was talking about how profitable it can be writing for Silhouette. (The conversation was about authors making the break from category to mainstream fiction.) Joan (commenting from the audience) said “I haven’t written a book for Silhouette in 10 years, and I made still $150,000 from them last year.” That will perk your ears right up…

Saturday morning started off with a worksop by Joan Johnston on “Writing the Unputdownable Novel” at 9. Great tips and information. There were only about two dozen people there for it – quite a few of the people who stayed at the Marriott for the night had made very good use of the networking time, and had … ahem… fun after the workshop ended Friday night. Those of us that made it to the workshop had a great hour!

At 10, there were two different workshops available, so we had to choose. I picked a POV workshop being given by Tracy Montoya, and brushed up my skills. She was very sweet in person – gave a great workshop in spite of having been given “the plague” by her husband. She sat down next to me for the following workshop, and I had a chance to once again rub elbows with the published.

I picked an editing workshop at 11, which ended up being almost directly quoted from a book I’ve already read. I hit the coffee table a few times during this one.

Lunch was actually really good! Buffet style, and the food much better than the night before. Carla, Catherine, Anita, Ellen and I shared a table again – this time Vivian Beck (the other guest agent of the weekend) and Melissa (from Silhouette) joined us. We had quite a long table talk about the south, since there were so many true southerners there (Georgia / Alabama / South Carolina) – and that somehow evolved into a discussion of sheep farming … and all I’ve got to say is, if you ever raise sheep, you should evidently dock their tails. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.

There was a book sale the hour after lunch, and a book signing as well, but I took the time to go to a quiet corner with my cup of coffee and prepare my pitch. I was starting out the afternoon with a pitch to Madris of New Concepts Publishing. Either I was over prepped or she was trying to hurry things along; when I finished in two minutes she didn’t have any questions at all, but asked to see the full manuscript. Yay!

Since the pitch went so smoothly and quickly, I was able to make it to a 2:30 workshop. This was the only one of the day where I really wanted to go to both workshops, so had to make a decision. I think I choose wisely – the plotting workshop talked about several things I’ve had problems with (that “sagging middle”, the middle part of a book, especially), and I think I got a lot out of it.

And then the last workshop I went to was a panel on Sexual Tension. Four very different authors (Christian / Inspirational, Suspense / YA, Historical, Erotic Romance) gave us a update on how sexual tension is handled in the different genres. And yes, there needs to be sexual tension, not just sex, in erotic romance! Great talk, and we were able to ask questions at the end, so pretty much anything we wanted was there for us.

That was the end of the workshops, and my first conference was wrapping up. Except… raffles! There were a ton of gorgous baskets donated by authors and agents, and a whole table with critique offers by authors / agents / editors as well. I had gone light with the raffles, only buying 5 tickets at first – then two more right before the end, when I saw two more critiques that I wanted a chance at. And I ended up with 2 out of 7 winning! I can’t say for sure if it was the last two tickets I bought or not, but anyway… I won twice!

Marianne LaCroix will be critiquing my first 25 pages. And Jaci Burton will be critiquing my synopsis and first 3 chapters! I met Marianne at the conference – she’s a wonderful person, and I can’t wait for her to read something I’m targeting to Ellora’s Cave, since she writes for them. Jaci I haven’t met in person, only online – she was a guest at a chat a few weeks ago, and I had several emails with her while setting that up. Another great author I’m happy to have read my work soon.

So that is the bare bones of the conference. I loved meeting some fellow writers, both pub and pre-pubbed. Hearing about some of the other’s struggles made me feel a lot better about my own. Hearing about their sucesses inspired me – I’ve got so much I want to get done this year, and feel all worked up and ready to tackle it.

I’m more excited than ever about Atlanta, and made plans with a few people I met to hook up and compare notes on what we get done between now and then. And my biggest goal, reinforced from the weekend, is to have something ready to pitch at Nationals to Silhouette.

So that’s what happened at my first writers conference! How was your weekend?