Saints & Sinners day 2
Well, it’s about 5:30 when I sit down to write this, but I’ll continue making notes throughout the evening. Got to head to the Friday Night reception soon, but figured this was a good time to catch up on my day…
After a quick breakfast and some playful ribbing with the couple on the balcony across the street (what a friendly place, huh?) I headed to the convention to get my bag of swag and my ID. I bit the bullet and picked up a couple of master classes passes, which I am certainly glad I did.
First class was Transcending Seeing for Setting by Aaron Hamburger. I admit much of the using of the five senses for setting I knew, but he did teach us some great exercises that I will certainly use to process and troublesome descriptions in the future. I mentioned my view that a stories setting is as much a character as any other, which seemed to goi over well.
Next class was From Idea to Finished Book with Val McDermid. It was set in an interview like format which worked better than I would have expected, and I took away some good ideas on how to view the process of the three series I’m working on with a wee bit less panic. She mentioned seeing her series as friend with their own quirks that you revisit from time to time, which really helped a great deal. Listening to her talk about writing mystery seemed to blow on the spark of urge I have inside me for trying my hand at that genre, so maybe I’ll used that to add something different to my current projects who knows.
After a run for lunch I made it to my third class, Your DIY Career - How to Build a Sustainable Writing Life from the Ground Up by Michelle Tea. The speaker has as much energy as my kids, oh my goddess! She did bring up some good ideas about doing group book tours and reading, like the poetry slams she’s been doing. I think I really need to look more into if there are sr lunch the next class was ome local literary groups by me. It’s certainly something to go on.
I hit the book area and finally picked up a copy of Iridescence, sensuous shades of lesbian erotica - edited by Jolie Du Pre. Barb wasn’t there, so Linda offered me her ticket and I got to see Dorothy Allison (the panel was called Uncensored :) ). That is one interesting woman. I hate to admit I haven’t read anything of hers before, but after hearing her talk I think I may fix that.
Later that night...
Now, it’s almost ten and I’m back from the reception. It’s impossible to go over all the great conversations I had (including a great time spent with Lara Z and Jolie), but I can certainly say I learned as much then as I did in the panels today. Time to get off my duff and do the promo calendar I’ve been promising myself to get to for months. I’m exhausted, but in a very good way. I am really looking forward to tomorrow, but tonight I think it’s time to rest a bit and recharge the battery.