(no subject)
The conference is over!
I have had a pretty damn good weekend (other than the COVID thing) at the League of Utah Writers' Quills Conference. They did an amazing job of creating a virtual conference that felt almost like a live one. We even had a "bar" with rooms like "The Dance Floor," "Tall Bar Tables," "Comfy Chairs," "Closet with Skeletons," "That Really Long Table," "Waiting in Line for the Restroom," and "That Dark Shady Corner."
We had workshops on craft, marketing, publishing, and "practical applications." I believe I attended at least one of each. I especially enjoyed the one on editing and the general marketing one. We even had a session with an author from New Zealand, who'd stayed up until 4am to talk with us. There were also talks by Michael Stackpole, Cat Rambo, Jonathan Maberry, and Linda Addison. They also had a ton of pre-recorded sessions you could watch on their YouTube channel (and are going to be available until the end of the month, too!).
I learned some good tips -- nothing earth-shattering but good solid advice. Mostly, I enjoyed the feeling of getting out of the house and chatting with other authors. I'm a total introvert, but I like listening to other people talk and chiming in when I get the urge. I hadn't quite realized how isolated I've been feeling.
One thing I need to memorialize for posterity is the murder weasel! One of the authors was telling us about some German martens who actually get into your car engines and chew up your hoses and wires. This, of course, was in the Bar (in The Dark Shady Corner). Johnny Worthen (president of the League until Sunday) took that and ran with it. We were shortly treated to a share-screen of a highly-Photoshopped marten with piranha teeth chomping on a hapless car wire.
Johnny kept flashing the weasel up and eventually used it as his background image. If you've never met Johnny Worthen, he wears nothing but tie-dyed t-shirts and has a totally wacky sense of humor. His opening speech zoomed in to show him (in his t-shirt) smoking a Holmesian pipe and reading a thick tome, then going "Oh, I didn't see you come in!"
I had four pitches - TOR Books and three agents. TOR said 107,000 words was too long for sci-fi, which I know for a fact isn't actually true, but ... One of the agents said my story is high sci-fi and he only handles low sci-fi -- but the other two requested more material! Let's pray they request the full manuscript!
Of course, now I'm a little down because the conference is over and I have to get back to quarantine...
I have had a pretty damn good weekend (other than the COVID thing) at the League of Utah Writers' Quills Conference. They did an amazing job of creating a virtual conference that felt almost like a live one. We even had a "bar" with rooms like "The Dance Floor," "Tall Bar Tables," "Comfy Chairs," "Closet with Skeletons," "That Really Long Table," "Waiting in Line for the Restroom," and "That Dark Shady Corner."
We had workshops on craft, marketing, publishing, and "practical applications." I believe I attended at least one of each. I especially enjoyed the one on editing and the general marketing one. We even had a session with an author from New Zealand, who'd stayed up until 4am to talk with us. There were also talks by Michael Stackpole, Cat Rambo, Jonathan Maberry, and Linda Addison. They also had a ton of pre-recorded sessions you could watch on their YouTube channel (and are going to be available until the end of the month, too!).
I learned some good tips -- nothing earth-shattering but good solid advice. Mostly, I enjoyed the feeling of getting out of the house and chatting with other authors. I'm a total introvert, but I like listening to other people talk and chiming in when I get the urge. I hadn't quite realized how isolated I've been feeling.
One thing I need to memorialize for posterity is the murder weasel! One of the authors was telling us about some German martens who actually get into your car engines and chew up your hoses and wires. This, of course, was in the Bar (in The Dark Shady Corner). Johnny Worthen (president of the League until Sunday) took that and ran with it. We were shortly treated to a share-screen of a highly-Photoshopped marten with piranha teeth chomping on a hapless car wire.
Johnny kept flashing the weasel up and eventually used it as his background image. If you've never met Johnny Worthen, he wears nothing but tie-dyed t-shirts and has a totally wacky sense of humor. His opening speech zoomed in to show him (in his t-shirt) smoking a Holmesian pipe and reading a thick tome, then going "Oh, I didn't see you come in!"
I had four pitches - TOR Books and three agents. TOR said 107,000 words was too long for sci-fi, which I know for a fact isn't actually true, but ... One of the agents said my story is high sci-fi and he only handles low sci-fi -- but the other two requested more material! Let's pray they request the full manuscript!
Of course, now I'm a little down because the conference is over and I have to get back to quarantine...