As promised, I have even more info to share about my awesome weekend in Seattle. Not only is it a fabulous city and beautiful area, the conference it sponsored was killer.
Thank you, everyone, for getting the word out about my little blog. Hee hee. It's fun. And I look forward to inviting some guest bloggers to talk about some of the topics I like to talk about. Hey, it's my blog, right? Of course I'll almost always talk about something writing related, I love industry news, and I love to talk up my favorite authors, too. It seems more than a few of you are interested in Urban Fantasy, so that subject will be getting a lot of words devoted to it because I love it, too.
I mentioned the conference was abuzz about UF. So, you ask, who exactly is in the market for such fabulous fiction? On Friday morning, there were 3 panels: 1 editor panel that was an hour long, followed by 2 agent panels that were 45 minutes each. There were so many agents -- remember, I said there were 19 -- that they split them up on the panel to double our pleasure.
Here are the agents on the lookout for UF: Ginger Clark of Curtis Brown; Jim McCarthy of Distel & Goderich Literary Management (I think, but I'm not 100% positive); Kate McKean; Michelle Grajkowski of 3 Seas Literary Agency (as long as it's female-focused); Miriam Kriss of Irene Goodman Literary Agency (she's doing very well with her UF authors, btw); Rachel Vater of Folio Literary Agency (also doing a fabulous job with her UF authors). Scott Hoffman of Folio might be interested in a really super special UF if he thought it would get a six-figure advance. He seems very open to just about anything if it's good.
Of the publishers: Liz Scheier, senior editor for Del Rey; Paul Stevens, associate editor for TOR.
That's all for now, but there's more to report. I'll tell you about Richelle Meade's workshop called "The Werewolf Next Door" another time.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
PNWA Conference News!
Ah, yes. The maiden blog post. This is my first blog, and I intend to add to it regularly. But I gotta tell you, I went to a blogging workshop at the writers conference I just attended in Seattle and man, she gave me second thoughts about doing this. If I can't post to my blog on a regular basis, she said I shouldn't do it at all. Oh, the pressure! But I'm going for it. Really. Please bear with me. And though I tend to be long-winded, I'll post even if it's just a paragraph. I can't imagine myself running out of things to say.
I attended the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference in Seattle this past weekend and it was awesome! Though it's not as good as Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold conference, it runs a close second.
Why was this conference special? For one thing, it was my first PNWAC, and it was in Seattle, Washington. Never been there before (and I live in Oregon). I've attended RMFW's Colorado Gold for fourteen years in a row and it's the hands-down best, but the PNWAC was an extra special (albeit pricey) birthday present to myself. I couldn't have made a better choice. Put this one on your list of conferences to attend in the future. Really.
There were 19 -- count them, 19! -- literary agents there, and 9 publishers represented by acquiring editors. Since I'm at a point (or I was at a point) of seeking out a new agent (I've had 2 in the past, but that's a whole nuther post I'll save for later), I was doubly excited to find my first-choice agent there. I had an appointment with her and she's just as fabulous as I knew she would be. She's brilliant. During our 15 minutes she was able to pinpoint a plot problem for me while still being interested enough to want sample pages to read right then, as we talked! Of course I didn't have them with me -- conference etiquette strictly forbids bringing manuscript pages to hand out at a conference -- but that's okay. I've already rewritten the synopsis and, as requested, will send her new pages this week.
The workshop sessions were 90 minutes instead of the traditional 50, so that was cool, and there were 6 tracks to choose from. Lots of variety. The downside was that they didn't tape the workshops, so if you missed one you wanted to attend you were SOL. The people were friendly (for the most part), and I made several fabulous new friends that I'm very excited about getting to know better. Hi, Shelly, Danielle and Nathan! 8^) You guys rock!!!
The buzz word for the weekend was URBAN FANTASY!!! All I can say is: What the hell took everyone so long? I've been loving it for years, long before it was tagged with a subgenre. So it's thrilling to see that it's being embraced like this by the publishing community. Yo, my writer friends, they want it. Bad. If you write it, this is one hot commodity. Polish your prose and get it out there. And make sure it's set in the city. No kidding.
I have lots more to report, but maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. Stay tuned...!
I attended the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference in Seattle this past weekend and it was awesome! Though it's not as good as Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Colorado Gold conference, it runs a close second.
Why was this conference special? For one thing, it was my first PNWAC, and it was in Seattle, Washington. Never been there before (and I live in Oregon). I've attended RMFW's Colorado Gold for fourteen years in a row and it's the hands-down best, but the PNWAC was an extra special (albeit pricey) birthday present to myself. I couldn't have made a better choice. Put this one on your list of conferences to attend in the future. Really.
There were 19 -- count them, 19! -- literary agents there, and 9 publishers represented by acquiring editors. Since I'm at a point (or I was at a point) of seeking out a new agent (I've had 2 in the past, but that's a whole nuther post I'll save for later), I was doubly excited to find my first-choice agent there. I had an appointment with her and she's just as fabulous as I knew she would be. She's brilliant. During our 15 minutes she was able to pinpoint a plot problem for me while still being interested enough to want sample pages to read right then, as we talked! Of course I didn't have them with me -- conference etiquette strictly forbids bringing manuscript pages to hand out at a conference -- but that's okay. I've already rewritten the synopsis and, as requested, will send her new pages this week.
The workshop sessions were 90 minutes instead of the traditional 50, so that was cool, and there were 6 tracks to choose from. Lots of variety. The downside was that they didn't tape the workshops, so if you missed one you wanted to attend you were SOL. The people were friendly (for the most part), and I made several fabulous new friends that I'm very excited about getting to know better. Hi, Shelly, Danielle and Nathan! 8^) You guys rock!!!
The buzz word for the weekend was URBAN FANTASY!!! All I can say is: What the hell took everyone so long? I've been loving it for years, long before it was tagged with a subgenre. So it's thrilling to see that it's being embraced like this by the publishing community. Yo, my writer friends, they want it. Bad. If you write it, this is one hot commodity. Polish your prose and get it out there. And make sure it's set in the city. No kidding.
I have lots more to report, but maybe tomorrow. Or the next day. Stay tuned...!
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