Tuesday, February 22, 2011

San Fransisco Writer's Conference

What an amazing weekend! My first time in San Fran was a success! Visited Alcatraz my first day there (amazing!), and did conference stuff the rest of the time. It rained every day but Sunday when I left (California was teasing me).
Alcatraz

Highlights (among many):

Donald Maas, literary agent and author of Writing the Breakout Novel. If you ever get a chance to attend one of his workshops, do so. It's an invaluable experience and I've met countless writers and authors who have benefited from his wisdom.

Friday's lunch keynote speaker Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard out of Carolina. She was so funny that I really want to read her book now, though normally it isn't something I'd read.

Panel "Making Setting a Character in Your Novel" with authors Cara Black, Bharti Kirchner, and Kemble Scott. Fascinating topic, one I hadn't given a lot of thought to before.

YA panel with agents Amy Burkhardt, Minju Chang, Gordon Warnock, Jill Marsal, Caryn Wiseman, Christine Witthohn, April Ebernhardt, and Laurie McLean (I recommend all of them--wonderful people with so much wisdom to share).

Panel "How to Find your Tweet Spot: Promoting Yourself 140 Characters at a Time" with Tee Morris and Rusty Shelton.Check out both of their books (about Twitter and marketing). They were very informative and great speakers.


Speed Pitching: Pretty fun. I enjoyed listening to pitches and meeting a variety of interesting people. (Great to meet reader Heather McCorkle!)

San Fransisco from outside the hotel
Inspired by the topics of the conference, look for future blog posts. I'll pull from the experts while adding my two cents. Of course, the best place to really learn these things is by going to conferences yourselves or going directly to the source (when applicable). I'll be sure to give credit where credit is due.

Hope to see more of you at future conferences.

Happy writing!

8 comments:

Krista Van Dolzer said...

I would love to go to one of Donald Maass's workshops. I've read two of his books, WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL and THE FIRE IN FICTION, and I enjoyed both muchly.

Looking forward to hearing more about your experiences at the conference!

mshatch said...

I'm envious. I love San Francisco.

Heather said...

It really was an excellent conference! My favorite parts were the YA panel and getting to meet you in person. Hopefully some day soon I'll have something ready to submit to you!

Steph said...

The Twitter Panel sounds interesting. Social media is becoming more and more important in this industry. Twitter is great for announcing blog updates, linking important articles, and following all the informative chat sessions. I would have loved to go to Donald Maas's workshop, too.

Tina Moss said...

Heather is great! I hope that her pitch went well too!

The conference sounds like fun. I'd LOVE to visit San Francisco. Your posts makes me excited for my upcoming conferences.

Thanks for writing about your experience.

Blazer67 said...

Sounds like a whale of a conference. YA panel must have been wowzer. I'm hoping to meet Laurie McLean at the Whidbey Island conference.

Looking forward to those future blog posts.

Cambria Dillon said...

So glad to hear you had a great time! I've heard writers rave about Donald Maas's workshops, so it's good to hear you say the same. Can't wait to hear more about the conference!

Anonymous said...

Alcatraz looks so spooky. :)
I was amazed at how much I learned at my first conference. I can't wait to attend my next.
Looking forward to more posts on the subject.