Maybe it will turn out that we need a separate area.
Let me know what you think?
For more information go to
http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/001679.html
Survivor, did you know that the creator of SCHLOCK MERCENARY is supposed to be there?
I'm not sure it would need a separate forum. Why not just expand an underused forum instead? Any convention is an opportunity to look into the market (Markets for our Writing), places to discuss others work (Discussing Published Books and Hooks), a place to learn (Writer's Class), etc.
Tulsa, OK has one called Conestoga.
I'll see if I can find a link to a good list of conventions and post it here. (Unless someone else beats me to it.)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/wilf.james/i_conlist.htm
I stand corrected. Thanks Kathleen.
Of course, it doesn't say which airport. There's only 4, and some are 60 miles apart.
Writer's conferences, conventions in an area that would spend that much on rodeo? I think not.
Man, I hate this town.
Maybe someday I'll be able to come to Boskone.
[This message has been edited by Kickle (edited February 03, 2005).]
Brian
with some fellow Hatrackers!
First you get a rat. Then you squeeze it. Then...
I MEANT something like a nice safe BYU-legal root beer, or milk. Maybe a nice helping of funeral potatoes or Jell-o on the side?
http://www.write-across-europe.com
mm
that's www.write-across-europe.com
heh.
Man. Is there really such a dirth of writing workshops in ths country? Thank goodness for Hatrack.
It would really be nice to attend a fantasy/sci-ci one, but that might be hoping too much since most things here seem to be southwest style...even the writing. But even a general conference would be useful...maybe Colorado?
http://www.leprecon.org/lep31/
and CopperCon in September:
Colorado has MileHiCon in October
and there are three in Texas listed at
http://www.locusmag.com/Conventions.html
http://www.secfi.org/concarolinas/
which will be in Charlotte, NC, June 3-5 this year.
That's the only thing in June in North Carolina according to LOCUS.
has got this going on:
quote:
The writers' organization I co-founded with another writer last spring, Backspace, is sponsoring a one-day writers' conference in New York this summer on June 2, to coincide with BEA (Book Expo America). I've got an amazing program lined up: literary agent Richard Curtis is our keynote speaker, I've got other agents and editors conducting a workshop and sitting on panels, and we're also having a panel of thriller authors - so far David Morrell (creator of Rambo) has said yes, and Lee Child and Barry Eisler have given me a tentative yes (they still have to check their schedules).
http://www.BackspaceWritersConference.com[/quote]
Posted by Mike C (Member # 2363) on :
That link should have been http://www.BackspaceWritersConference.com
Posted by Mike C (Member # 2363) on :
The Italian seminar is getting a huge amount of interest!
We have also secured the services of Centro Linguistico Internazionale Sorrento Lingue, one of Italy's premier language schools (recognized by the Italian Ministry of Education). They will be taking care of accommodation, classrooms (in a 16th centuty palazzo), excursions, providing internet access, and generally holding my hand and wiping my nose when necessary.
I will be announcing finalised prices shortly. If anyone's interested who hasn't yet signed up for the newsletter, you'll hear it there first! http://www.write-across-europe.com
With the level of feedback I'm getting (plus the fact that Sorrento Lingue will be mailing details to around 10,000 contacts later this month) I'm expecting the seminar to be oversubscribed.
Don't miss out!
Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
Mike C, may I ask what the status of NFG is?
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
I have time this summer to go to conferences . . . and my only real interest is in pitching to agents.The ones I'm planning to go to are Oct, Richmond, VA, and Sep, Columbus, OH. Not summer, and that seems like a shame -- but I haven't found any earlier conferences where you can meet with agents. If anyone knows any, please post.
Y'all have a great time at Boot Camp. Apparently OSC will be teaching writing about an hour from my house next year. Wow!
Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :
Looks like the speaker schedule is still in process, but the dates for the 2005 Columbus Writers Conference have been posted -- August 26-27. Last year participants had the opportunity to signup for a meeting with an editor or agent.I didn't do the meeting portion last year, but the rest of the conference was very enjoyable.
Posted by Victoria (Member # 2516) on :
Christine asked about conventions in the midwest. Madison, WI has 2 this summer:1. The Annual Writers Institute July 21-22, 2005. This conference offers 3 writing contests, seminars, and time slots with agents.
http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/awi/index.html2. Write by the Lake June 20-24, 2005. This offers a wide array of seminars and small group sessions.
http://www.dcs.wisc.edu/lsa/writing/wbtl.htm#5-Victoria
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
Rather last minute, but I signed up for the BookExpo America/Writer's Digest Books Writer's Conference in New York on June first. If I had seen this thread earlier, I might have tried to stay an extra day for the Backspace conference Mike C mentioned. Ah well.Wbriggs, the BookExpo conference may not be in summer, but it has a pitching session. I hope to be in Columbus, too. Maybe GZ will be there again and we can all touch bases.
[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited May 17, 2005).]
Posted by GZ (Member # 1374) on :
Yeah, GZ is thinking she will do the Columbus Conference again this year.<Makes note to schedule the vacation day>
Posted by MaryRobinette (Member # 1680) on :
I'll be in Malibu next week. Any Hatrackers nearby?
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
Okay. Biggest take-aways from the BookExpo America/Writer's Digest Books Writer's Conference? Leave driving in New York to New York drivers. And, if you take a shuttle to or from the airport, give yourself an extra hour or two for the driver to get lost -- which actually negates the first take-away, but there’s no way around it.One writer/speaker at the conference based his whole presentation on marching to the “invisible hand of art” as opposed to “the invisible hand of the marketplace,” although an agent later clearly disagreed when she advised the opposite, proving -- as I have firmly suspected -- writing really is a crapshoot.
It is also a business, and it was pointed out that agents have their own agendas, namely, to consider their reputations and relationships with editors and publishers. Basically, every writer and work they pitch has a bearing on that, so they’re going to choose their clients and projects carefully.
Writing is also a strange business, in that most books fail. Even most bestsellers fail -- a rather odd thought, I thought, but there is too much product out there and too few readers. The result is a “culture of disappointment” that writers must get past by viewing all aspects of their writing careers as positive, i.e., really really wringing every bit of enjoyment and encouragement from any even marginally positive things that happen.
Nancy Kress spoke on genre fiction, and the genre that she seemed to note most for exceptions to the rules was SF. For instance, the protagonist doesn’t always have to win in SF as opposed to most genre fiction.
I found it interesting when Jon Karp, in listing ‘tenacity' as a necessary trait for a writer didn’t go for the obvious, as in keep sending out those manuscripts, but connected tenacity to ‘rewriting,’ which he further explained as a “combination of inspiration and cold-blooded calculation.”
Peter Almond quoted Saul Bellows as saying that “a writer is a jealous reader.”
The pitch session was too short, or there were simply too many of us conferees. I got to actually pitch only once, although two agents requested material -- one by default. There were a handful of us still waiting for her when the session ended, so she gave us her card and told us to send our material to her and she’d be sure to look at it. She definitely went up in my estimation.
I was particularly pleased with myself because I was pitching with a handicap that afternoon. While sitting at the speaker session before lunch, I reached down beside my chair for my water bottle and threw my back out.
Big-time pain.
And then I had to give up sightseeing to hole up in my hotel room, hardly able to move without serious distress. I still think the flight attendant didn’t believe me the next day when I insisted I couldn’t lift my carry-on into the overhead compartment.
So if you remember nothing else from this, remember that bottled water in New York can be dangerous.
[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited June 07, 2005).]
Posted by Meenie (Member # 2633) on :
WBriggs - there's one in Richmond VA in Oct?
I can't find it on the Locust Listings. Do you have more info on it?About 6 years ago there was one in Virginia Beach, VA but it was kinda small. I haven't seen anything near me since <sigh> (I live in Portsmouth, VA)
Meenie
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
http://www.jrwf.org/conference/index.html !
Posted by NewsBys (Member # 1950) on :
Meenie - Check out our discussion of the Annual Conf in Richmond and the monthly workshops there:http://www.hatrack.com/forums/writers/forum/Forum1/HTML/001881.html
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
The "invisible hand" is the same thing whether you attribute it to "Art" or "the marketplace". And you can't march to it except by skill and luck in either case, that's why they call it the "invisible hand" rather than the "loud drumbeat"Those of us who've never thrown our backs out tend to have a hard time understanding what it means, let alone believing such a thing really happens. I believe it happens, but haven't the faintest idea what it really means. But lots of modern people have lost the ability to believe that something can be true, yet past comprehension. It's one of the great curses of our age.
Posted by Meenie (Member # 2633) on :
Thanks wbriggs and Newsbys, for the info !! I appreciate it
Meenie
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
You're right of course, Survivor, but I think the speaker was taking liberties with the phrase "invisible hand." He simply meant we should write for ourselves as opposed to writing for the marketplace, while the agent advised writing for the marketplace if we were seeking publication.I do thank you for your thoughtful acknowledgement of the mysteries of back problems, especially since you've not had the misfortune of being inducted into that miserable society. Your response helped forestall a bit of self pity I was entertaining when I misjudged how well I was doing and set myself back -- but I hate not being able to sit too long at my desk or go about my normal business.
Funny how beneficial a few simple words can be. So I got wise -- saw a doctor, rented a couple movies, and finally got Airframe -- and am determined not to feel like a shirker. The fate of the world doesn't rest on anything I have to do.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Received in email and posted here in case anyone is interested and can attend:The Writers Room of Bucks County offers the following events next week:
Sat., July 16, 1 – 5:30 p.m. Viewpoints and Complex Characters with Greg Frost.
This workshop will consider all viewpoints you might choose to write a story, how to develop and deepen your characters, how to “chart” them and make them work off one another. Through exercises in dialogue and misdirection, you’ll make your characters talk to you and to each other. Frost has been a finalist for almost every major award in the fantasy field: Nebula Award, James Tiptree Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award for Short Fiction, Hugo Award, International Horror Guild Award, and the World Fantasy Award. Some of his work has been included in the Best New Horror collection edited by Stephen Jones. In June of this year Golden Gryphon Press published a collection of his short fiction, Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories.
Fee: $95 for members $105 for nonmembers. Register through our website: [URL=http://www.writersrroom.net ]www.writersrroom.net [/URL] email us at info@writersroom.net or call 215-348-1663.
Sun., July 17, 24, 31 and August 7 ( four sessions ), 3:30 – 6 p.m. Nuts and Bolts of the Writing Business: Secrets for building a writing career with Jonathan Maberry.
This 4-week, 10-hour series for budding professionals is led by Maberry of Elkins Park, a prolific, award-winning writer who has sold more than 800 articles and nine books. The need for well-written content is growing, thanks to the Internet, niche publishing, and a general decline in writing skills. Topics to be covered include: developing story ideas, writing effective query letters, how to make multiple sales from the same research, setting up your work environment, and dealing with family issues when working from home. Course materials and samples of queries, business letters, outlines etc. will be provided. Students will be encouraged to bring work-in-progress to discuss and get feedback. Maberry is the Director of Editorial Services at the Writers Room and a Board Member of the Philadelphia Writers Conference.
Fee: $100 for members $120 for nonmembers. Register through our website: [URL=http://www.writersroom.net ]www.writersroom.net [/URL] email us at info@writersroom.net, or call 215-348-1663.
Mon, July 18, 7 – 9 p.m. Etiquette for Writers with Jonathan Maberry.
This single-shot 2-hour program is designed to help writers of all levels of skill and experience learn the DO’S and DON’T’S of business etiquette. Topics include: Making First Contact, Follow-Ups and Follow-Through, Working with Agents, Working with Publishers, Asking for Money, and much more. This program will be led by Writers Room Executive Director, Jonathan Maberry who has authored nine books and published over 800 articles.
Fee: $30 for members $35 for nonmembers. Register online at [URL=http://www.writersroom.net ]www.writersroom.net [/URL] email us at info@writersroom.net, or call 215-348-1663.
The Writers Room of Bucks County
4 W. Oakland Ave. (corner of W. Oakland and Main St.)
Doylestown, PA 18901
215-348-1663
[URL=http://www.writersroom.net ]www.writersroom.net [/URL]
info@writersroom.net
*********************************************
The Writers Room of Bucks County
4 West Oakland Ave.
Doylestown, PA 18901
[URL=http://www.writersroom.net ]http://www.writersroom.net [/URL]
215-348-1663
Fax: 215-348-8137[This message has been edited by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (edited July 14, 2005).]
Posted by JmariC (Member # 2698) on :
You might want to remove the comma's as they are throwing off the link:
Posted by iamfetch (Member # 2684) on :
Does anyone know of writing conventions in the Atlanta area? I can't seem to find any.~Fetch
Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :
OK, I'm getting myself all stressed.There's one this coming weekend in Madison, WI. 4 agents you can pitch to. 3 don't like SF; the other looks fabulous for an SF writer . . . but I can't see going from VA to WI to talk to an agent for 8 minutes! Yet it might be a great idea. Does anyone know: how much better is it to pitch to an agent in person, as opposed to by mail?
I'm not going to the one in Columbus, after all. They've posted who's coming. Only one lists SF as an interest . . . and he's not an agent, but an editorial consultant.
The Richmond conference, they haven't posted who'll be there in terms of agents. Maybe this pitch session thing isn't such a big deal? But according to listings in Writers' Market, many agents say they get a lot of their new clients through conferences.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
DAVID FARLAND'S NOVEL-WRITING WORKSHOPWho is teaching and what credentials does he have?
Dave is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling writer in two fields. As Dave Wolverton, he began his writing career in 1987 when he won the Writers of the Future Gold Award for his short story, "On My Way to Paradise," and shortly afterward was given a three-novel contract by Bantam Books. His first novel spent several months on the Locus Science Fiction Best-seller List, and won a Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for being one of the best science fiction novels of the year. Dave continued writing science fiction for the following ten years, writing several bestsellers, until at the end of ten years he decided to follow his childhood dream of writing fantasy, and moved into a new genre. With the move, he changed his writing name to David Farland, so as not to confuse his readers. His first fantasy novel, The Runelords, became a runaway hit around the world and has millions of readers. The third book in the runelords series, Wizardborn, hit the New York Times best-seller list.
Over the years, Dave has won numerous awards for his short fiction in particular, and set a Guinness Record for the world's largest booksigning--a record that he still holds. In 1991, Dave became a judge for one of the world's largest writing contests, the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest, and for the next several years he read thousands of stories each year, edited an annual anthology, and taught writing classes to new writers.
To date, Dave has written and edited nearly fifty books. These
include novels for adults, young adults, anthologies, middle-grade readers, and picture books.As an instructor, Dave has taught eight workshops in conjunction with the Writers of the Future, has taught upper-division classes in science fiction and fantasy writing at Brigham Young University, has appeared as a guest lecturer and instructor at dozens of conventions, and has taught at over a dozen other private workshops. Some past students who have recently published include New York Times bestselling YA author Brandon Mull, bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, hot new thriller writer Virginia Baker, and hot new children's fantasy author Jessica Day George.
Dave has also worked as a video game designer on such hits as
StarCraft's Brood War, and as a video game scripter on other games. Dave has also worked as a movie producer in Hollywood, and is currently the Director of Storytelling and the head of the Publishing Department for a large new animation studio called CNW, Crocodiles Not Waterlilies.What Will the Focus of the Workshop Be?
This class will focus on what to look for when editing your own work, and will teach you how to fix it. Now, don't be confused: we're not focusing on things like proper capitalization and comma splices. We'll be focusing on such things as "how to capture a wide audience," "how to make your description sing," "how to heighten the drama and humor in your stories," and so on. In short, we'll be working at teaching you how to edit the content of your story, rather than just looking at stylistic elements. Beyond that, this class will deal heavily with the business of writing--how to sell to editors and agents, how to market your books, and so on.
Who Should Intend?
Don't come if you're a beginner. Dave is worried that this class will overwhelm someone who has never tried to write a story.
It's helpful if you have taken classes in creative writing and worked at the art for at least a couple of years. It's doubly helpful if you think that you've got a great idea for a novel, and you've got it well begun. Even if you've already published a book or two, this class should help expand your horizons.
This will be an intensive class, and you will be working 8-12 hours per day, possibly longer. If you aren't up to that challenge physically, mentally, and emotionally, please don't apply. You need to be able to take criticism gracefully and to critique others with both gentleness and firmness.
You will need to be willing to do the following: 1) Buy and read several textbooks on writing before coming to the workshop. 2) Finish the first 25 pages of your novel, along with a 30-page outline before coming to the workshop. 3) Read and critique others' work during the course of the workshop. 4) Be prepared to rewrite your own work during the course of the workshop (which means that you will need a computer or typewriter, and get access to a printer).
When and Where Will the Workshop be Held?
March 31 thru April 7, 2008, in Saint George, Utah (Hotel Venue to be announced)
What Will it Cost?
Tuition is $400. Payment must be made in full in order to reserve a spot. If you have to cancel for any reason, the tuition will be reimbursed in full up to 60 days prior to the workshop. It will be reimbursed at a rate of 50% from 59 days to 14 days prior to the workshop. But there will be no reimbursement if you cancel within 14 days.
You will of course need to make your own way to Saint George for the workshop, find accommodations, and buy your own food. Dave is willing to help make arrangements for those who might want to share hotel rooms. He may also be able to put up two or three attendees in his home for a nominal charge.
To Register or for further information--
Email dwolvert@xmission.com, or phone him at 435-986-3858
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Life, the Universe & Everything 26 is proud to announce our first guest of honor for LTUE 2008 (Feb. 14-16, 2008).Gail Carson Levine, author of "Ella Enchanted," "Two Princesses of Bamarre," "The Princess Tales" and many other books.
For more information on LTUE, go to ltue.byu.edu.
LTUE is free to the public! Panels, presentations and workshops on various aspects of science fiction and fantasy (writing, art, worldbuilding, science, media) as well as a mini Educator's Conference.
LTUE is held on the campus of Brigham Young University and is
sponsored by the BYU College of Humanities.
Posted by Dark Warrior (Member # 8822) on :
Dates announced for Hawaii Writers Conferencehttps://www.hawaiiwriters.org/conference.php
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