mysteries and motorcycles

Thursday, February 08, 2007

Conferences

I usually try to attend at least four or five writer's conferences every year.
From mid 2006 to the early part of 2007 I was struggling with some health problems and the treatment schedule interfered with my conference activity. Now that I have a green light I intend to resume my conference activity beginning with "GenreCon" in Sarnia, Ontario in early May.
Each conference seems to offer something different but they're all valuable for their own purposes. These conferences all seem to have enticing titles.
"Sleuthfest," in south Florida is very much a "writer's" conference with intense seminars on techniques, plot evolution, character development, and so on.
In the fall, "Magna cum Murder," sponsored by Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana appeals to both writers and fans. Its party atmosphere doesn't interfere with its business mission though. It's a wonderful, fun, and informative conference. It often occurs on Halloween weekend.
"Love is Murder," is always the first weekend in Chicago and has recently combined with another Chicago standard, "Of Dark and Stormy Nights" to make it an extremely powerful event. A signature of this conference is their increasingly popular "pitch" sessions where authors can sign up for one-on-one interviews with publishers, editors, or literary agents to pitch their next project. Many writers score huge successes because of these sessions.
There are many other conferences available throughout the country like "Mayhem in the Midlands," "Left Coast Crime," and the biggest of them all, "Bouchercon."
Each conference has its own personality and addresses its own piece of the business of writing but they all share the common immeasurable benefit of networking, rubbing elbows or schmoozing with established and successful authors. The writing community is very friendly and extremely supportive, making conferences one of the most valuable tools in the fledgling authors warchest.

Posted by The Unreal McCoy :: 9:37 AM :: 2 Comments:

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