Things You See At Dragon Con

 I just got back from Dragon Con in Atlanta. For those who don't know, it's basically like Comic Con but on a smaller scale - *only* about 70,000 people. I'd been meaning to go for years and never made it - until now! And let me tell you, it was EPIC. Mass geekdom descending on a city, swarming the streets, swelling the sidewalks. YES.


Some of the things I saw that would be totally random or weird, if it hadn't happened at Dragon Con:

• An R2D2/Dalek dance off
• Cosplay of every imaginable geeky/awesome thing
• Plus amazing cosplay mashups like Wolverine with bunny ears and carrot claws (for the Hugh Hefner bunny party, naturally), a cow patterned Deadpool, and a Princess Leia/Chewbacca Beauty and the Beast pair
• A late night panel about what steampunk cocktails to serve on your airship
• An Avengers Ball, and the Last Party on Alderaan, which is basically a giant rave with light sabers
• A bar menu with Pangalactic Gargleblasters (blue, just like in the movie)

Plus I got to attend a lot of awesome writing panels, and meet Chuck Wendig and other awesome authors, and see my original urban fantasy influence, Laurell K. Hamilton, and watch a talk by the charming Felicia Day. Plus, hang for a bit with writer friend Matt MacNish (a con reunion, we hung out at WFC in 2011).


It was amazing. Can't wait for next year.


Have you been? What's your fave con?

Writing Conferences and Query Letters

Happy Monday! Today I'm going to do a hybrid post: my not-abandoned-just-slacked-on meme, When I'm a Famous Author, as well as some pondering on query letters.

First, meme time. When I'm a famous author, I'm going to rock it at several lit conventions each year. I had SO MUCH fun at World Fantasy Convention in San Diego, and I really can't wait to go to another. Being surrounded with others who write in your same genre and being inundated in writerly stuff for several days - sigh. This year, WFC is in Toronto, and next year it's in Brighton, England. How cool is that?? I kind of have a feeling it might in Australia in 2014, because the Australians (Garth Nix and company) made a pretty big show at last year's con. I've also heard Dragon Con is pretty cool, though that's combo lit/comic con. Which cons would you go to every year to party with your writer friends??

On to querying, which I've been thinking about a lot lately. Since in the next couple months or so I'll be donning my war gear and heading into battle... I did something different with my query for Noir. I actually wrote it before I started writing the first draft. I had the voice and the main plot in my head, and it just kind of flowed out. It was interesting because after I finished the first draft and looked back at it, nothing major had changed from the original inspiration. I sort of pinned down the essence at the beginning. Has anyone else ever done this? Would you consider doing it as a pre-planning stage to your novel?

I hope everyone has a splendid rest of the week!

Guide to Literary Agents - Passing Along the Wisdom

Last Friday evening was the opening night of the Tallahassee Writer's Association conference. It started at 6, and there were tasty things to nibble (other than my fingernails), beverages to sip, and mingling to be done. Let me let you in on a secret: I am not a social butterfly. My heart had been pounding erratically all day at the thought of attending an event where I didn't know a soul and introducing myself to strangers. I'm sure a lot of you fellow writers feel the same in such situations. But, we all know that if we become published authors, we have to get the hell over it.

So, I arrived on scene. I discovered that 'cash bar' is a quite literal term. As in, no card machines. Since I never carry cash, that meant no libations for me. Totally sucky, since I was counting on a little liquid courage. I saw one of my mom's friends and went to say hello. Then another writer came up and introduced herself. Then I was on my own again. That's when I saw Chuck Sambuchino out on the patio talking with a group of people. You know, the editor of Guide to Literary Agents? Probably the most popular writing blog ever? I wandered over in a starstruck daze to introduce myself.

You know when you approach a group of people already in a conversation, and they all have their backs to you in a little circle and you kind of walk up and wait there awkwardly for someone to notice you? Well, that totally didn't happen. Chuck immediately gestured for me to join them, and did this to everyone else who approached. He asked for everyone's business cards and got us all used to the drill. I think he could tell that a lot of people like me didn't know what the heck they were doing and were a hot second away from passing out from nervousness.

I harrassed him We got to chat a few other times over the course of the weekend, and he was just really cool and laid back. If you ever get a chance to attend one of his workshops, I highly recommend it. You guys probably know, since of course you read GTLA every single day, that Chuck is also an author, of both Formatting & Submitting Your Manscript and How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack. He wrote an awesome post the other day about his publicity plan, which you should check out. Right after you finish reading this. Oh, and if for some heinous reason you are not currently following his blog, the link is in my sidebar as usual.

Man, can I blab or what? Okay, so here's what Chuck talked about in his workshop on agents. Well, not everything, but I think most of you probably know the basics. I took notes on the things I'd always wondered about. Email me if you have a question about something I don't cover here.

- Send 5-7 queries at one time. If you get nothing but rejections and no-responses, you probably need to edit either your query letter or the beginning of your book. Work on this, then send another batch, so you don't burn through all your contacts at once.
- Only include publishing credits for things you've been paid for. So, if you've written an article in a small local paper, you can list it if you were paid for it.
- If an agent doesn't state what their response policy is, follow up in 2-3 months via email and politely inquire.
- If an agent asks for an exclusive read, 4 weeks or less is reasonable.
- The preferred format for a synopsis these days is 2 pages double spaced. Of course, a particular agency may state their preferred length, but if they don't specify use the above guidelines.

So, consider yourself wisdomized. Questions? Tips to share?

On Friday I will feature what I learned from agent Katharine Sands at her workshop on pitching!

Three Exciting and Exhausting Days

I tried to come up with a really clever post title for my weekend at the Tallahassee Writer's Association conference, but you'll note the reference to exhaustion and hopefully forgive me. But, before I spill my tale, let me announce one of the winners of the SPD blogfest! The other winner is announced over at Colene's blog.

First let me say that I loved reading everyone's post. You guys wrote some awesome stuff! And there were awesome video clips and songs and poems and pics (including some delicious Irish boys). So, it really sucks to have to choose one favorite, and it was a hard decision for me and Colene both. But, that's how contests work. Without further carrying on, the winner is Sarah McCabe! Sarah, please email your mailing address and new release choice to alexiachamberlynn@gmail.com. If you haven't already, go check out Sarah's awesome flash fiction and video clips.

Okay, so I realized that at the conference I got enough fodder for quite a few blog posts. I attended a lot of great workshops with awesome speakers, and I want to pass on what I learned to you. But, I know you guys want to hear about the agents first.

I had my manuscrupt critique session with Katharine Sands of the Sarah Jane Freymann Literary Agency at 2:50 in the afternoon on Saturday, and then my pitch with Melissa Flashman of Trident Media Group at 3:10. So, I had almost the whole day to get good and nauseated. I was able to stay distracted in the morning workshops and push off my panic for the most part. But right after lunch, about 1 PM, butterflies pretty much attacked my stomach in a violent manner. I was tripping out! For about an hour. Which seemed. To. Drag. On. For. Eternity.

Then, at around two I started to calm back down. Somehow the nearness of it (the sound of inevitability, right?) (kudos if you get my reference) chilled me out. So, my palms were only sweating a little when I finally stepped into the boardroom with Katharine. Katharine was really nice, and said my writing was strong and she is interested in my story. She pointed out a few things I needed to work on, and said she wants me to submit pages to her after I have. These are the things she noted:

1) My setting was too generic. My novel takes place in NYC, but I didn't make it specific enough. She mentioned that there are lots of different New Yorks: old money New York, drag queen New York, etc. I need to pick the subculture that my characters engage in and flesh it out.
2) She said my opening was really tense and scary (which is the point), but she kept getting distracted wondering what my character is. You know he's something paranormal, but I don't say what. To me, that made it more mysterious, but she said I needed to at least hint at it.
3) Something that surprised me was that she said I actually needed more backstory at the beginning - readers need to know a little about why my villain is stalking my MC.

We talked about some other plot points that she liked and wanted me to develop more. So, it was really great feedback, and I have an invite to submit. Yay!

Directly after my manuscript critique, Melissa called me in, so they were literally back to back. I gave her my pitch, and while I'm sure it wasn't stellar, I remembered all my lines, and delivered them in a natural conversation and didn't strangle on any of my words. Hooray me! I knew from my research ahead of time that Melissa didn't rep any urban fantasy, and she admitted that it wasn't her area of expertise. But, she said her assistant likes urban fantasy and that her assistant vets all the fiction submissions first, and to submit in a couple months when she's back from a medical absence. She also gave me the names of a couple agents that rep my kind of work. She was really cool and laid back.

So, all good stuff! It was a great weekend and I got lots of good feedback and tools for revising my book. Here's a sneak peek of the posts I'll be doing on the workshops I attended:

- Chuck Sambuchino's advice on everything agenty
- Katharine Sands tips on pitching (she actually wrote a whole book about it)
- James Scott Bell on a whole lot of stuff (he's a bestselling thriller author)
- Adrian Fogelin on writing for kids and teens (she's won about a dozen children's writing awards)
- Ron Cooper's exercises for voice and POV

So, I realize that was like a bible-length post. If you're reading this, you rock. Happy Monday, writer friends!

Final Countdown and a Lovely Poem

It's here. The week of my first conference. At the very beginning of January when I signed up it seemed like ages away, but here it is.

But there's something else big happening this week: me and Colene's Luck o' the Irish SPD Blogfest!! If you haven't signed up yet, hop over to Colene's blog to sign up. Also, see this post, where she shows a number of the pretty new releases coming out that could be yours free! And to further entice you, I've written an elegant poem. Try not to get too teary-eyed at its beauty:

Saint Patty’s Day totally rocks
Our blogfest will knock off your socks

Anything Irish will do

And there’s free stuff in it for you.

Leprechauns, clover and green beer

Will put you in good Irish cheer

Blarney, rainbows and pots of gold

Are always cool and never get old

Join the ranks of Stoker, Wilde and Yeats
Give us your best literary feats
But 200 words is all we ask
And in your awesomeness we all will bask

Two Irish lassies will pick their fave
But we’ll love you all for being so brave

Your bloggy friends will love you too

Go forth, write and the luck o’ the Irish be with you

Ha, hope you enjoyed that. And yes I know Yeats and feats don't technically rhyme, but hey.

Okay, now to conference talk. I promised a final checklist, so here it is:

- Write, practice and memorize pitches

- Research agents

- Make list of questions for agents
- Practice answers to questions commonly asked by agents
- Print several sets of sample pages to bring for agents and publishers

- Order business cards

- Test record function on cell phone to make sure it works for taping critique session with agent

- Decide on outfits

- And of course, get a total hair makeover

Just joking on that last one, this actually resulted from a year of debate and getting more and more bored with my hair... but I figured what better time than before my big writery debut?

So, see you guys Thursday for the blogfest and then I'll report next week with all the juicy conference details!

I'm Only Slightly Neurotic and Obsessive

I've made myself a conference preparation to-do list. I've written, practiced and memorized my two shorter pitches (still working on the long one). I've cyberstalked Googled the agents I'm meeting to find out what kind of books they represent and who their clients are (I did a quick look a couple months ago, but nothing in-depth). I've been compiling all the feedback I've gotten on my excerpts that were critiqued this week, and am going to do some edits this weekend so my sample pages are prettier. And I've only started hyperventilating once... Just joking, but I did have to force myself away from my laptop last night and eat a PB and Nutella sandwich.

So, today I reveal the promised pitches! I know I mentioned a vlog. Right. Well, that's not going to happen. Sorry, but I taped myself with the webcam and it was really scary. So, moving right along....

I decided to do a one-sentence, one-paragraph and two-paragraph pitch like Nathan Bransford mentioned. Here you go:

One sentence:

A young, corporate climber discovers she’s a witch who’s lived countless lifetimes and must escape the immortal sorcerer intent on possessing her soul.

One paragraph:

Eva Westvale, a young corporate climber, is thrown into oncoming magical traffic when she attracts a cloaked stalker and begins to have strange visions of magic and times long ago. With the help of overly-confident shapeshifter Ambrose and sassy teen witch Elspeth, she discovers she’s a witch who’s lived countless lives. To escape her hunter and keep her soul, she must regain a millennia worth of memories and power.

Two paragraph:

Eva Westvale is a young corporate climber, planning the perfect wedding to her college sweetheart. Everything changes when she attracts a cloaked stalker and begins to have strange visions of magic and times long ago. With the help of overly-confident shapeshifter Ambrose and sassy teen witch Elspeth, she discovers she’s a witch who’s lived countless lives.

As her memories and power begin to return, Eva is caught between rival shapeshifters and coven politics. She must learn to control her growing powers and figure out what triggered their return. And most importantly, she must unravel the mystery of her cloaked hunter so she can survive, soul intact.


I still have time to edit these, so feel free to offer any feedback you may have! On Monday I'll share my conference checklist. Have a great weekend writer friends!

Pitchpalooza Continues!

Um, so I'm completely obsessing about this pitch. I got some great advice from you lovely writer friends on the last post, and this post will continue with the terrifying theme of verbally pitching agents. Eleven days until my conference! The countdown has begun.

So, to summarize the tips you guys left on Friday's post, these are the major themes that developed:

• Practice, practice, practice
• Stay calm, remember to breath
• Remember you are just sharing your passion for your book
• Come up with one sentence that summarizes your whole book and memorize it

I hit the interwebs today to see what agents had to say on the matter. I was unsurprised that my pals Nate, Janet and Rachelle had excellent blog posts about this very subject. Double yay! Here's a summary of what I learned from them:

• Always start the pitch with a friendly greeting (don't just start rambling), introduce yourself, state your genre and word count
• Create three pitches: a one sentence, one paragraph and two paragraph
• Memorize them, but be flexible and allow the conversation to be two-sided
• There was some debate as to how long a pitch you should give - Janet suggested asking the agent what kind of pitch they like in conference settings
• Be prepared to answer questions (Rachelle's post has a good list of potentials)

Nate's has actual examples from his forthcoming Jacob Wonderbar book, which is immensely helpful. J.R.'s points out what should be different between a query and a verbal pitch. Rachelle has two posts on the subject, one with a very detailed do and don't list, and the other which points out the positives of a verbal pitch as opposed to a query.

I've started brainstorming my different length pitches and I'm going to post them here on Friday. I might do a vlog. No promises, though. Whether I do or don't will depend on a) if I can figure out how to use my webcam, b) if I can keep from LMAO while trying to record it, and c) how cringe-worthy I am on camera.

Two other bits of business. First, don't forget to sign up for me and Colene's SPD blogfest on St. Patty's Day! Second, Carol Riggs is doing a critique of the first 250 words of my novel Countless on her blog on Wednesday. Fun stuff! Have a great week fellow writers!

Linkage to Awesome Writing Stuff With Which to Bribe You

Why do I need to bribe you? We'll get to that in a sec. Let me butter you up first. I offer a collection of articles/blog posts I came across in the last week which I found immensely helpful:

First, I'm sure you guys have all heard about the woes of adverbs. They tie in to the whole showing-not-telling business, and we're not supposed to use them that much, lest we be branded as lazy writers. On the Rejectionist's blog, she wrote a very amusing post in which she illustrates the overuse of adverbs quite well. Click!

Second, a really great article on Guide to Literary Agents about self-promotion. The author mentions book trailers! I feel so validated now.

Third, Carol Riggs wrote a great post about sentence makeovers. She's also having a critique contest right now if you want to get in on the goods.

Okay, so now to the reason I'm bribing you. Because today is March 1st. And March is the month I am going to my first writing conference ever. Therefore, March is the month I'm going to anal-retentively obsess about everything pertaining to the conference. For instance, I've been planning my outfits for a couple months now.

But! Before you avoid my blog for the next 30 days, let me bribe you further. Because while I am going to be doing a lot of pre-conference posts, asking for opinions, etc., I will also spill the juicy details after the conference. I have sessions with two different agents, one a pitch session and one a manuscript critique. I'll share my public evisceration with you, blog friends. Because I love you that much. Because I want you to learn with me.

So, here's a toast to an exciting March! Stick around for the madness!

TGIF and writing news and other stuff...

Happy Friday writer friends! I've had a rough week fighting off a nasty cold, so I am hugely grateful for the weekend.  I hope your weeks have been better!

In writing news, I sent off five queries at year end and have gotten four responses - three rejections and a partial request.  Boo rejections, yay partial!  We'll see how it goes.

Also, I got some unexpected exciting news.  My local writers association is having a spring conference, and they actually have a pretty sweet lineup.  Chuck Sambuchino of the awesome Guide to Literary Agents blog is doing some workshops, and a couple agents are coming from New York.  From reputable agencies I recognize!  I have to say I'm kind of surprised that my city, which is medium-sized at best, has such cool folks coming. 

And the really cool part is that you can get a 25 page manuscript critique from one of the agents, so I signed up.  Totally stoked!  I am really excited about getting an expert opinion, and know I'll get some great feedback on ways to improve my writing.  I promise to share all the juicy details of my evisceration. 

I mentioned a while back that I'm going to World Fantasy Convention this fall, so these two are probably going to more than eat up my budget.  But I'm curious as to what conferences and conventions my blogging friends are thinking about going to this year.  What are the most popular ones?  Or what cool local stuff do you have going on?  Do share!

P.S. Have a kick ass weekend :~)