Pikes Peak Writers Conference: 2012

This is a horribly late update on my experience at PPWC 2012. I’m finally caught up on most of my projects that arrived during and post conference, so now I can drop some notes on what I thought of the various sessions I attended.

Thursday

I paid for the “add on Thursday” this year because I wanted to absorb as much knowledge and experience from Donald Maass as I could stand. The all-day session started at 9 AM and ran through 5 PM with a relatively short lunch in the middle to allow us to fill our stomachs and make more room in our brains for even more Maass goodness. I managed to burn through all of the ink in a fairly new pen and crammed tons of notes into twenty pages of college-ruled paper. Don’s ability to break down even the most complex concepts into layman’s terms is amazing. Everything he said elicited two reactions from me:

1. That’s so obvious! Why didn’t I already think of that!
2. Epiphany time! That makes so much sense, I have no choice, but I apply it to my work.

Of course, the “obvious” stuff only became clear to me after he finished explaining a concept. I’m not saying he was stating the obvious. It’s just the way he presents his information, it makes it so clear in your head.

Don also moves at a wonderful pace. Much of his talk was very fast-paced, but when he had a particularly vital point to make, he’d give us a good long pause to scribble our notes and allow things to sink in. I only wish I could afford to follow him (without stalking!) around the country and listen to him speak and educate writers at the various events he attends. Even if the information was a repeat, I’m sure I’d glean some massive insight from him.

Thursday night was the “Dinner with the Stars” and I was the second highest bidder for a seat next to Donald Maass at dinner. We had great conversation, good food and a wonderful time just hanging out. We talking some about publishing, some about writing, but it was mostly about our kids. Don had recently (a little over a year ago, I believe) adopted his son, and I could tell he is most certainly a proud papa. I also managed to reconnect with an old critique partner who had moved to California a few years ago. Pam was sitting on my right, so we had a good time catching up.

Friday

Friday opened up with a two-parter session on how to revise by Carol Berg. I’ve always loved hearing Carol speak. We think quite a bit alike, so when she teaches, it’s like someone injecting knowledge directly into my brain. The session on revising really helped me focus on what I was doing, corrected some of my bad habits and allowed me to reaffirm that I’m on the right track with my revisions (most of the time.)

After lunch, I attended two back-to-back sessions about mythbusting. The first was from the perspective of editors and the second was with a panel of agents. Both of these were wonderful for learning from the “insiders” of the industry. The prep questions read by the wonderful moderator M.B. helped get the ball rolling, and then questions were opened up to the audience. Many wonderful questions were asked and even better answers were given. I gleaned some insight from every panelist and a vast majority of the questions. The highlight of these sessions came from Steve Saffel (editor at Titan Books [I think?]) when he proclaimed the roots of urban fantasy to come from Fritz Leiber’s fantasy series about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. For those not in the know about these books, they are set in Lankhmar and the two thieves almost never leave the city (there are adventures out in the wilderness, but most of the books are set in an urban setting.) A light bulb went off for me when I hear Steve’s proclamation.

The next session I went to was “From Conference to Publication” with Kristen Nelson and Marie Lu. Nelson is Lu’s agent, and they met several years ago at PPWC. The dual perspective from the agent and author on the long road from shaking hands with an agent for the first time all the way to seeing a book on the shelf was eye opening. They went through many of Lu’s agent-based rejections and many more rejections from editors after Lu started working with Nelson. The #1 thing I pulled away from this session is this: Never give up.

Saturday

Saturday morning opened up with “What’s next in Fantasy & Paranormal” with a host of presenters on the panel. The back and forth between the panelists, the prep questions read by the moderator, and the questions from audience were wonderful. I ended up walking away from that session with about 4 pages of notes to read upon later.

Next came “The Series Writer” with a handful of panelists with a long list of series titles to their credit. I’m not sure if I’ll ever write a series beyond a trilogy, but I have a few ideas that may end up being series. We’ll see how it goes. Either way, I wanted to learn some tips and tricks from the experts on the panel to see what they had to say. There were some eye-opening comments made by several of them on how to tease readers into picking up the next book in the series. I also learned a few things about allowing a new reader to start in the middle  of the series and not be lost. Good stuff.

I skipped out of the next session because I had my pitch appointment at that time. The pitch went better than expected. Much better, actually! I’ve pitched my book 8-9 times previous to this conference. Each time, I received a partial request from the agent/editor. Not a bad track record. This time, however, blew my socks off. When the agent and I finished talking, she asked me to send her the full manuscript and outlines for the next two books in the trilogy. I was so shocked that I didn’t react. I’m pretty sure I smiled. I know I nodded. I finally snapped out of it long enough to accept her business card and scribble some of my own notes on the back of it. I think I’m still in a bit of shock by that success. For those of you wondering, the book and following outlines are already out the door and in the agent’s hands. I do remember her telling me that her backlog for full manuscript reads is about 2-3 months. I have about another 1-2 months to wait. If she takes me on, the wait will be well worth it!

After lunch, I attended “11 Tips to Increase Your Writing Productivity” by Anderson and Moesta. Some of the tips are counter to others, but that’s because everyone works differently from everyone else. The take away I had from this one, is that you have to treat your writing like a real job, even if it’s the “part time gig” that doesn’t pay the bills yet. This was a great session, and I’ve already put a few of the tricks into place.

Next came “Fantasy Fundamentals” with Carol Berg. She ran through many, many, many things on what not to do in order to make your urban fantasy or fantasy novel stand out. She also covered a great deal on what to do right to strengthen your novel. She skipped many pages of her notes in an effort to squeeze as much juice out of the hour-long session. I just wish I could get my hands on her notes for future reference. Carol? You willing to share? Please? I’ll buy you another drink next year!

By this time, I was starting to flag and wasn’t sure I could keep up with another session, but I downed some more Mountain Dew and carried on. The session I attended was Maass’s “The Fire in Fiction.” I had read the book already, and assumed some of the session would repeat the Thursday material. I needed a session where I could just sit back, relax and let the knowledge flow over me like waves over the beach. It worked out very well. I managed to take another 3-4 pages of notes in this hour, but it refilled my energy well.

Saturday night was a blast. The dinner was a hoot, and the time at the bar went very well. I managed to track down Carol Berg and offered to buy her a drink if I could pick her brain about a particular subject. The subject goes like this: She used to be a software engineer and transformed herself into a full-time author. I’m currently a software engineer, and I would like to perform the same metamorphosis on myself. We sat and talked for quite a while on how she went about doing it. For your time, Carol, I want to say, “Thank you very much!”

Sunday

Sunday rolled around, and you tell people were starting to tap into energy reserves for continuing to go, but somehow we all managed to make it through. Many people were energized by everyone around them. Some people were dragging feet. Others were just barely making it through. Personally, I was eager to get home for two reasons:

1. I hadn’t seen my wife or son since Thursday morning, and I missed them terribly.
2. I had so much work to do on my book, outlines, synopses, and more! I couldn’t wait to get rolling with the work.

The first session of Sunday was “On Compactness” with Weronika Janczuk. She covered how to tighten up prose, how to write a compact query letter and just how to shave off a few words here and there to increase the impact of your prose. It was good stuff. I really enjoyed this session quite a bit!

Next came Amanda Luedeke teaching us how to write queries that work. I really like this session because I learned a few tricks and found that she reaffirmed that almost everything I was doing, I was doing correctly. Yay!

After this, I snuck into a panel on critique groups. This was a very relaxed open discussion between the audience and the panelists. What a wonderful way to end a fun-filled, fact-filled, friend-filled and go-go-go!-filled weekend. The various panelists (Aaron, Terry, Bob, Deb, and Todd) did a great job in guiding the conversation about critique groups. Hopefully, they do this session again next year. Hey, PPWC! Can I be on the panel next year?!? Please?

In the end, the list of people to thank for a wonderful time is too long, and I’m sure to miss someone. I’ll just say this: If you were at the PPWC, thank you! I don’t care if you were an attendee, faculty, staff, executives or just hanging out. Thanks for making the weekend and the PPWC the best ever!

I can’t wait for PPWC 2013!

Who’s That Handsome Fella?

Who’s the handsome fella? No. Not the one on the left. That’s me. I’m far from handsome. I’m talking about the guy on the right. Well, it’s Donald Maass. If you’re not sure who he is, then do some Googling.

You’ll probably find out that he’s one of the premier literary agents in New York City, and perhaps in the English-speaking world. His client list is the cream of the crop, and his agency represents many of the top writers in the world.

What you might not find out is this. He’s a superb human being! As writers, we tend to put agents high up on a pedestal and admire them from far down below in the depths of our creations. I know I’m guilty of doing that. Well, if you get a chance to spend a few hours with an agent, any agent, treat them like a person. That’s what they are first and foremost. Donald happens to be one of the best people (inside and outside of writing/publishing) I’ve ever met in person. He’s kind, compassionate, generous, intelligent, humble, giving, supportive, and so many more positive things that we haven’t created words for yet.

I really enjoyed my time at PPWC 2012. Meeting Donald Maass and having dinner with him is one event I’ll never forget.

PS: If it sounds like I’m brown-nosing in order to land a author/agent contract with his agency, that’s not the case. I’m being totally open and honest here.

PPS: I just took a closer look at the photo. Yeah. I’m a little star struck and nervous in that pose. Ah, well.

Sitting with Donald Maass

I held the second highest bid for a seat with Donald Maass at the Thursday night dinner at the 2012 Pikes Peak Writers Conference! This means I’ll be sitting on the right-hand side of one of the greatest agents in the game today. I can’t wait to meet the man during dinner. I’ll also be attending the conference this year. I even dropped the extra coin to attend the add-on day during Thursday.

This is going to be a fantastic time, and I can’t wait for next month to roll around!

For those of you attending the conference, I’ll see you there!

500 Fairy Tales Found

SQUEEEE!!!!!

Yes. That’s me making a little-girl-that-just-got-a-pony-for-no-reason-at-all sound.

I just found at that five hundred new fairy tales were found in Germany!

I’m a huge fan of fairy tales. I love reading them. I love thinking about them. I love dissecting them. I love extending ideas from them and dropping little bits and pieces of it into my worlds, stories, and characters.

I have books of fairy/folk tales from all over the world, and I’m still on the hunt for more. If/When these 500 new tales make it to my nearest bookstore, I’m all over it! It might take a few years (if it happens at all) for the stories to get to the point where the public can consume them, but I’m willing to wait.

NaNoWriMo 2011 :: I’m In!

It’s already nearing the end of the work day here in Colorado, and I’ve just now decided that I’m going to jump in and do NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve been pondering this for about week, and I’ve decided that the almost twenty thousand words of Warmistress just aren’t shaping up to be what I want them to be. I don’t like the direction the story is taking, nor how I’m getting there. I’m scrapping all the words. (Yes, with backups, just in case.)

I’m starting fresh with a blank page (okay, okay, LibreOffice ODT file) and heading down the trail to Laurin’s and Gerra’s next set of adventures.

Now to see if I can get to 50,000 words before the end of the month. It’ll be a tight ride since I’ve pretty much already lost a full day and my schedule doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon.

Warmistress Under Way!

I started writing Warmistress tonight while sitting at a Village Inn, sipping coffee and eating yummy cherry pie. The start of the book was delayed by a few hours as I had a few notes that I had forgotten about that read along the lines of, “Research medieval military ranks/organizations.”

Once the research was done and a mix-mash of various terms was listed for use in a manner that the modern reader can recognize, I started in on the book. It’s been a long time since I’ve written anything from Laurin’s point of view, but it came back to me in an instant. This is a character that I could write about at the drop of a hat, and I love doing so. I can’t wait to get deeper in this book when the “fun stuff” really happens. Now that I think about it, “fun stuff” happens to Laurin almost right away.

Yeah, I know. Hook the reader fast.

Don’t worry. The hook for this book happens halfway through page four of the manuscript. That fast enough?

Warmistress Plotting Done

I’ve finished plotting the sequel to Warmaiden, which is entitled Warmistress. I finished the plotting a few weeks ago, but have yet to start writing the book. I’ve had a few other writing projects come up in recent weeks, so I’m very busy with those. Things are settling down nicely, and I hope to jump into the novel with both feet by this time next week.

Warmaiden Revisions Done

I’ve finished revising Warmaiden. I gave myself 10 days to do it and it only took a total of 6. I’m quite happy with myself. That gives me hope that once I get it in front of a willing agent/editor, I can do whatever changes they ask of me in record time. Now to run it through the CSFWG and see what changes they ask of me….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, I did another Wordle of the book, and the results were much better than last time. Laurin is still my main word, but the sizing of her name is much smaller in relation to the rest of the words in the image.

 

Revisions of Warmaiden

I’m working my way through the book again doing some touch ups and minor revisions (with some major work in places) to tighten up the prose before sending it through the CSFWG again. I started working on it last Thursday. Every spare moment that I’ve managed to grab has been poured into the revision process. This includes lunch, nap times for the kid, downtime right before bed and every other moment that I can think of. At lunch today, I managed to get within 39 pages of finishing the revisions, and I can’t wait to be done.

Having gone through the book again, I’ve fallen in love with it all over again. Little nuances that I’ve planted in the book leaped from the page at me, and I found myself smiling at the adventures of Laurin, Gerra, Sigri, Raullin and all of the others in their quest to defeat Xanathos and return home safely to Caer Saberi.

I can’t wait to get the book back in front of the CSFWG and see what they have to say on the matter.

Wordle for Warmaiden :: 2011-06-08

There’s a great web site out there for writers called Wordle. You can upload your text, and it’ll output a Java display that you can print or screen shot that will show you the density of the various words that you use. The larger the word in the image, the more times you’ve used it in the text. Here’s my Wordle for Warmaiden as of yesterday:

 

As you can see, I’ve used “Laurin” a wee bit too much throughout the 108,000 words of Warmaiden. I expected the name to be the largest since she’s my protagonist. I didn’t expect it to be that large, though. Time for some more edits to remove character filtering and “gawking narrator”. Once I’m done with the edits in a week or two, I’ll upload a new image and we can compare the progress and improvements.