July 25, 2010 – Writers Conferences

Well, intrepid readers, I now have a job!  Yes, that thing which pays the bills and puts food on the table so that I can continue to live until my book gets published.  I start tomorrow.  This is probably going to mean many fewer posts, as I have to save my spare time for working on my book, but I’ll try to post at least once a week, just so you know I’m still making progress.

While at a medieval lacemaker’s guild meeting, I actually met a couple of ladies who are also writers—one is a published children’s author and does that for a living.  We talked books for a while, and they both recommended that I look into attending writers conferences—that this was a good way to meet editors and agents both, and it could sometimes shorten the acceptance process.  So I have begun the hunt for writers conferences in my area.  If anyone has any they recommend (anywhere in the world, although I, personally, am only going to attend those in or near Tennessee), please post them—preferably with a link—in the comments section below.

One of the ladies also recommended writers groups/clubs as being a good way of networking and especially to find out which agents and/or publishing houses are interested in purchasing work in your genre.

A place I found to start: http://www.tn-writers.org/Home.asp

By the way, I am working on putting some important reference material in a quick link on the right side bar.  The “About the Book” link goes to my proposed back cover synopsis, which is a good summary of what my book is about (hence the name!).  I will be linking character bios there when I have time, so you don’t have to go hunting for them.  I guess I’ve actually managed to make a surviving–even thriving–blog if it’s so big I now need to organize it a bit better.