My first conference ever and it turned out to be incredible. I arrived a few days early and got to visit my Mom for a day and then I ran out to visit with a writerly friend of mine. We sat in and chatted all night and even watched the craft. She gave me a brilliant little rock light (I’ll see about including a picture in my next blog) and then the next day we headed out and went shopping. Now, me and her are probably the only girls in the world who can go out shopping, and come home with the oddest things. I came back with flavoured honeys, a mini cast-iron cauldron (I’ve always wanted some), a gorgeous card and an oracle deck. Wonderful stuff, but definitely not your usual run of the mill shopping.
After I got to the conference the first thing I did was get my info for the weekend and then register for my hotel. While waiting to register, I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me. She was attending the conference as well. Nervous, I asked her if it was her first year. I should have known better… she was a publisher of children’s books and a presenter. It was all right though. I made up for it by remembering to ask her what she was working on that excited her. Really the weekend only went up from there.
The class on Thursday was next to useless though. It was touted as a revision course, but it was actually just rewriting scenes. Had I not paid extra for it, I would have left the class and taken a different one. On the other hand, I met Samantha Herne, a great writer who also podcasts. She was a really great gal and I loved talking with her. Friday was great. The courses were always good and Patrick Taylors course on “How not to write a successful series” was incredible. Saturday was awesome as well, and I started getting my name out there. The big incredible thing for me on Saturday was my “Blue Pencil” meeting… a chance to meet with CC Humpreys. He took a look at my work, we chatted and he complimented my writing. He said, “No, your work is quite good. You’ve managed to make it all really creepy without actually saying anything creepy. That’s how to do it if you’re going to.” Let me tell you, I was so excited, I was practically bouncing.
At least until Saturday Dinner. I found Samantha Herne at dinner that night and sat down at her table… only to realize that she also had two authors, an editor and an agent sharing the table. The other girls at the table were more like me, in various stages of unpublishment (I think I’ve created a new word). Regardless, they were all awesome, and great to talk to. Table 7 rocks, does it not ladies? I was going to go and see the forensics stuff after dinner, but I was invited up for cocktails by the girls… and when an agent and author ask you if you want to join them for cocktails, the universal answer is “Yes”.
Great evening, absolutely incredible. The keynote speakers for Saturday were amazing (especially since I was sitting with both of them that evening as well)! Sunday was great as well. Ivan Coyote asked about “ways to motivate yourself to write” in her class and I suggested my favourite motivator, Nanowrimo. The last 20 minutes of the class were taken up with talk about Nanowrimo (she takes part) and sharing awesome Nano-related stories.
At the final lunch, it was fun, but sorta sad. We knew the fun was coming to an end soon. Robert Dugoni sent us away on the right note though “Today, we WRITE!” Should I ever get a copy of his speech, I will ask him if I can repost it here. The best speech ever! I wish I’d gotten a copy of it. Also, I even won a prize! A set of four books from Mira publishing and a reusable book bag followed me home in addition to the books I got there (Eeeek! I got Vlad the Impaler signed by CC Humpreys, who wished me luck on my book and the Skystone signed by Jack Whyte). Definitely an incredible weekend. I even got a potted plant from my Mom. Gorgeous Red and Yellow flowers… I only hope I can keep it alive.
The trip was more than worth it and I really hope that I can make it out for next year.
Also, very quickly, I bought Geist today (a picture will go up next time), The High King of Montival, and a copy of Warbreaker. My husband bought me a Nano gift as well… an awesome 15 minute hourglass timer with black sand! I got myself an awesome Moleskin journal as well… Dark blue with map lines on it. Just the thing to get my mind thinking and ready to write!
This is just a quick little hello, from my corner of cyberspace to all of my readers and for once, it’s not from my little home in Calgary, AB. That’s right, everybody, I am in Surrey, BC attending the SiWC!
The classes have been great so far (mostly), I won a book by KC Dyer (her book launch for it is this weekend) and the people have been worth talking to.
I even have some big news (for me) about my novel… nothing so big as an agent or editor/publisher interested, but lets just say my Blue Pencil meeting went well, but more on that later since I could gush for hours.
As for everything else, the flight was perfect and I got through customs on both sides quickly, visiting the family was awesome (Hi Mom!) and seeing my friends that I haven’t seen in years was great (I never got to show you Dragon! I’m sooo sorry!).
I miss my husband immensely and while I can’t wait to see him again, I also have to admit that this has been a really great experience so far. Given the chance, I think that I would come next year, though of course, it all depends on the situations at the time.
I also cannot wait for Nanowrimo to begin, though I am going to be changing my challenge slightly. Since my tendinitis is really bad right now, I think I’m going to back off my 100K words and try for a similarly difficult goal. 50K using mostly Dragon NaturallySpeaking instead of typing. So, who’s up for joining me in a slightly off challenge for Nano? Anyone else talking instead of typing?
That’s it for me though. There’s a fun little play going on here called Shock Theatre and I think that I’m awake enough to attend, so I’ll be heading downstairs to partake in the “Experience”! Until next time, keep writing everyone!
It’s been a while since I last posted, so let’s get started. Today I’m going to break the first rule and show not tell.
First off is a video today. As I’m certain you’ve all heard if you’ve been paying attention to my site is that Philippa Ballantines book, Geist is coming out, with a Canadian release date of October 26, 2010. I cannot wait to see it come out and in fact, I think that I’ll be making it my “nano-treat”. I do have a great little treat for all of you though. Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris have gotten together and made a book trailer and if you haven’t seen it before it’s great.
Personally I’m not really sure how to look at these “book trailers” . On the outside it appears to be a really good idea, but I’m not sure if it is. On one hand I have always felt that’s really interesting to see what the author envisioned but on the other some people may be disappointed with a given book simply because the promise made in the video is different than the promise made in the book. While it doesn’t happen often with book covers when it does it can make a really good book come off as a cheap hack. On the other hand when this is done right it can make the book seem even better knowing not only have the author saw the book but how you saw it as well.
So basically I’m on the fence about this one and I’ll keep you updated as to when I make a permanent decision on whether these are good or bad. In the meantime though watch Philippa‘s video that I’ve put up on here. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed. A friend at my work is going to be picking up the book as well, based solely on how interesting the cover picture is. I’m very impressed.
A lot of people are coming up with very interesting ways to show how much they love nanowrimo, and with the boards back up they have ample opportunity to share their creations with the world. One of my friends, whom I will refer to here as “Tim of the Awesome” has been put in novels around the world in a nano challenge the last couple of years. As he puts it nowadays “put me in your novel, add a couple thousand words and let the awesome flow.” While I heartily suggest putting Tim in your novel that’s not actually why I’m mentioning him today.
Tim (known as Hero on the nano forums) wrote a parody of that old spice commercial. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
Hello Wrimos.
Look at your novel, now back to mine, now back at your novel, now back to MINE.
Sadly, it isn’t mine, but if you started writing 1667 words a day it could be as long as mine.
Look down, back up, where are you? You’re at your computer WITH THE NOVEL YOUR NOVEL COULD LOOK LIKE.
What’s in your hand? Back at me. It’s the remains of your silenced inner editor.
Look again.
THE EDITOR IS NOW DIAMONDS!
Anything is possible with NaNoWriMo.
I’m on a forum.
Definitely awesome is it not? I’ve heard that Tim may be planning on doing a live commercial version of this… if he does I will definitely have the video linked if not posted here. If you like this though go over to the nano forums and show Hero some love.
Another gentleman is making waves is one of the Toronto-Wrimo’s who uses the handle Errol. His new video, “good’Ol nanowrimo” is another brilliant example of people supporting things they love, doing it in creative ways and getting the word out there. Here’s the link for it.
I’ll be making my own video to go along with these “showing the love” examples later this week.
In other news, I finally finished reading Brandon Sanderson’s “the way of Kings”. All I can say on this is that the book is brilliant, well written, intelligent and thought-provoking. The only part that I wonder if it could’ve been done better is how he told Kaladin’s story. He did a present scene followed by a past scene for most of it. While it did work it didn’t seem to come off quite as smoothly as it could have, although I definitely don’t know how or if it could’ve been done better in this particular medium. Definitely a good read and I suggest you read it.
Finally I just want to quickly mention once more SIWC. I will be heading out next week on Tuesday for the beautiful lands of Abbotsford, Canada. I’ll be staying with a variety of friends and family for Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday I will be on-site signing in for my hotel room and preparing for my class on revision in the rewrite. I contacted the teacher last night and got homework help me prepare for the class. While it was a little overwhelming, it did raise my expectations of the class. I look forward to learning quite a bit and improving my novel in brilliant ways. If any of you are taking that course or will be over at the SIWC for the weekend look me up. I’d love to meet some of you in person.
My first conference ever and it turned out to be incredible. I arrived a few days early and got to visit my Mom for a day and then I ran out to visit with a writerly friend of mine. We sat in and chatted all night and even watched the craft. She gave me a brilliant little rock light (I’ll see about including a picture in my next blog) and then the next day we headed out and went shopping. Now, me and her are probably the only girls in the world who can go out shopping, and come home with the oddest things. I came back with flavoured honeys, a mini cast-iron cauldron (I’ve always wanted some), a gorgeous card and an oracle deck. Wonderful stuff, but definitely not your usual run of the mill shopping.
After I got to the conference the first thing I did was get my info for the weekend and then register for my hotel. While waiting to register, I struck up a conversation with the woman in front of me. She was attending the conference as well. Nervous, I asked her if it was her first year. I should have known better… she was a publisher of children’s books and a presenter. It was all right though. I made up for it by remembering to ask her what she was working on that excited her. Really the weekend only went up from there.
The class on Thursday was next to useless though. It was touted as a revision course, but it was actually just rewriting scenes. Had I not paid extra for it, I would have left the class and taken a different one. On the other hand, I met Samantha Herne, a great writer who also podcasts. She was a really great gal and I loved talking with her. Friday was great. The courses were always good and Patrick Taylors course on “How not to write a successful series” was incredible. Saturday was awesome as well, and I started getting my name out there. The big incredible thing for me on Saturday was my “Blue Pencil” meeting… a chance to meet with CC Humpreys. He took a look at my work, we chatted and he complimented my writing. He said, “No, your work is quite good. You’ve managed to make it all really creepy without actually saying anything creepy. That’s how to do it if you’re going to.” Let me tell you, I was so excited, I was practically bouncing.
At least until Saturday Dinner. I found Samantha Herne at dinner that night and sat down at her table… only to realize that she also had two authors, an editor and an agent sharing the table. The other girls at the table were more like me, in various stages of unpublishment (I think I’ve created a new word). Regardless, they were all awesome, and great to talk to. Table 7 rocks, does it not ladies? I was going to go and see the forensics stuff after dinner, but I was invited up for cocktails by the girls… and when an agent and author ask you if you want to join them for cocktails, the universal answer is “Yes”.
Great evening, absolutely incredible. The keynote speakers for Saturday were amazing (especially since I was sitting with both of them that evening as well)! Sunday was great as well. Ivan Coyote asked about “ways to motivate yourself to write” in her class and I suggested my favourite motivator, Nanowrimo. The last 20 minutes of the class were taken up with talk about Nanowrimo (she takes part) and sharing awesome Nano-related stories.
At the final lunch, it was fun, but sorta sad. We knew the fun was coming to an end soon. Robert Dugoni sent us away on the right note though “Today, we WRITE!” Should I ever get a copy of his speech, I will ask him if I can repost it here. The best speech ever! I wish I’d gotten a copy of it. Also, I even won a prize! A set of four books from Mira publishing and a reusable book bag followed me home in addition to the books I got there (Eeeek! I got Vlad the Impaler signed by CC Humpreys, who wished me luck on my book and the Skystone signed by Jack Whyte). Definitely an incredible weekend. I even got a potted plant from my Mom. Gorgeous Red and Yellow flowers… I only hope I can keep it alive.
The trip was more than worth it and I really hope that I can make it out for next year.
Also, very quickly, I bought Geist today (a picture will go up next time), The High King of Montival, and a copy of Warbreaker. My husband bought me a Nano gift as well… an awesome 15 minute hourglass timer with black sand! I got myself an awesome Moleskin journal as well… Dark blue with map lines on it. Just the thing to get my mind thinking and ready to write!
This is just a quick little hello, from my corner of cyberspace to all of my readers and for once, it’s not from my little home in Calgary, AB. That’s right, everybody, I am in Surrey, BC attending the SiWC!
The classes have been great so far (mostly), I won a book by KC Dyer (her book launch for it is this weekend) and the people have been worth talking to.
I even have some big news (for me) about my novel… nothing so big as an agent or editor/publisher interested, but lets just say my Blue Pencil meeting went well, but more on that later since I could gush for hours.
As for everything else, the flight was perfect and I got through customs on both sides quickly, visiting the family was awesome (Hi Mom!) and seeing my friends that I haven’t seen in years was great (I never got to show you Dragon! I’m sooo sorry!).
I miss my husband immensely and while I can’t wait to see him again, I also have to admit that this has been a really great experience so far. Given the chance, I think that I would come next year, though of course, it all depends on the situations at the time.
I also cannot wait for Nanowrimo to begin, though I am going to be changing my challenge slightly. Since my tendinitis is really bad right now, I think I’m going to back off my 100K words and try for a similarly difficult goal. 50K using mostly Dragon NaturallySpeaking instead of typing. So, who’s up for joining me in a slightly off challenge for Nano? Anyone else talking instead of typing?
That’s it for me though. There’s a fun little play going on here called Shock Theatre and I think that I’m awake enough to attend, so I’ll be heading downstairs to partake in the “Experience”! Until next time, keep writing everyone!
It’s been a while since I last posted, so let’s get started. Today I’m going to break the first rule and show not tell.
First off is a video today. As I’m certain you’ve all heard if you’ve been paying attention to my site is that Philippa Ballantines book, Geist is coming out, with a Canadian release date of October 26, 2010. I cannot wait to see it come out and in fact, I think that I’ll be making it my “nano-treat”. I do have a great little treat for all of you though. Philippa Ballantine and Tee Morris have gotten together and made a book trailer and if you haven’t seen it before it’s great.
Personally I’m not really sure how to look at these “book trailers” . On the outside it appears to be a really good idea, but I’m not sure if it is. On one hand I have always felt that’s really interesting to see what the author envisioned but on the other some people may be disappointed with a given book simply because the promise made in the video is different than the promise made in the book. While it doesn’t happen often with book covers when it does it can make a really good book come off as a cheap hack. On the other hand when this is done right it can make the book seem even better knowing not only have the author saw the book but how you saw it as well.
So basically I’m on the fence about this one and I’ll keep you updated as to when I make a permanent decision on whether these are good or bad. In the meantime though watch Philippa‘s video that I’ve put up on here. I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed. A friend at my work is going to be picking up the book as well, based solely on how interesting the cover picture is. I’m very impressed.
A lot of people are coming up with very interesting ways to show how much they love nanowrimo, and with the boards back up they have ample opportunity to share their creations with the world. One of my friends, whom I will refer to here as “Tim of the Awesome” has been put in novels around the world in a nano challenge the last couple of years. As he puts it nowadays “put me in your novel, add a couple thousand words and let the awesome flow.” While I heartily suggest putting Tim in your novel that’s not actually why I’m mentioning him today.
Tim (known as Hero on the nano forums) wrote a parody of that old spice commercial. Here it is for your viewing pleasure.
Hello Wrimos.
Look at your novel, now back to mine, now back at your novel, now back to MINE.
Sadly, it isn’t mine, but if you started writing 1667 words a day it could be as long as mine.
Look down, back up, where are you? You’re at your computer WITH THE NOVEL YOUR NOVEL COULD LOOK LIKE.
What’s in your hand? Back at me. It’s the remains of your silenced inner editor.
Look again.
THE EDITOR IS NOW DIAMONDS!
Anything is possible with NaNoWriMo.
I’m on a forum.
Definitely awesome is it not? I’ve heard that Tim may be planning on doing a live commercial version of this… if he does I will definitely have the video linked if not posted here. If you like this though go over to the nano forums and show Hero some love.
Another gentleman is making waves is one of the Toronto-Wrimo’s who uses the handle Errol. His new video, “good’Ol nanowrimo” is another brilliant example of people supporting things they love, doing it in creative ways and getting the word out there. Here’s the link for it.
I’ll be making my own video to go along with these “showing the love” examples later this week.
In other news, I finally finished reading Brandon Sanderson’s “the way of Kings”. All I can say on this is that the book is brilliant, well written, intelligent and thought-provoking. The only part that I wonder if it could’ve been done better is how he told Kaladin’s story. He did a present scene followed by a past scene for most of it. While it did work it didn’t seem to come off quite as smoothly as it could have, although I definitely don’t know how or if it could’ve been done better in this particular medium. Definitely a good read and I suggest you read it.
Finally I just want to quickly mention once more SIWC. I will be heading out next week on Tuesday for the beautiful lands of Abbotsford, Canada. I’ll be staying with a variety of friends and family for Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday I will be on-site signing in for my hotel room and preparing for my class on revision in the rewrite. I contacted the teacher last night and got homework help me prepare for the class. While it was a little overwhelming, it did raise my expectations of the class. I look forward to learning quite a bit and improving my novel in brilliant ways. If any of you are taking that course or will be over at the SIWC for the weekend look me up. I’d love to meet some of you in person.
B.A. Matthews is an amateur author hoping to make her way into the world of published works. Her novels and short stories tend to be Fantasy, slipping into Dark Fantasy often as not. She also writes professional music reviews over at Pagan Radio Network (www.paganradio.net).
I am currently working on two novels, Falling through the Threshold and a book tentatively titled Dual Melodies.
B.A. Matthews tries to update her blogs once a week and her various writings under the Pages section twice a month.
