Friday, April 29, 2011

Romance Slam Jam 2011 - The Middle

I’m recognized more now, and people are genuinely happy to see me, and are holding me accountable for not having much new output, and it’s a fantastic charge to have. This is one of the most open conferences I’ve been to, and I’m pretty sure this will be one of the mandatory conferences as my career blooms. It’s like one big family reunion and it’s wonderful.

Yesterday, I had my reader’s session, which is where a panel authors answer questions from the audience. I…wasn’t as assertive as I could’ve been; but those who know me know I prefer to listen than to talk about myself. My fellow panelists were great—GiGi Gunn and an author who will be released in October through Genesis Press (I remember her actual name, but not her pen name! I know it’s Regena….:-/). Ms. Gunn said I had a great Web site! If only y’all knew how much time and effort it takes to update that thing…that truly made my hour to hear that! And she spoke so eloquently (they both did), so I was content to listen to them! Ms. Gunn, like Ms. Beverly two years ago told me I need to work on my assertiveness. Well, I put that to the test and had a woman buy Trolling Nights on her Kindle right in front of me!

I’m getting there, I promise…

Today, I had an editor pitching session and it went really well! The editor was very nice and gracious, one of the most relaxing ones I’d ever attended. There was also a workshop about selling v. slushing regarding projects, and the agent, Nicole Resciniti from the Seymour Agency had wonderful pointers. And I think I may even have a potential editing job with a fellow author. I also spoke with some more local authors to consider a small little one-day conference maybe, perchance.

In the meantime, I’m now in my hotel room trying to put some of those pointers to paper for one of my almost completed manuscripts. I hope I don’t get distracted, because I want to be able to pitch it soon. It’s in the Reconstructing Jada Channing universe as well as the Being Plumville universe. I think you’ll enjoy it…once it’s finally finished!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Romance Slam Jam 2011 - The Beginning

I’d entertained the idea of doing audio posts; but the glitch I found was uploading the files to create podcasts. I’ll table that idea for now and I just write them out the semi old–fashioned way for the time being. The trip to Baltimore for the Romance Slam Jam started off…challenging. First of all, it was the first real day of ToM (men, ask the women in your life what that is), which means I was already miserable. And then, found out my original departure of 9:50pm on Tuesday was pushed back to 10:30pm…then 11:45pm…then 12:15am…and I didn’t get on the train until 12:40am on Wednesday. Bless my coworker and her husband’s hearts, the folks who’d offered to drop me at the train station. They hung around until 11pm and told me to text them as soon as I arrived to the hotel…which didn’t occur until about 11:30 or so that morning. Yet considering I wasn’t supposed to get to the hotel until 10-something anyway, that wasn’t so bad. Just, the principle of the thing to wait that long at the train station AND miss my initial connecting train. That was unnecessary stress on one of the worst days of the month for me. But I made it!

And I napped. People, I don’t nap, but I needed to yesterday; otherwise, I would’ve been no good to anyone. I’m just glad I do have a room to myself; I could relax in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to do so with one.

I ate lunch alone and then sat at a table with fellow RSJ people because they’d walked in just as I was finished. Went down to dinner alone and ended up eating with a large group of authors who’ve taken me under their wings a bit. I’m among the youngest authors here, if not the youngest. Per usual. They keep teasing me about my youth here, but it’s all good. I’m always eager to learn from those who’ve been in the game longer and are being successful at it I’m far more settled this third go round than I was when I first came to the RSJ in 2008. I was a nervous wreck then; now I have more ownership over my space in the writing circle.

According to the schedule, I’m the only person in my reader’s session; however, I think that’s going to change considering the other session has three people in it. Either I’ll join them or one will join me. Or I’ll just sit in the other one, because that reader’s session features one of my mentors!

Nevertheless, I’m going to will a great RSJ 2011 into the universe, and maybe I’ll get a bit of writing done along the way. I tend to have good luck with that, considering I’d written the majority of Trolling Nights at the 2008 iteration of it.

Enjoy your day!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

I'm Gonna Do Better

I'd been doing so well with the updating and then I got really slack with it, and I apologize for that. I plan to give this another go, particularly because I have news. I have stopped publication on BEING PLUMVILLE with iUniverse. I certainly appreciate everything about that experience; without it, I wouldn't have learned the book publication process. This journey began four years ago, and it's been both professional and personal. I hope I have several more years to go on it, but thanks to iUniverse for helping me get started.