Stone Tower

Backspace 2009 -- Going Home

(Note:  I can't seem to get connected to the public WiFi here in Penn Station, so the posting of this is likely going to be delayed)

Well, that's it.  I didn't have a chance to post last night after my last session as Kim was waiting for me to go explore NYC with her.  Spending the night in the city with her was a nice way to end my trip this year.  We even made it up to the top of the Empire State Building, where I reenacted the entire scene from the Muppets Take Manhattan.

"The frog is staying!"  I called quietly to the street eighty-six floors below, not wanting to alarm the not-still-obsessed-with-a-movie-about-puppets-they-saw-when-they-were-six tourists around me.

"And you'll sell your book just like Kermit sold his show," Kim said, snuggling close beside me trying to hide from the wind as much as share a romantic moment with me in the city.

"Yeah," I said, turing away from the lights of the city.  "And do you remember how he fixed it?"

"Fixed it?"

"The show, do you know what it needed to be great?"

She shook her head, as she took my hand and led me away from the New York City skyline.

"More.  More bears and pigs and chickens and things."

She just smiled, clearly not remembering the scene but humoring me just the same.

At the moment we are sitting in Penn Station as our train has been delayed almost two hours.  Kind of a disappointing way to end our trip--especially since we could have spend the last few hours eating room service breakfast in our hotel room.  But I don't really mind too much.  It will be a nice way to spend a sunday watching the landscape pass us by as we relax in the big comfy seats of the train.  Plus we get free soda.

I have to say all-in-all, this conference topped last year.  While I was disappointed about Agent-Author day, the two main days of the conference were just amazing.  David Morrell is easily the most inspiring person I have ever been in the same room with.  The way he spoke about writing...it just resonated with everything I have been feeling for the last few years.  He spoke for about an hour and a half yesterday, and as exhausted as I was, I just hung on his every word feeling myself getting emotional at several points.  Being in that room with him was worth the price of admission all by itself.

The major thing I hoped to take away from this week was an idea of where I need to go next.  I am very happy with The Tynassis Stone, and I am proud of the writing in the book and the story I told.  But I understand now that my job is to top that.  To move beyond this mountaintop I've reached and find a summit that dwarfs the one I am standing on now.  But as I made my way into the city on Wednesday night, I had no idea how to do that.

I think I am starting to understand now.  I can see new challenges starting to form in front of me, and I am eager to meet them.  And this morning, as I was carefully packing away all of my notes and handouts from the conference and my newly signed copy of First Blood, my next novel stepped forward in my mind.  Writing it will be a challenge--as much a departure from my last two books as I could imagine--but the concept is a "bag of gold" I now understand I cannot ignore.

Thanks for another amazing year, Backspace.  And good luck to all of us!

Backspace 2009 -- "So, do you realize that the woman you were just talking to by the shrimp is [FAMOUS SUPER AGENT]?"

So the party last night ended up being a lot of fun.  I ended up talking to a bunch of "my-level" (I hope they don't take that as an insult!) writers for most of the night in a group. We traded stories, talked about the plots of each others novels (all of which were *AWESOME*), and finally degenerated into a literary dissection of Star Wars.  Seriously, have I found my people or what?  I even finally got that Scotch I've been asking for!

It's amazing to me that last night was the highlight of the conference.  A few years ago, I probably wouldn't have even been able to make it downstairs to the party.  People?  Small talk?  Little chicken things on a stick?!?  No way, get me to a computer where I can hide behind a keyboard and be all witty. 

But so much of that has changed for me.  And while last night was still a little scary, I really pushed past that and had so much fun. 

Oh, and I got to stand five feet away from the guy who wrote Rambo.  Yeah...last night was beyond awesome.  I am so happy I am here.

Okay, on to the last day!  What adventure awaits me down there today?

Backspace 2009 -- Day 2: Lots of Activity = Little Time for Blogging

So not much time to blog today...I guess that is a pretty good indication of how busy I was!

To be honest, I woke up kind of grumpy this morning.  I was really disappointed about yesterday, and as hard as I was trying, I couldn’t put it behind me.  I was grumbling to myself as I got ready to head downstairs, when a thought hit me.  They were having more agent reading sessions today (in the morning).  I hadn’t signed up for them as I figured I would be worn out after an entire day of pitching (little did I know!).  Plus, these session during the main conference were supposed to be reserved for people who didn’t get in to Agent/Author day.

Anyway, in all my pouting yesterday, it hadn’t dawned on me that the simple solution--or perhaps I should say reasonable reparation--to what happened yesterday would be to get a chance to read my pages to agents who were interested today.  Unfortunately, I got this brilliant idea at about 8:15.

So rushing to get ready, I raced down to the sign in desk early...and was politely told that the sessions were full.

"We need to reserve today's sessions for the people who couldn't come yesterday," the woman at the desk told me.

Yes, I can see why you need to take special care of the people who *didn't* feel like paying you an extra $250 for this week.  Make sure they get a chance to read for free today instead of me.  Ugh.

Anyway, I politely explained my problem, and asked in a very nice way if there was anything they could do so I could get at least some face time with a commercial fiction agent.  The woman who runs the conference overheard my plea, and took pity on me.

"I'll sneak you into the second session," she said.

And just like that, my conference week was saved.  I learned a valuable lesson here.  When you are dissatisfied with something, you really have two choices.  One, you can pout and write about it in your blog.  Or two, you can try asking someone nicely to fix it.  I am glad I figured that out before the train ride home.

So, my second reading session went much better.  I got through both pages without being told to stop (though to be fair, so did most of the room).  And I got some really valuable feedback from both agents, both of whom said really nice things about my writing.  So I got to feel special and got some good note on how to make it better.  Win-win!

The rest of the day was awesome.  I felt a million times better after getting to read, and was able to relax and enjoy myself.  I talked to a lot of people.  For some reason it seems like there are a lot more "new" writers here than last year.  Last year I felt a little intimidated as it seemed most of the people around me had a lot more time into this than I did.  Not getting that this year for some reason.

Anyway, I am resting up now after a long, exhausting day of conferences.  The cocktail reception thing starts in an hour, so I will probably be head down for that soon. 

Backspace 2009 -- So Concludes Agent/Author Day

After my last post, I headed back downstairs for a workshop on polishing your pitch.  It was actually the same workshop I had attended last year towards the end of the conference.  The woman running the workshop teaches people how to market their books once they have been sold.  In the workshop she uses that approach to develop a tight elevator pitch for your book.

It's pretty amazing to watch her.  She just *pulls* the information out of each person.  She really takes her time and gets the heart of your story.  Last year I didn't get a "turn" with her (she only got to four people last year), so I really wanted to take the workshop again.  It was well worth it.

It's amazing how much you just take for granted in your own book.  I tried to keep my pitch simple and to the point...

"A young woman is betrayed by the man she trusted and served for most of her life..."

"Wait...served?  How did she serve this guy?  Was she like a maid?"

"No, see there is this...well, she is in a thieves guild, and the guild master--"

"Whoa!  A thieves guild?  What is that?  That sounds cool!"

"Well, yeah...they sort of run the city.  He's like the guild master who takes her under his wing--"

"What?  So this girl is training to be a master thief or whatever and suddenly her mentor betrays her?"

"Well...yeah."

"Why isn't *any* of that in your pitch?"

That's sort of an abbreviated version of my turn with her.  She actually spent about ten minutes with me, and I have a pretty raw version of my pitch that I should work out tomorrow.  I was really lucky to get her time, I have a feeling I'll be using this pitch a lot over the next two days--if not the coming year!

We had about an hour and a half this time around, so I think about ten of the thirty-five people at the workshop had a go.  The woman next to me was pretty bummed she didn't get a turn, and I can't blame her.  I only got in because I was only one of three people not to afraid to volunteer to go first.  My early and eager hand raising--perhaps bordering on pushy--got her attention early and earned me a spot third in line.

I guess that's what kind of leaves a bad taste in my mouth about today.  It seems like they sold too many spots, and just sort of left us on our own to get "lucky."  I got face time with one of the agents I wanted to pitch purely by the luck of the draw.  I was literally one minute away from missing her during the session.  And if you think about it, the six minutes I spent reading my letter to here where the only real activity I got to do today.  I guess I can't complain too loudly, as most people didn't get that lucky.  But still...I don't know.  Today is just really not what I signed up for at all.  It really feels unfair.

Oh well, I am going to focus on tomorrow.  I've been so nervous about Agent/Author day, I've almost forgotten that I have two days of panels and workshops tomorrow!  There are a few I am really excited about over the next two days, and the main guest speaker is the guy who wrote Rambo!  How awesome is that?

A weird aspect of these conferences is the huge difference between the way agents talk to you and the way published writers talk to you.  After spending a day with the agents, you can't help but feel a bit of despair creep in.  They give you such a business-only view of the process (which is what you want from them--facing reality is a *huge* reason we come to these things) that the idea of getting published just starts to seem impossible.

But then you spend two days listening to other writers...and that's awesome.  They have been where I am, and they get it.  There is always a note of quiet hope in their talks, and by the end of the day you're feeling ready to take on the world again.

I am looking forward to a little encouragement to balance all of this harsh reality like so much sour mix in a Margarita.

Wow...that was awful.  I think I am too tired to be blogging at this point...

Backspace 2009 -- "It seems you have a kick-ass female protagonist, here...I like that."

Okay, so round two of Agent/Author day was a bit more intense.  Although, I wonder if it only felt that way to me.  It occurred to me as I was waiting my turn to read, that I was far more nervous to read my writing sample than I had been to read my query letter.  Whereas this morning I simply found myself nodding along with the agents' corrections and comments of my fellow writers, this afternoon I found myself wincing. 

I wonder, does that mean I'm more comfortable with the business end of this (the ins-and-outs of submitting work and defining genres and all that) than I am with the craft end?  Possibly.  Maybe I need a bit more experience having my word read.  Either way, listening to the agents this afternoon was a bit more enlightening than it had been this morning.

In the end, I read my pages two three agents struggling to give me their attention.  They were not interested in genre fiction at all, and two of them simply declined to comment.  The third made some compliments on my writing ("it's some good commercial writing, for sure...") and said he would ask for more pages<PERK>...if he represented that kind of work<AWWW>.

So I don't know.  The end result of my day?  I basically spent six hours locked in a room to wait my turn to read 200 words and receive some polite praise.  Worth what I spent for this day?  I hate to speak ill of the good people at Backspace--the conference is really awesome, I am beyond excited to spend some time in the workshops tomorrow!--but I don't think I'd do agent/author day again. 

On the flip side, though, one of my real goals for this week was to find my next mountain top.  I am really, really proud of my new book, and think it is such a step beyond what I've done before.  But how do I top that?  What do I need to do to get better?  How can I make my next book even more awesome than the one I am looking at now?

I think that I got some insights into that today...as the fear crept in while I waited my turn to read.  And while I didn't get any real comments on my work specifically, I got a few hints from what they said about others.  Taken that way, the day had some merit...

Anyway, off to work on polishing my pitch!!!