Literary Conferences, New & Old

I'll start out by talking about the NEW. Starting tomorrow and continuing through Thursday (April 22-23) is Atmosphere Press's FREE online summit with a fabulous lineup of authors, editors, marketing gurus, and more. Some of the names to look out for: Megan Sells, Madeline McKay, Natalie Musgrave Dossett, Tal Renfro, Amy Kelly, James Blakely, Claire Denson, Selena Carter, and Dr. Nick Courtright.

There will be topics to cover all aspects of publishing, from craft workshops such as polishing your work for publication, and the line between truth and fiction. Then there will be panels that take you beyond the actual writing to getting your words out there, such as how to choose a publisher, how to craft submissions, pitching your work, transforming your books to audiobooks, and how to tackle marketing.

​I'll be doing a panel called How to Keep Drinking When the Creative Well Runs Dry on Thursday, April 23rd from 2:30 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. ET. I've been on both sides of the burnout conundrum, and I'm happy to share tips and tricks to getting back to enjoying your creativity when you just don't know how to pick up the pen again. It's free to attend online - just sign up HERE for the Zoom link.

And now I'm going to talk about the OLD. While it's over now, I had a great time this past weekend when I drove down the Lethbridge and participated in the Wordbridge Writers' Conference. I had a fun talking on panels, as well as chatting with various authors and editors and taking in some fabulous presentations. Here are a few of the highlights:

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​Michelle Good was the keynote speaker for the conference, and she wowed the audience with an in-depth presentation about different aspects of indigenous history and the often contradictory global view of Canada as "the good guy" despite the terrible history of residential schools and attempted genocide of indigenous peoples and cultures. She also presented a special reading at the finale of her talk from her new novel Eliza Sunshine, which will be released at the end of 2026.

In the meantime, I picked up a copy of Ms. Good's award-winning Five Little Indians, and she was kind enough to sign a copy for me. Looking forward to reading it!

​Jenna Greene led a very entertaining presentation called "1001 Mistakes: What NOT to do as a writer." She guided the audience through her adventures in writing and publishing, from her first book to her most recent one (which was released at the convention this year). It was a great talk that outlined the good and bad realities of publishing (vanity presses, publishers going out of business, using her life experiences to inform her fiction and nonfiction stories), as well as the balancing act between raising a family, working a full-time job, and squeezing writing in there somewhere.

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​Dr. Robert Runté gave a number of informative presentations, including a very useful talk called "Writing When You're Dead (Estate Planning Business for Authors)." It highlighted his experience with handling the unfinished manuscripts of the late, great SFF author Dave Duncan, and the many pitfalls to consider when planning not just your will for all the physical stuff you want to give your heirs, but also how to distribute your writing rights and unpublished manuscripts after death.

Another useful presentation Dr. Runté gave was "Common Mistakes & Weaknesses in Writing Fiction" about the craft of writing and what NOT to do (seemed to be a theme at the conference, LOL).

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​Rosey Hwang gave a delightful presentation about marketing oneself as an author, and it was chockful of useful information about different avenues of book marketing: how to start, when to start, what steps to take to grow one's readers, and more.

Ms. Hwang also had an announcement at the end: her debut romance novel will be released at the end of the year. Everything She Wanted is described as a, "binge-worthy contemporary romance."

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There were a number of other great panels that I enjoyed attending, plus the two that I took part in. While I don't have any pictures of me as a panelist (since I was speaking, not taking photos), I do have a pic of a prop I used to highlight a point during the panel "Hitting 'Send': The Big, Scary Next Step."

​The other authors and I spoke about our various experiences, including how many submissions we've sent out over our careers, our success stories, our rejections, and where we started out versus where we were now. It was a fun chat between ​Christina Romeril, Joan Donaldson-Yarmey, ​Dr. Robert Runté and me.

Anyways, the prop I dug up was my very first rejection from Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2003. Back then, all submissions were sent in via snail mail, and you'd send a self-addressed stamped envelope (SASE) to get your manuscript returned, as well as to receive your acceptance or rejection.

Well, I obviously got a rejection, and I've kept it all these years on my bookshelf (along with a few others from prestigious magazines such as Analog, Asimov's, and the like) to remind me of where I started. I don't have enough hardcopy rejections to wallpaper my office, but I definitely have a few.

That's all for now, folks. If you can make it, hope to see you at the Atmosphere Press Summit online tomorrow and Thursday!

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