Two weekends ago I went to the Virginia Festival of the Book. For those of you who don't know what it is (from the festival website):
The mission of the Virginia Festival of the Book is to bring together writers and readers and to promote and celebrate books, reading, literacy, and literary culture.
Programs range from traditional author readings and book signings to a StoryFest day of children's authors and storybook characters; from a panel on how to publish a novel to a discussion on running a book club; from a workshop on book-binding to a discussion on freelancer's rights. All programs are open to the public; with the exception of a few ticketed events, programs are free of charge.
Basically, I got to sit in on industry panels and meet awesome authors and try to overcome my ridiculousness shyness (aka completely debilitating fear to do things by myself when I don't know anyone). Yeah, the shyness thing? TOTALLY backfired. But I'll save that for tomorrow's Friday Funny.
Moving on.
Here are the panels I attended:
Science Fiction: Other Places, Other Universes
David Louis Edelman (Infoquake), Katherine Kurtz (Deryni Series), and Kim Harrison (White Witch, Black Curse) talked about their books, writing processes, influences--and, you know, science fiction/fantasy
Book Signing
Kim Harrison--author of eight thriller and fantasy books, including the start of a YA series (Madison Avery)
Getting Published: Picture Books to YA
Laura Rennert (Buying, Training and Caring for Your Dinosaur), Deborah Heiligman (Charles and Emma), Bonnie Doerr (Island Sting), Emily Ecton (Night of the Living Lawn Ornaments), and Ruth Spiro (Lester Fizz, Bubble-Gum Artist) spoke about their books and publishing processes.
Land Ho! Creating New Worlds in Any Genre
P.J. Hoover (The Forgotten Worlds Trilogy), Keri Mikulski (The Screwball Series), Stacy Nyikos (Dragon Wishes), Barrie Summy, (I So Don't Do Myseries/Spooky/Makeup Series) Suzanne Morgan Williams (Bull Rider) shared their tips for creating believable worlds--in everything from fantasy to nonfiction.
Agent Roundtable
Agents Jenny Bent, Erin Cox, Laura Rennert, and Simon Lipskar discussed what they look for in writers and insight into the author-agent relationship.
Needless to say I'm gonna share everything I learned! Next week. I just wanted to let ya know what's to come. Well, okay let's be honest... It's mostly because I started to type it all out in this post and, um, yeah. Holy long post.
♥ me
Oh, Kim Harrison is one of my favorite authors! Lucky, lucky! Nobody good ever comes to Georgia. *pout*
ReplyDeleteDespite the shyness you seemed to have a good time
ReplyDeleteI so appreciate when bloggers take the time to share their conference experiences with us. I learn so much, almost like I was there too! I'm going to one in May.
ReplyDeleteLook forward to hearing more.
Man, you get to go to the coolest stuff. Looking forward to next week :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lot of good stuff. I can't wait to hear more about what you learned! :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat great stuff! I love that all of you share your experiences with us! I love to pretend that I actually visited there!!
ReplyDeleteWow. That sounds awesome. Can't wait to hear what you learned.
ReplyDeleteLucky girl - you sure got to hear from some talented people :)
ReplyDelete