"What was your favorite workshop, and why?"
Not surprisingly, the panelists' responses to this question varied. Elizabeth Bryant enjoyed Book in a Week, and the challenge of the idea, while Emily McKaskle and Robyn Ratliff found Debra Dixon's two-hour GMC interactive workshop helpful, and particularly enjoyed the way Debra Dixon personalized the process. Emily also found the Suzanne Brockman workshop, Muse on Command, helpful in learning how to train yourself to write, rather than waiting for the muse to find you. And Jo-Ann Power claimed she went to no workshops she felt were wonderful-except her own, eliciting laughter.
"What was your favorite part of the conference, and why?"
Elizabeth's favorite part was hanging out in the lobby and chatting with fellow writers-and she fondly reminded us of Mary Jo Putney's humorous quote, "Wow, it's so great to see 2000 introverts pretending to be extroverts." Overall, most agreed with Elizabeth, saying their favorite part was interacting with other writers. Emily loved the RITAS, ". . . and it was amazing. It's just like the Academy Awards, except it's for books. It was really well-done this year, they started with showing snips from TV shows and talked about how TV can inspire us and we can inspire TV." The awards ceremony was also Pamela Morsi's favorite part, for a different reason; she was all dressed up and with her fiancé, and Pam also got to present one of the awards. Karin Schroeder particularly enjoyed the chance to meeting her online critique partner for the first time, and she also enjoyed the unique experience of rooming with a Golden Heart finalist.
"What big industry news seemed to be going around?"
Robyn jokingly complained that she didn't attend any of the spotlight on publishers, because the editors tended to have the same response, "Well, we will look at anything, and if it's a good story, we will buy it." Emily heard later about how the historical market drying up and disappearing. An editor, however, said that wasn't true-it's just that the contemporary market is expanding. Pamela heard that Time Warner is starting up a new, forthcoming online venture entitled, iPublish. Jo-Ann heard that ". . . a lot of things are being bought, and when they are being bought, as a general rule, they want to pay less for it and they're doing less for it." Sammy Belisle-who ate the head off the chocolate RITA-told of being teased that she would never published. Karin heard that even though Berkley/Jove is closing their time travel line, they still intend to publish time travels as single titles. Catherine Hudgins, even though she didn't attend the conference, shared that Harlequin wants to change their authors' contracts so that the authors 6% royalties on e-published books, rather than the current 50%. Another heard that Gothics are being revived by Dorchester, and that they are actively looking for paranormal.
"Do you feel attending the National conference is worth the money, and why? Do you think you would feel differently if you were at a different point in your career?"
All agreed that the conference was worth the money, and that there was a lot for what you paid-even for those who aren't naturally networkers. However, as Elizabeth pointed out, if she were Nora Roberts of Tami Hoag, she's not sure she would have gotten as much out of it. Hattie called the experience "a rebirth of enthusiasm." Emily, who had the unfortunate experience of receiving a rejection just before the conference, said, "It's probably the only thing that kept me from wallowing in my grief." Pamela found the conference helpful because she'd been feeling distant from the whole thing, then at the literacy signing, ". . . all these people came up and said "I just love your book . . ." and it was really good for me emotionally to get that feedback." Jo-Ann, however, finds these conferences to be very exhausting. "Are they worth the people, time and money I spend on them? Some of them . . . are." She finds it most helpful to manage her time and attitude, to come in say, "I'm here for, these are my goals, these are the things I want to accomplish. I usually come home with most of those things done to my satisfaction." Mara Horstman found it very positive, and said that, "I don't feel like in this business that we can afford to let every single negative person drag us down . . . and that you should go to have a great time and learn a lot."
"It's been my experience that sometimes a theme runs through a person's conference experience . . . if you had to pick this conference theme, what would it be?"
Catherine attended last year's RWA Conference, and all she heard was that writers write. "Put your butt in the chair and write." Elizabeth agreed that last year's theme carried over into this conference as well, but the main thing that stood out in her mind-and cracked her up-was people complaining about the luncheon meals. There was a lot of whining about RWA as well, the kind of people that Mara would "just get up and walk away from." The theme that stood out in Robyn's mind was character voice, and how their experiences change the way they talk and react. Karin was struck by the concern of much of the membership over changing and shortening the mission statement. Mara heard that the market was shrinking, and thought that while contemporaries were beefed-up, historicals are still stuck on the same old story themes, and also thought the negativity towards critique partners had changed. Pamela personally thought this conference one of the most upbeat ones she's been to in a while, and thought the versifying in the publishing world helped contribute to that air.
And lastly, Emily found the talk of making sure everything ties together in your book particularly enlightening, saying, "How could I not know that before?"
What writer hasn't asked themselves that question?
Karin, an active member in Outreach and SARA, is currently working on her western historical romance, The Right Man, winner of the SARA Merritt Contest.
©2002, San Antonio Romance Authors, all rights reserved. Articles may not be reprinted without permission.
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