Skip to main content

Conference Recap

Happy Monday Everybody!

I hope you all had a good weekend :-) I had a great weekend.

Friday night was the Meet & Greet for those attending the NWHRWA's Lone Star Conference. (Click to go to the NWHRWA's Website)

In this relaxed atmosphere, I got to first meet Naomi Hackenberg of Elaine P. English PLLC . Naomi was very personable, and really nice.

I also got acquainted with one of the Finalists of the Lone Star Contest for the YA Category--which I had been the category chair. It was a delight to meet her and soak up her enthusiasm.

Keynote Speaker, Randy Ingermanson, was also at the Meet & Greet, so I got an opportunity to say hello to him. He also seemed very nice and has a good sense of humor :-)

Christine Whitthohn was also in attendance. She also seemed very nice. I sat in with a small group and listened to her talk about the business during the Conference and she gave a wonderful talk during lunch.

The Conference was incredible. We had door prizes, baskets raffled off, and other prizes available. The facility was very nice, and the staff quite helpful. We were in beautiful rooms (both meeting and overnight rooms). The food was good, and they saved many a life by having coffee and tea available (there are several coffee drinkers in the NWHRWA alone--me being one of them).

Christine Whitthohn, Naomi Hackenberg were taking pitch appointments, along with Amy Boggs (of Donald Maass Literary Agency). I didn't get a chance to meet Amy Boggs, but she gave some very good information during the Q&A Agent Panel.

A lot of people got requests for query letters, partials and fulls. So we had some very happy Conference go-ers.

Randy Ingermanson was giving excellent advice on setting up story summaries and marketing oneself. Katy Budget Books was there and had one of his books for sale.

During one of the breaks, there were 4 published authors signing books...among them was Randy Ingermanson, and Christie Craig (who also did a short talk at lunch time about not giving up--she told some very funny stories and I laughed so hard I nearly had tears trickle down my cheeks).

The final placements from the Lone Star Contest was announced at the Conference and that information should be available in the near future.

All in all, I think it was a huge success and everyone I talked to had enjoyed themselves, learned something, and/or gotten something out of it.

For those of you who couldn't make it this year, be sure to check out the Lone Star Conference next year--you never know who you'll meet or what really good information you get, but I went last year and this year and both years I've had a wonderful time and learned a lot. :-)

Have A Merry Monday!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Get Thee A Nom De Plume!

Good Evening One & All, Shakespeare wrote in Romeo & Juliet, "What's in a name?...A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Disney talked about names in Aladdin in the lyrics, "Better get a nom de plume ." (the song, "One Jump"). So, for a writer, what does a nom de plume (or, pen name) say about the author? It could be a different spelling of the author's name, it could be a name that has a significance. They could keep their first name, but change the last, or change both. A pen name is also the name a writer will write under for his or her books. The name that his or her readers will recognize them. The name on the autographs and the one where people will say, "Oh yes, that's so and so, they wrote..." Some authors write under their own names. Others, for a variety of reasons, choose a pen name. What about you? Are you considering a pen name? What have you looked at when thinking of your nom de plume ? For myself, I&

Gregori Celebrates My Birthday

Happy Tuesday All, ****CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED**** In honor of my birthday (that was on Oct. 15th) I am doing TWO give aways! The FIRST one is TODAY!  Today's give away is a copy of Kerrelyn Sparks' Sexiest Vampire Alive . Kerrelyn, being the awesome person that she is, has agreed to give a signed copy of the novel to ONE lucky commenter on my blog. Here's how it's going to work and please read all instructions CAREFULLY. ONE entry PER person : If you choose to email in your entry: Email to this email ONLY .  Your email should state who your favorite vampire is. And no, it does NOT have to be one of Kerrelyn Sparks' characters, but that would be really cool if you DID mention one of hers. If you choose to enter by commenting on my blog: Leave your FIRST name, email address, and what vampire is your favorite. It can be ANY vampire--but like I said, it would be really cool if you mention a Kerrelyn Sparks' vampire. You don't know Kerrelyn Spa

Fangs and Mistletoe

Happy Wednesday All, Congratulations to Sarah K. who won the Tess St. John giveaway. Please confirm receipt of the email I sent you to claim your prize! ****KERRELYN SPARKS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED . Thank you to all who particpated. A special thank you to Kerrelyn Sparks for providing the prize.**** Merrily the December Days Blog Giveaway keeps going! ***THIS GIVEAWAY IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED. It was closed on Wednesday, December 14, 2011 at 10:30 p.m. Central Time per the giveaway details. I am no longer accepting entries to this giveaway*** If you haven't had the fun of reading a Kerrelyn Sparks paranormal romance, then you're in for a treat. Kerrelyn is offering to one lucky winner a signed copy of her fun and fangtastic novel, All I Want For Christmas Is A Vampire: Toni's friend is in the hospital going on about vampires. Toni will prove her right. But can she resist Ian's charm, in spite of his fangs? As always, the book is full of Kerrelyn's wit, ro