La-Tessa Montgomery

I attended the RWA Conference in D.C. last week.  This was my first time at Nationals and I had an excellent time.  I met some new authors (both aspiring and published), caught up with some friends I hadn’t see in a while (or ever as the case with my online critique group),  picked up a few pearls of wisdom, & attended some very informative workshops.

The best part of the conference for me was meeting some of my critique partners for the first time.  We all meet in an online workshop and hit it off, so we  formed a critique group.

Book Signings:
I missed the Avon book signing (because I didn’t know about it) but I made sure to attend the Harlequin, Pocket Book, Berkley, Grand Central, NAL, Ballantine/Bantam, St.  Martin’s, and Sourcebooks book signings.  With this being my first RWA book signing event, I went into the Harlequin signing with my money ready to purchase a few books and get them signed.  Imagine my happy shock and surprise when I was promptly told to put my money away because all the books were free.  Wait a second, free books???  And from some of my favorite authors???

Woohoo!!!

Here are a few, just a few, of the authors I got a chance to meet and chat with:

 Social Events

I attended both The Gathering (sponsored by the FF&P chapter) and the Samhain Publishing wine meet & greet.   The Gathering was a lot of fun, mostly because I met Allison, one of my critique partners, (see photo at top) for the first time and we got to hang out for a tiny bit.  One of the best parts about The Gathering was getting the chance to put a face with the names of several people that I communicate with online via the message boards.  Oh and let me not forget, Ms. Jade Lee is a trip!  LOL.

After dinner and the PRISM awards, they hosted a panel consisting of many of the PRISM award winners.  It was quite interesting and I learned of a new author (well, new to me at least), Leanna Renee Hieber.   She spoke of the need for perseverance and determination in all aspiring authors.  But the most important thing I got from her was to not write to the trends of the market, but to write the story of your heart. 

She’d been writing and trying to get her upcoming novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker, published for 10 before she got her big break.  Talk about perseverance.  The Strangely Beautiful Tale… is a combination Victorian Paranormal/Gothic-y story.  I read the preview she included with our gift bags and let me tell you, I did not want to like this story.  But after reading the first 3 chapters, I am eagerly awaiting its release on August 25.

 

Thanks for reading my conference recap.  I know I haven’t touched on any of the workshops I took, but I may do another post about those later.  In the meantime, head over to the RWA site and browse through the list of workshops that were conducted.  I believe they are selling both DVDs and audio recordings of many of the workshops.  Also, I believe the handouts may also be available for download on the site.

If you are interested in reading about my sightseeing adventures in D.C., head over to my personal blog .

There were 3 keynote speakers at conference this year, Janet Evanovich, Linda Howard and Eloisa James.  All three ladies gave excellent speeches and I brought back 1 main piece of advice ( pearl of wisdom) from each of their talks.

Janet Evanovich:
Janet opened the conference with a  witty and inspirational Q & A session.  She spoke about her road to publication (it took her 10 years), the importance of writing daily (because being an author is a real job and must be treated as such), and how as an author, you are responsible for your career.

From Janet I got pearl of wisdom #1:  Never save anything.  She stressed the importance of not saving ideas for scenes, story lines, or dialogues for “the next book”, because frankly, they may never be a “next book”.

Linda Howard
Linda delivered a hilarious talk during the luncheon on Thursday.  She regaled us with “laugh out loud” stories ranging from how she ended up being the keynote speaker (she committed while still under the effects of local anesthesia-lol), to tales about her family.  From Linda came pearl of wisdom #2:  If she can write while being Keeper of the Nuts ( i.e. her family), then so can I.    Linda shared her stories to encourage us to not give up on our dreams and to persevere in the face of challenge, regardless of the number of distractions you may have going on.  And let me tell you, she had tons  to deal with- LOL.

Eloise James
Elosie spoke at the luncheon on Friday.  While she had her humorous moments, her talk was a bit more serious in nature.  She spoke of  how she got into writing Regency Romance with degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale; and parents who are well know authors in their own right (Robert Bly–poet and National Book Award winner, and Carol Bly–and award winning author of short stories and essays).  She shared some touching anecdotes, one of which leads me to pearl of wisdom #3: Use all of your emotions, (fear, pain, humor, etc.), and pour them on the page. 

Eloise shared with us that she had some complications while pregnant, and she feared she would miscarry.  So she took all of that fear and poured it on the page while she wrote scenes in which her heroine miscarried.  She was emotional spent afterwards, but she said the effort was well worth it as she was able to produce a very heart wrenching scene that conveyed the emotion she was going for.

Yes, each speaker made many salient points and dispense several pieces of sage advice; however, these 3 pearls were the most important points for me, and keep them with me in my writing going forth.

I had the pleasure of interviewing two very lovely ladies, up & coming Christian author, Sherri Lewis and Genesis Press author, LaConnie Taylor-Jones, for this month’s Rising Star feature over at Romance In Color.   Both ladies share their journey to author-hood, how personal tragedy and challenges affected their writing, as well as, some great advice for authors.

Also, we are hosting a great book giveaway this month, featuring goodies from our April Rising Star authors. One lucky reader will receive:

An autographed set of Sherri Lewis’ published works, to include:

1. Soul Cries Out (July 2007)
2. Dance Into Destiny (January 2008)
3. The List (March 2009)

An autographed set of LaConnie Taylor-Jones’ published works, to include:

1. When I’m With You (November 2007)
2. When A  Man Loves A Woman (April 2008)

Plus, to top it all off, LaConnie is throwing in a $50 Amazon gift card, so you can pick up a few additional titles .

So head on over to www.RomanceInColor.com to read the interviews and to get the contest details. 

And while you’re visiting, check out the new reviews & vote for your favorite authors and books from 2008 in our Reader Favorite Awards.

I attended my first writer’s conference, Moonlight & Magnolias, this past weekend.  For those not familiar with this event, it’s sponsored annually by the Georgia Romance Writerschapter in Atlanta.  The conference consisted of several excellent workshops, editor and agent appointments, and a host of networking opportunities.  The jewel of the event was the Margie Award presentation and dance.

As a newbie in the writing game, I was blown away by the amount of information I received that actually impacted my writing.  For me, the highlight of the conference was Margie Lawson’s workshop on Empowering Characters’ Emotion.  This one workshop is so powerful, that it made an immediate impact.  If you get a chance, visit Margie’s website  and checkout her conference/online workshop schedules and her lecture packets.  Any author serious about making their writing more powerful and taking it to the next level would definitely benefit from one, if not all, of her courses.  Heck, maybe I’ll “see” you in one of them.

After the workshop I was able to get a picture with Margie.  Ok, I am not looking the cutest here, but it was a long day and I my mind was full of all the great info I’d just recieved-LOL. 

me w/ Author Margie Lawson

 Another workshop that made an impact was Winnie Griggs’ presentation on backstory.  This was a true “wow” moment for me.  I left this workshop armed to handle all my backstory and exposition in much more favorable way, without bogging my story down and losing my message.  And last but not least, Stephanie Bond presented an awesome workshop called Write Fast, Write Well.  She passed along some wonderful time management and discipline tips. 

On Saturday, I attended the book fair and autographing session.  I must say, Borders had a very well stocked bookstore there.  I was very impressed with the amount and variety of craft books they had on hand.  During the bookfair, I was able to chat with some more authors and get a couple of pictures as well:

Author Carmen Green

If you’ve never read a book by Carmen Green, you a missing a treat.  The next time you are in the bookstore, and you want a good read, pick up one of her novels.  Of course, I was in networking mode while I was there, and hopefully I will get the opportunity to interview Ms. Green for RomanceInColor.com.  If I do, I will let you know-lol.

Author Jenna Petersen

Ok, I hate to admit this, but I have been admiring the cover to one of Jenna’s books for the better part of 4 months or so.  Whenever I go into Borders, which is quite often mind you, I somehow come across Lessons From A Courtesan every time(<–cover shown in photo).  And every time I take it off the shelf, look at it intently, read the back, then place it back on the shelf.  For some reason, I didn’t purchase it, even though it constantly caught my attention.  Now I know why.  Somehow the psychic in me knew I would be meeting her this year and that I would get the chance to get the book in person and get it autographed-LOL. 

Author Teresa Mederios

I was honored to meet Teresa Mederios, the featured Keynote speaker, during the book fair.  She was so nice and down to earth, it was a pleasure getting a few minutes to chat with her.  She delivered an awesome address during the luncheon, I actually paid attention through her entire speech; and anyone who knows me knows how my attention wonders a bit at times-LOL.  So that, in itself, is a testament to how great her talk was.  I look forward to reading her latest Some Like It Wicked.

All in all, I had a wonderful time at the conference and came away with a renewed vigor, passion, and drive for the craft.  I look forward to returning next year.

Hi all, this month Wayne Jordan released the 3rd and final installment of his Knight Trilogy. I interviewed him as the August Rising Star over at RomanceInColor.com.  Check out the interview here, and go on out and pick up your copy of Always A Knight.  The reviews have been terrific, and I am sure this will be a hot one!