White on white translucent black capes

Bela Lugosi Is Dead - Bauhaus

Roll up the streets, close down the hotel. The Pikes Peak Writers Conference is over, and I have Left The Building.

The conference this year was my fourth, and in many ways was my favorite. If you've been following this blog for any length of time, you know that I had some extremely good news going into the conference on the agent front. The good karma seemed to be continuing at the conference. It began, like so many things do in the publishing world, with lunch.

I got to the hotel in excellent time - only 90 minutes from my house, if you can believe that. You'd think I had my ass on fire to meet a girl. Well, in a way, I did, but in this case it was for a lunch date with the agent who'd offered me representation earlier in the week. She was in town to meet with one of her clients and offered to talk to me in person, which I appreciated. Lunch was at the hotel restaurant - just a buffet, and all I had was a sandwich. I didn't truly appreciate that until much later in the conference. The discussion was far more satisfying, and without discussing too many specifics, put my few concerns at ease and into a position where I felt nearly ready to accept the offer. I told her I had promised another agent the chance to read the manuscript and I still wanted to keep my pitch appointment since it was for a manuscript she hadn't read. She was okay with that. "If she wants it," she said, referring to the other agent. "I'll probably want it more."

I was a little late to Session 1, which was a workshop on Book Marketing by author Deborah LeBlanc. She had some frankly brilliant suggestions which had never occurred to me (or many of us in the workshop) before. I didn't take notes (because I'm a horrible note-taker), but I did file many of those ideas into the corner of my brain that's been mostly disused since college.

Session 2 was a Read and Critique with agent Ginger Clark, editor Rose Hilliard, and author Jeffrey Deaver. One of my friends, DeAnna, was getting the first 16 lines of her manuscript critiqued by the panel of experts. They liked it, and she nailed it, and I told her when she pitched she'd get pages requested (and yes, the next day, she did!).

The last session on Friday I attended was Writing the Fiction Synopsis by author Pam McCutcheon. I hate writing synopses and would rather write uncomfortable sex scenes or squeegy emotional stuff any day, but she did a lot to make it much more palatable. DeAnna and I looked for our friend Wendy, but she was nowhere to be found (she didn't actually arrive until very late Friday night).

We ate dinner at a table with author Laura Resnick, who laughed when I told her her father Mike Resnick had written one of my favorite books, Santiago: A Myth of the Far Future. Apparently she's out-famoused him and he gets recognized more often as "Aren't you Laura Resnick's dad??" She said he'd be thrilled to know she'd met a fan at the PPWC. She's a fascinating person and although I haven't read any of her books, I plan to soon. Dinner was a marginally-edible chicken-based dish that was almost, but not entirely quite unlike Chinese stir fry. This theme would be repeated throughout the hotel-provided conference meals, and for the first time at a PPWC I was thoroughly disappointed in the food throughout. The post-dinner keynote speaker was author James N. Frey, who was quite entertaining.

After dinner, the real work began. And by real work, I mean the hanging around in the bar with everyone. DeAnna, Maleesha, and many more people I hadn't seen in a year...or two years. I don't normally like being surrounded by loud crowds, but these are my people. It would take a lot more than an evening in a bar with people who love to write as much (or more) as I do. We talked and talked and talked until the wee hours.

I ducked out a little early because I wanted to get some writing done. I ended up reformatting my major manuscripts (which I'd needed to do anyway) and set up a master timeline sheet for the Just Cause novels - 70 years of history and at least 19 novels completed or planned. I just don't dream small. Life's too short for that.

I conked out sometime after midnight and before dawn. I'll catch up on Day 2 in my next post.