Workshop- Creating Web Presence

This is the last workshop I'm going to talk about. There were others but this one made a big impression on me. It was presented by Emma Clair and Michelle McGinnis who were very thorough and and spoke in a language most people could understand. They also had the best handouts. Very organized.

I have to admit the workshop also scared the crud out of me. When I went into labor with my son, my husband ran through the checklist the Lamaze instructor gave us. I remember sitting there watching as he went through page after page. Finally, he looks up and he's on the next to the last page and says "we should have been at the hospital a long time ago."

I kind of felt that same level of panic. Obviously not quite as extreme. But you get the analogy. I'm reading through their handout and seeing where I am at in my writing career and where I should be in cyberspace. ACKKKK!!!

I don't have much of a web presence. I have this blog and I horse around on Myspace and Facebook, but that's about it. I couldn't think of anything I would actually put on a web site. I'm not published. I have an agent, so I'm not really trying to impress them. I'm not sure how much editors actually look at sites unless they've already signed the author.

However, I do need to give it more thought, hence my interest in the class. Michelle and Emma stressed the need to register a domain name. I did that. I went with renemiller.net. I'd have preferred a .com name but the variations on my name were too clunky. The ladies recommended getting a Wordpress site since they are free. Yeah, they're nice but I'm not sure that's the rout I want to go. I have to give it some thought. I really don't want to give up this blog. I've had it so long. But I think my focus for a site would be different than my focus for here. Since I'm coming to the end of my latest opus and expect it will be in my agent's hands before the end of September, I would like to get my cyber presence a bit more developed.

Something else I thought was interesting that Emma and Michelle pointed out was cleaning up after yourself. They pointed out that those bad reviews on Amazon could come back to haunt you. Or that flame war over on another blog from years ago might resurface. These are things to be aware of. Somethings can be deleted, others can't and sometimes it is better to keep your mouth shut or just walk away.

They also talked about "egosurfing." Yeah, we've all googled ourselves at least once. It can be taken a step further by signing up for "google alerts." I can't really explain how it works but it "tracks" you in cyberspace.

Emma's website has more stuff on it about web presence so check it out.

Workshops-Sex and the Single Title

As I said, the best part of conference was the enthusiasm I felt for writing. So I came home and plunged back into my WIP. I've cranked out a few thousand words and now I'm to a scene where I have to make a choice: does she or doesn't she. I'm talking about a love scene of course. Is this the right time for the hero and the heroine to engage in an intimate act? Fortunately, I attended a workshop about that topic and it has proved a real help at this point.

The workshop was presented by authors Roxanne St. Claire, CJ Lyons, Toni McGee Causey and St. Martin's Press editor Matthew Shear. The biggest point I got from this workshop was the point of the love scene. It should make things worse. Now, I have three kids so I can attest to the fact sex can make everything worse, but I don't think that's what they meant *snort*. Sex should complicate a conflict and make it worse. I never thought of it that way. Too often I think of sex as a way of easing a conflict. Kind of dull, really. The love scenes should change the characters, make them react differently to the situations they find themselves in.

Love scenes are also a great way of showing vulnerability in your characters. Lyons suggested looking at the vulnerable spots of the human body for added texture to a love scene. Again, something I hadn't thought of. But as a paranormal author and reader where vulnerability is so key, I can't believe I hadn't scene it before. The throat, the soft part of the belly, etc. are very vulnerable to attack. Is there anything more intimate than baring that part of the body to a lover trusting they won't hurt you? Very primal.

As far as sex goes, the panel did say mainstream romance could get pretty explicit. The rise of erotic has spilled into the mainstream and hot scenes are, well, hot. However the panel did stress that intimacy is just as important. Without intimacy, the scenes are just sex scenes. The panel did say there is a lot more sex in their novels now than a few years ago. But CJ Lyons made the point is that while her books are sexy, there is actually very little sex. The sexual tension is far more important in her stories.

Anyway, it was an excellent workshop and definitely one you might want to think of purchasing.

Workshops- Dialogue

My main interest in conference this year was the workshops. For as much as I was spending, I wanted to go to as many as I could. It also means you have to make some choices because of course there are always two workshops going on you want to go to. Fortunately, you can buy the cd's with the workshops taped. In fact, I believe they will be selling the individual workshops on a download basis.

As I said earlier, I did go to the dialogue workshop with Elizabeth Hoyt. I like the cadence of her dialogue in her writing and I had a copy of her handout before the conference so I thought it would be interesting. And it was. But please, when the presenter says there are no stupid questions, don't believe her. THERE ARE!

I'm probably not being fair since I'm sure many of the participants were new to writing, BUT (and I know Olivia backs me on this one) a question can be beat to death as can a topic. And I felt that was what happened in that particular workshop. Still, I did get some tips I hadn't thought about and learned about beats and tags. Tags are "she said's" after a piece of dialogue. A beat is when the character does something in the midst of the dialogue as in

"I'm going to choke that person if they ask anymore questions." Rene beat her head with her binder, "I could really use a drink right now."

Ms. Hoyt explained that beats and tags shouldn't be combined. I'm guilty of that one so now I'm more aware of it. The other really good point she made was that men don't speak as much as women. When we are trying to portray men in our books, remember that simple fact when writing dialogue. Keep their dialogue short. Also (and this I knew) don't avoid contractions in your dialogue. People have always spoken in contractions. Historical writers are quite often guilty of making their characters speak in formal language. But most contractions in the English language have been around for a very long time. She was a good presenter, very funny and eager to share her knowledge.

The Best Thing About Conference

So I've had a couple of days to reflect about conference.

First, it is exhausting, emotionally, mentally and physically. There is certainly a lot of excitement at conference. For me, it was tough because I'm not particularly outgoing. Oddly enough, you could put me on a dais and I could speak without a problem. But plunk me in the middle of 2000 strangers and ask me to network and I freeze up. I was better in the smaller areas where there were small seating areas. It was far easier to sit down and chat with someone than mingle. For the most part, people are friendly but it is cliquey. I wish I had had more of a network before I went. I didn't know a whole lot of people going in. But I did meet a few. Most of the published authors I met were very friendly and supportive. I didn't approach any agents although I did get into an odd conversation about chocolate with Mary Sue Seymour. My pinnacle of bravery was introducing myself to an editor and having a brief conversation with him. He was quite nice but I was so panicked I don't remember much. Those of you who pitched to editors and agents have my eternal admiration. I don't think I could do it.

I was trying to get the most out of the workshops so I focused pretty hard. Mentally draining, I tell you. And by the end of the day, I was wiped out. I don't think I made it to a session after 4:30. Physically, it was tough trying to get where I was going and figuring out where it was. I hate elevators so I was going up and down stairs a lot. Wish I'd worn better shoes.

But conference is exhilirating. Even though I was overwhelmed, I felt the enthusiasm of the writers. Although the goal in our careers is to get published, that isn't actually the vibe I got at conference. It was more a celebration of our love of writing. So many of us will not get our books in print and when we are at home behind our keyboards, those dark thoughts have a chance to hold and thrive in our minds. We tend to care for them like tender flowers, nurturing them with our own pessimism and self-doubt. But conference clears so much of that away because writing is what it is. As writers, we love words and it is easy to forget that. Sometimes we don't see the forest for the trees. Words are the trees, individual and strong, gathered together to create a magical place.

For me conference was a way of getting back in touch with the reason I write. Yeah, yeah, I want to get published. But if I don't love to write, it ain't going to happen. Readers can feel the love you pour into a book and without the love, it will never get published.

Home Sweet Home

We made the long drive home today from San Francisco. It was a long day, about a 7 hour drive. But at least I got to come home and make dinner.

I went to a couple of spotlights and went to Susan Mallery's workshop about doing a triology. Unfortunately, it was held a too-small room and I could feel claustraphobia kicking in. So I headed down to the Avon spotlight. I'll get into more depth on these later. I did make it to a workshop with Heather Graham and Alexandra Sokoloff about vampires, ghosts and other paranormal stuff. It was pretty interesting.

Okay, here's my complaint. There were only two paranormal type workshops. Two and a half if you count the genre bending workshop (I went to the Kensington spotlight instead). Considering how hot that particular market is, it wasn't well represented in the workshops. And the one I went to was full.

By the last workshop I was exhausted. Since there was nothing I was dying to go to, I headed back to my hotel. My hubby, son and I took part of the 49 mile drive. It's a beautiful drive and was about all I saw of the city my whole trip. I didn't go to the award ceremony. I hate dressing up and in my non-writing life, I get stuck doing it more than I like.

Tomorrow I'll start getting into more details tomorrow about conference. But I'm tired and dinner's on the stove.

...And You Thought The Line for Nora was Long

This photo was from the literacy signing. You can tell from the panicked look on my face how I feel about crowds. It got worse this afternoon. I nearly bolted. I was in the main lobby waiting for lunch and it was filled in by inch with romance writers. My stomach clenched and I clung to a column for dear life. Agent Steven Axelrod was standing across from me in deep conversation with someone Very Important I'm sure. He was wearing a seersucker suit. So my focus turned to seersucker, then I thought about who wore seersucker. Of course that was Matlock. But Steven Axelrod doesn't look anything like Matlock. My husband wants a seersucker suit but I won't let him get one because he would look like Matlock. Anyway, by the time that train of thought ended, it was time to go down for lunch. While waiting to go in, I did nearly knock down a sign. Only one person saw me. Things were better inside. They already had the salads on the tables and they were pretty good. Lunch was rubber chicken with sauce and the only coffee available at our table was decaf *shudder*. I chatted with two other ladies and then it was time for Victoria Alexander to speak. She was great, I really enjoyed her speech. She's very funny.

After lunch it was time for workshops. I put my stuff down and decided to head to the bathroom. OMG, the line for the bathroom was longer than anything from the literacy signing. I decided to hold it.

The first workshop I went to was a dialogue one presented by historical author Elizabeth Hoyt.
It was pretty good and she is funny and very knowledgeable. My only problem was the people who harped on the same question over and over and over again. It made her rush through the rest of the program.

Then it was on to the next workshop. And there was a line for the bathroom. I was going to go to a program presented by Cherry Adair about writing a blockbuster or something like that. But the room was filled to capacity and I didn't want to get stuck in the crush. I went to another workshop mainly because they still had seats. It was put on by a group of authors who do the Debutante Ball group blog. Wow, it was pretty good and made me start thinking about things. They discussed the trouble with promotion and how they use their "grog" to promote each other. Group blogs are great but they need organization to be successful and I really liked their approach to managing their web. They seemed very focus on what they were doing.

There weren't any workshops after that I was interested in so I headed back to my hotel to my unoccupied bathroom. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I've got some leftover chocolate mouse torte which I need to finish from dinner (we went to a nice Italian place called Kuleto's) then its off to bed for an early morning.

Quick Update

I've got a break in between the opening session and lunch. I should be networking, but as gregarious as I am online, I'm quite introverted in public.

The opening session was okay. The speaker was good, I found her entertaining but not particularly motivational. I did meet a fellow writer from SoCal and we chatted a bit after the meeting. I forced one of my business cards on her.

Lunch is at 12:15 so I had a couple of hours to kill. Did a little window shopping but decided to head back to the hotel and check my email. My husband and son went off to Alcatraz this morning so I'm by myself. Hence, the reason I'm back at the hotel. I enjoy my solitude.

One of my big problems is that I'm a suburbanite. Being out amongst humanity makes me nervous. Plus they smell. I've also discovered cable cars run late at night. I can hear them right outside my window. It was so loud during the night that when it finally got quiet, it woke me up.

Workshops start later this afternoon. I'm not sure how long I'm going to last. I'm tired. Two days of driving wore me out. And trying to navigate with your husband driving is even more exhausting, am I right?

I was going to post pictures then remembered hubby took the camera. I do have my camera phone so I'll see what I can do this afternoon.

First Night in SFO

I've got a few pictures but frankly, I'm too tired to hunt down my stick adapter and load them up. Maybe tomorrow. Hope so.

Okay, so I'm in my hotel in S.F. It is probably the loudest location ever. The cable car runs right outside my room (I'm staying at the Villa Florence) which has a great location, so its probably worth it. We pulled in around five, unpacked and headed to the big literacy event. Oh, and I registered. My bag had a several books in it. Way cool.

Oh my! The number of people was beyond belief. Let me re-phrase that, the number of women was beyond belief. Several of them very attractive, according to my husband. I think he might have been trying to hit on Nora Roberts, he seemed awfully interested when I pointed her out. She could by him more cars, I'm sure. I met Kelly and Michelle. That was fun. I met a few authors and reaquainted with some others. These poor girls were so excited to see la Nora so I offered to take a picture of them by the RWA sign. Freakin' shots were all blurry. They didn't care, they were too excited.

Tomorrow will be the real challenge. I have to walk by an DSW Shoe(hubby refers to it as hell) and a Sephora along with the mall. Down the street is Macy's. It's going to be difficult walking to conference without getting distracted.

Well, its almost 11 p.m. and I need to take a shower. Tomorrow should be full of more news, if I can survive the siren song of the shops.

A Whole Lot Of Shakin' Going On

So I'm packing for conference when it hits. The ground starts to shake then my house rolls back an forth as if on roller skates. All I can think is "please don't be centered near San Francisco." However, having been through an earthquake or two, I realized by the length of the quake it was pretty nearby (about 10 miles). No damage. Didn't lose power, phones or (thank heavens) Internet. The true earthquake hit an hour later when I went upstairs to put laundry away and exploded at the mess my kids had made upstairs. I took away all game consoles and computers. Barbies are gone too. Course they won't be home the rest of the week, but I think everything will remain gone for awhile.

Haven't finished packing. Realized my hubby was out of socks. Searched the laundry and couldn't find any. Someone must be eating them. Had to run down to Target and pick up some more. Now I'm waiting for them to dry.

We are supposed to be leaving in an hour, I'm guessing it will be more like two. My laptop is already packed up so I'm using another machine. Well, I will be back online tomorrow night. My cell phone has email, so I can still check that out.

The San Francisco Post: Part II

I pondered back and forth about business cards. I couldn't decide if I really needed them or not. But since I was at Wal Mart anyway, I picked up some printable cards and came up with this little number. A little gaudy, I suppose, but I had fun. My email and phone number are on the back. I figure I'll print up 20 or so, force them on my friends. They make nice bookmarks.

One thing is bothering me. Usually we have some wild and obnoxious RWA controversy going right before conference. The blogs and the boards light up with flaming posts full of hurtful words and virtual hair pulling. Sometimes they happen during conference (remember when they did video montage and everyone got upset?). Someone says something insensitive about another genre or RWA hints at a new policy which gets people up in arms, etc. But this year I can only really think of one. This year, they are not supplying the handouts. We are supposed to print them ourselves. This is supposedly in an attempt to be more green. Others feel like it is cost-cutting move on RWA's part. Could be both. The handouts come out to be 279 pages. Multiply that by a couple of thousand people and you've got well over half a million pieces of paper. I didn't care one way or the other. Actually, I probably lean on the print on demand side. I went through the workshops and checked off the ones I definitely wasn't going to then printed those I knew I was going to or thought there might be a chance I'd go to. I didn't count the pages, but it came out far below 200 pieces of paper. I'm going to punch them and stick them in a binder with a matching little notebook for notes (or doodles, I'm not a note taker, I'm a doodler). It didn't take me all that long, I was cleaning my floor in between printings, but it was a bit inconvenient.

But what is worrying attendees is the cost cutting. Conference is becoming less bang for your buck. There is no Saturday luncheon, the one day where a provided lunch would be welcome considering the schedule for the day. However, they are doing the RITA/GH thing that night, so maybe that takes the place. No matter how you look at it, conference is expensive. Perhaps if it were at a different time of the year and at less rockin' cities, it would likely be cheaper. But attendance would drop. Or maybe not. San Francisco is expensive and with the state of the economy, its going to hurt even more. I suppose you have to consider why you are going and weigh it against the price. Part of the reason I'm going is because it is in San Francisco. So it is worth it to me.

I haven't started packing yet. Lucky me, I'm packing for four people, my girls are staying with my folks. My son can pack for himself. The girls are pretty easy, they will spend most of the time in my parents' pool. My husband, sigh, I'm not sure. The San Fran weather is so variable. He may end up with more clothes than me. Luckily we are driving although we are taking the Shelby, so trunk space is at a minimum.

If I don't get to post tomorrow, I will post on Wednesday. Hopefully some good gossip will come my way. I will blog every night that I'm there to pass on any great tidbits I get.

The San Francisco Post

I'm leaving Tuesday for the RWA Conference in San Francisco. We are driving up Tuesday evening, stopping for the night along the way and making our way up there by Wednesday afternoon. I didn't get into the Marriott. It sold out pretty quickly although I wasn't all that wild about staying there anyway. Crowds make me nervous and I prefer to be somewhere a little less busy. I'll be staying at the Villa Florence. It's only a few blocks from the Marriott and I'll get to walk by all those shops. Hope I make it to Conference!

My husband and son are going as well. My hubby wanted a chance to take his Shelby Mustang out on a major spin. We decided to take my son because he and his dad don't get to do a whole lot of things together. Supernerd is old enough to appreciate the city and hopefully have some fun. As he is entering jr. high this year, I suspect this is the last summer for him to be human until he graduates from high school. He wasn't too thrilled to go until I told him about all the food and that the hotel has wireless Internet access. I did make it clear I wouldn't be around to entertain them. They are going to have to fend for themselves. I did book them a trip to Alcatraz and have mapped it out on public transportation. But that's about it. There is plenty to do in the city, they should be fine.

So I'm planning my wardrobe, which of course means I need to go shopping. I'm not a "business casual" kind of gal. I'm not going to get too excited about my fashion sense since I'm not pitching and none of the editors I aim for are going to be attending. I'm not planning on going to any parties. I'm not going to the awards ceremony on Saturday night. I'm going to the workshops and maybe the luncheons and that's about it. Or hang out in the hotel bar. Or go to the mall.

I got my hair colored and trimmed yesterday. I have a nail appointment on Monday. I'll pull my suitcases this weekend from the attic. I'm going to print out the handouts and organize them in a binder. I gotta figure out which workshops I'm going to. Of course, there are periods where none of the workshops interest me and some periods where three or four are going on at the same time that I'd like to go to. That's what the cd's are for I guess.

I'm going to be fully wired. I'm taking my laptop so I can blog from conference. My cell phone is ready with email and Yahoo messenger. Plus, it takes decent pictures and video.

It should be fun. Heck, I'd go to a sanitation workers convention if it were in San Francisco.

Those of you going to conference, how ready are you?

San Francisco

So I did it. I registered for conference. Haven't done anything else. Well, I have quit eating in the hopes of losing a few pounds before hand, but I haven't planned out the logistics yet. I'm not sure if I am going to drive or fly. Have no idea where I'm staying either. The conference hotel has sold out and if any of you are on the RWA loops, I'm sure you've heard
ad nauseum about that fiasco. I'm not too concerned, there are a gazillion hotels in the city, most of them two or three blocks from the conference. The bad part is that you must walk through prime shopping areas to get back and forth. I could easily get distracted on my travels.

My hubby is thinking of going. I'm 50/50 on this idea. Being a mother hen type, I worry that he won't have anything to do during the day. Yeah, I know, there isn't much to see in The City. But here is the big thing: in the 13 years we've been married, the longest we've ever been apart was three days/two nights. It bothers both of us to think we could be apart that long. I've been separated from my kids for over a week, but not my husband. I did tell him there would be no children on this trip. I don't think they would want to go anyway.

Anyway, I am signed up to go and I plan on going whether I'm by myself or not. Either way, I plan on having a good time.