Thursday, September 13, 2012

Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference


I had the pleasure of attending the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers Conference in Denver last weekend. It’s always energizing to meet with other writers, agents and editors, attend workshops and schmooze. This is the eleventh year I’ve attended. That first year I only knew one other person. Now, I look forward to catching up on so many good friends and making new ones. On the badge is a ribbon for people attending for the first time. These are the most important people at the conference because they are taking the plunge to go to a writers conference. This conference has a balance of topics for newbies up through best-selling authors. Each year I take gobs of notes and come back with an action item list that takes me weeks to complete. This year I had a chance to officially pitch to one editor and informally to another editor and two agents for the first book in a new series. Author Cindi Myers gave an excellent presentation on Staying in the Game. She stated we need to accept failure as part of the business. She described being orphaned by publishers twice and having to part ways with two agents. After fifty books publishing, she is still dealing with rejection, as do all of us. It comes with writing. So I’m back in there pitching, writing new manuscripts and promoting what’s already published. It’s a never ending task but I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.

2 comments:

J.A. Kazimer said...

Hi Mike,

I loved Cindi's workshop. It was filled with hope and smart advice, like you can do things for yourself without an agent.

Great seeing you at the conference and at lunch on Tuesday. You always make me feel very welcome and that is much appreciated.

Patricia Stoltey said...

Mike, you said exactly what I've been thinking. I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing, so might as well keep on trucking. :D

It was great to see you again. Good luck on the new series.