October 22, 2011

SIWC Day 2: Running, running, running

Well, that was a whirlwind. I almost wrote a post last night, but then I took my bottle of wine (of which I had half left) and moved over to the table of 5 (my table had none) and offered my wares. I was, of course, happily received.

It was at this table (filled with fellow prairie residents) that I learned my NaNoWriMo idea, which I was sharing with people at lunch, made an appearance in one of the afternoon sessions. At lunch, Michael Slade sat at our table and heard me recounting how Don Maass encouraged me to do worse things to my protagonist. He didn't hear that part, of course, he just heard pregnant and zombie. I hadn't planned on marrying the two but might have to now. What a great idea, the living inside the dead.

I also did my first pitch. Sadly, I had booked my session back in August when I was still working on my YA Ghost Story, so I'm pitching to a YA editor. The only things I have complete are Cargon (already published with Martin Sisters) and Thickness of Blood - an adult contemporary. I pitched Cargon, for practice, and apparently did fairly well. I'll have to be sure to pitch my next book as well, paying special attention to the pregnant vampire, of course.

The blue pencil session was enlightening. Robert Dugoni was emphatic that he wanted to know who the main character was. If you're one of Thickness of Blood's pre-readers, you know there are three main characters. In our session we focused on the wrong one. BUT now I know that George is actually the main character! I'm ready to pitch that today if there are any openings!

The pitch party in the morning was marvelous. I was able to nail my pitch for Cargon, and armed with my knew knowledge, I'm sure I'll be able to do as well with Thickness of Blood. The same Robert Dugoni went over story structure and plot for page turners. I'm sure all that information, atop what Don Maass gave me Thursday night, will make my NaNoWriMo writing that much smoother and easier and plain better.

After my pitches, rather than settling into Maass' session, I found the YA panel and I think I'll repeat that this morning, attending Don Calame's 'Writing for Teens.' Lunch is a mystery today, and then I'm off to SIWC Idol, where my first two pages of Thickness of Blood have been submitted along with many many others for breakdown and review.

But, I need to get to the kick off this morning!!

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