Category: Conferences

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2019

Introduction

I attended the SF conference called Cleveland ConCoction at 600 North Aurora Road Aurora, Ohio at the Bertram Inn and Conference Center from March 1 to 3, 2019. I attended the opening ceremony, four panels, and the closing ceremony. I also volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours and in the ConSuite for four hours.

ConCoction Banner

ConCoction 2019 Program Guide Cover

The link to the ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Bertram Inn and Conference Center

Summary

Friday, March 1 at 2 PM

Writing a Story in Three Parts, a panel with Addie J. King:

She handed out a copy of a PowerPoint presentation with 27 slides titled Telling a Story in Three Parts. The three parts of a story are the beginning, the middle, and the end. She plans the first third of her novel and has a roadmap for the rest of the novel so she can improvise the ending since the story could end up at a different spot than the original idea. First, she suggests creating a concept which is the coolest thing about the story written in one sentence. Then figure out the conflict and develop three-part story arcs. There should be multiple story arcs in a novel. Write one sentence for the start, middle, and resolution for each arc. She went over examples from her fiction and in other fiction. She suggested resources for writing.

Her website is https://addiejking.com/

She is the author of the Grimm Legacy series and the Hochenwalt Files series linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13848293-the-grimm-legacy

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26850087-shades-of-gray

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room with 12 attendees.

Friday, March 1 at 4 PM

Outlining Your Novel, a panel with Malcolm Wood.

The panelist found out he was throwing way too much of his work because he had too many false starts, so he tried something different. Outlining your novel gives the author a roadmap to keep you going where you want to go. He took a 3-ring binder for each of his novels and put his research and notes into it. A novel starts with an idea and he made a sheet for the idea. Main character sheets come next. The idea and the characters lead to a situation. You build scenes on index cards and you refine the plot. In the beginning, you state the problem, in the middle are the plot complications, and at the end, you fulfill the promises created at the beginning. You can create a plot outline. He handed out an example for his novel named Trash. Each scene has a POV character, an event or action description, a location or a setting, a date for when the events occurred, and the chapter where the scene occurs. Now you can write the novel from the beginning to the end without false starts and dead ends. He also showed us one of his completed notebooks. His method gives a more structured way of creating a novel than the method described by Addie J. King in the earlier panel.

His website is http://www.malcolm-wood.com/Welcome.html

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 6 attendees.

Friday, March 1 at 5 PM

The Opening Ceremonies

The Con Co-chair, Laura, opened the ceremonies. She introduced the media guest of honor Jim O’Rear, next was the EmCee from asklovecraft.com, Leeman Kessler, and then the artist guest of honor, Stephen Hickman. The cosplay guests of honor were Knightmage and Nerd Girl. The gaming guests of honor from Rogue Cthulhu were last introduced. Con co-chair Stan finished the program by turning his smiley face tee-shirt to a frown with a permanent marker to fit the theme of the con ‘It came from the dark side of the…’ more closely. It was nice to see the guests up close and personal to start off the Con.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 40 attendees.

Saturday, March 2 at 4 PM

Mars Needs Love, a panel with substitute panelist Geoffrey Landis.

Geoffrey Landis is a scientist who works for NASA Glenn on projects such as scientific probes going to Mars including the photovoltaic cells used by the probes. He is also an award-winning hard science fiction writer. He started the panel talking about the current situation in Mars probes. The Opportunity rover’s last contact was on June 10, 2018, before a dust storm and NASA declared the mission complete on February 13, 2019. The Curiosity rover and the Insight lander are still operational. The European-Russian rover named Rosalind Franklin is scheduled to launch in 2020 and the American rover named Mars 2020 is also scheduled to launch in 2020. NASA’s plan is to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s, but no money is associated with that directive. A Dutch commercial venture named Mars One formed in 2011 planned to send a one-way manned mission to Mars and set up a colony but went bankrupt on January 10, 2019. The mission was flawed. The talk went on to other space-related topics. In the long term, it’s critical to develop a practical economic model for space. One route is to mine platinum from asteroids. He talked about examples of  Mars in books and movies. This was a great impromptu talk that covered a lot of interesting topics.

Geoffrey Landis’s website is http://www.geoffreylandis.com/

They held the panel in the Pegasus Room with 10 attendees.

Saturday, March 2 from 5 PM to 9 PM

I volunteered in the Programming Department for four hours on Saturday.

When there were ten minutes remaining in the program, I went to each of the programs. I held up a sign to show to the panelists there were ten minutes left to go in the program. I also counted the number of panelists and attendees at each panel. They stationed me in the green room, a room where the panelists could go to relax, to help them as needed. I worked with Lisa and her two kids. It was fun, and I learned something new.

Saturday, March 2 at 9 PM

Time Travel in your Writing: It’s About Time, a panel with Cindy Matthews, J.L. Gribble, Geoffrey Landis, and Carma Haley Shoemaker.

The panelists started the panel by naming their favorite examples of time travel in books, TV, or movies. They were Legends of Tomorrow airing on the CW network, Supernatural also airing on the CW network, The novel The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, The novel Time after Time by Karl Alexander (and the show airing on ABC), and the short story All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein. Things to think about when designing a time travel story are the opportunity to change time and the Butterfly effect where a small change in initial conditions leads to a significant result.

Geoffrey Landis stated four reasons that time travel stories are intriguing.

  1. The setting because the past is exotic.
  2. Adventure
  3. The nature of paradox
  4. Playing the what if game.

Time travel stories work well for sending a contemporary person to the past or future to compare it to today. The best and most used time travel mechanism today is the wormhole because it can act as a portal to anywhere.

The website recommended by the panel was http://timetravelnexus.com/

The articles on the site cover time travel found in TV, books, film, audio, and comics. It is a great website that covers this topic well.

They held the panel in the McKinley B Room with 10 attendees.

Sunday, March 3 from 10 AM to 2 PM

I volunteered in the ConSuite Department for four hours on Sunday.

My responsibilities were to set out food and clean up the ConSuite. They put a deli tray out before I arrived and we put the trays away throughout the day. We put out chips and pop as needed, but our main function seemed to keep making coffee. There was always a new pot brewing. The ConSuite closed down at 2 PM, so I helped break down the shelves and put items out for the hotel to store away. I worked with Badger and Chris. This was the third year I volunteered in the ConSuite and I have enjoyed helping every year. I plan to help again next year.

Sunday, March 3 from 2 PM

The Closing Ceremonies

The co-chair Laura and Stann announced the theme and date for next year’s con. Next year’s theme is MeeplePunk, all things to do with cyberpunk (SF subgenre focused on a mix of lowlife and high tech) and meeples (gaming pieces shaped like people and animals used in Euro-style board games). They will hold ConCoction 2019 at the Bertram Inn from March 6 to 8, 2020. The audience applauded the guests of honor Jim O’Rear, Knightmage, and Nerd Girl. They made a volunteer shoutout. The Con was closed until next year.

They held the ceremonies in the McKinley B Room with 38 attendees

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great experience at ConCoction 2019. The Bertram Conference center is nice. The only problem I encountered was that half of the activities are in another building. It was cold this time of the year traveling between the buildings. The Bertram is much better than the Conference’s earlier location at the Sheraton Hotel at the Airport. My star of the con was Geoffrey Landis. He substituted at the last minute to give a solo panel on Mars and was engaging in the Time Travel panel I attended. My other highlights were the writing talks that Addie J. King and Malcolm Wood gave. I’m planning on attending next year.

Links

A recent SF conference I attended was ConFusion in Detroit, Michigan from January 18 to 20, 2019. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so they designated the areas with names related to the movie, The Princess Bride. I had a great drive to Detroit just before the snowstorm struck. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’ll be back next year.

This is a link to my recap of the con.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Writing Progress Report for February 2019

This is my writing progress report for February 2019.

A sign to the Miracle Max film room at ConFusion in Detroit, where I watched the movie, The Princess Bride. The theme of ConFusion was Storming the ConFusion which alludes to the movie.

Writing Progress from January 2019

I wrote 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing report for January 2019 linked below.

Writing Progress Report for January 2019

I bought and used the editing program Pro Writing Aid to edit the novel, Assassin in New Marl City. I edited and typed Assassin Chapters 30, 32, and 33 in August 2018. I reviewed Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in September and plan to finish the review in February. Chapters 1 to 12 were reviewed by using Pro Writing Aid and submitted to my novel writing class.

The first draft of Assassin in New Marl City was complete at 99,981 words in July 2018. I completed draft two in December 2018 at 89,072 words. Third draft edits continue.

I submitted a story called Popular Mechanics Rebrewed for my writing class.

I also submitted a revised and shorter version of Space Station Sunyata to a different writing class. I plan to submit this version to magazines.

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions for 2019 are; 0 different stories submitted a total of 0 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 0 rejections.

Events from January 2019

I attended ConFusion in Dearborn, Michigan from January 17 to 20, 2019. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association.

I wrote a post on the conference linked below.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Writing Goals for February 2019

I plan to write 4 blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing report for February 2019.

Type the edits for Assassin in New Marl City Chapters 34, 35, and 36 in February 2019.

Edit Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 of Assassin in New Marl City using comments from the Advanced Writing Workshop at Parma, Ohio.

Polish and submit the stories Sleeping Sickness, Space-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.

Edit Searcher of Riven.

Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.

Edit Ruins of Yarnud.

Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.

Put the novel, Assassin in New Marl City, into the writing program, Scrivener.

Buy e-book covers for Searcher of Riven and Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.

Buy an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Planned Events for February 2019

The next conference I would like to attend is Capricon in Wheeling, Illinois from February 14 to 17, 2019.

Conference Recap ConFusion Detroit 2019

Introduction

I attended the SF conference named ConFusion at 5801 Southfield Freeway Dearborn, Michigan at the DoubleTree Hotel from January 18 to 20, 2019. ConFusion is sponsored by the Ann Arbor Science Fiction Association. I attended 4 panels, one reading, one interview, and watched the movie The Princess Bride. The theme of the con was Storming the ConFusion, so the areas were designated with names related to the movie like Miracle Max’s Film Room, The Fire Swamp Artists Alley, The Cliffs of Insanity Consuite, Pit of Despair Gaming, and the Thieves Forest Music Room. I stayed at the Hawthorn Hotel by Wyndham which was next to the Double Tree.

ConFusion 2019 Program Guide Cover

This is a link to the ConFusion website.

https://2019.confusionsf.org/

Summary

Saturday, January 19th at 12 PM

Writers Talk about Anything But Writing panel with Mark Oshiro, John Scalzi, and Delilah Dawson:

Mark was the moderator and he came up with the topic. His point was that panelists get questions about writing, publishing, and touring, but get few questions about their other interests. This panel forced them to talk about something else. John Scalzi talked about being almost 50, his exercise program, and taking modern dance in high school. Mark talked about who he was cast as the lead in the play Music Man, Harold Hill, in high school while being Mexican and gay. John talked about working at Del Taco and learning about life. He was in an air band in high school and won a contest drumming to Round and Round by Ratt. Mark didn’t understand the concept of an air band since he is from another generation. John finished up the panel by talking about his wife’s family’s salsa recipe and how he was glad he married into the family to taste it, The panel was fun and I’m glad Mark came up with the topic. I learned about the panelists and I liked that.

Link to another air band video of John Scalzi at the Webb school:

A Christmastime Blast From Waaaaaay Back In The Past

Saturday, January 19th at 1 PM

Mars in Fact and Fiction panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:

Two slide presentations were presented in this panel.

Dr. Piatek’s presentation was called Mars – A Short Tour, which covered the history of scientific fact about Mars. The incorrectly proposed canals of Mars were refuted in the ’60s with the Mariner mission. The Viking mission extended our knowledge of the surface of Mars. Mars has a rough southern highland and a smooth northern plain. Most Mars missions land in the north. The next mission to Mars is scheduled to be the Mars Rover 2020 mission, scheduled to be launched in 2020.

Bill Higgins presentation was called Mars in Our Stories, which covered SF writing about Mars. He highlighted a picture printed in the September 1956 Life magazine that imagined the aliens of Mars as told from many stories including War of the Worlds by H. G. Welles, Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis, and A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum. He next mentioned the 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds adapted by Orson Welles that caused a panic in New Jersey. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury and the John Carter series by Edgar Rice Burroughs were also mentioned. The panel ran out of time to continue to more modern examples of Mars fiction.

I thought that both presentations were well done, and the information was interesting.

A copy of a drawing by Boris Artzybasheff from the September 24, 1956 issue of Life magazine.

Saturday, January 19th at 3 PM

Reading by John Scalzi:

John Scalzi’s current work in progress is his sequel to his novella called The Dispatcher. The tentative title for the work is Dispatcher 2 –the dispationing (probably not the final title). He read Chapter 1 of his new work. In the world of the novel, people who are murdered will return alive to a place they found comfort in the past. They appear naked, healthy and well. Suicide does not work in this world so there is a call for Dispatchers, who murder terminal patients or for other reasons if their clients want a fresh start. This work is about a Dispatcher debating if he will accept Mr. Pang as a client. The chapter comes to a satisfying conclusion. Scalzi is an engaging reader of his work. Well done.

This is the Goodreads link to The Dispatcher.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34819813-the-dispatcher

Scalzi had more time to read, so he read two posts from his blog named Whatever. The first post he read was titled “Automated Customer Service”. It was a funny short story about a computerized phone customer service call about a malfunctioning Vacuubot.

A Thanksgiving Week Gift for You: “Automated Customer Service”

The last story was named “Four Views of the Same Short Story”.

Four Views of the Same Short Story

A short Q and A followed. The whole hour was fun and perfect. It was my best hour of the con.

Saturday, January 19th at 6:30 PM (Err, I should have been there at 6:10 PM)

I watched the movie The Princess Bride. The Princess Bride was the theme of this con, Storming the ConFusion. I’ve seen the movie many times but I thought that it would be fun to see it here with an audience. In the Henry Ford boardroom (renamed Miracle Max’s Film Room for the Con) there is a large screen TV at one end of the room and a large table with comfortable chairs surrounding it. The movie played on the screen and all the dozen chairs were filled.

On the sheet posted on the door, it said the movie would start at 6:30 PM but I think it started at 6:10 PM. Then I arrived at 6:25 PM the scene playing was the one where the Man in Black (Dread Pirate Roberts, but secretly Westley) was sword fighting with Inigo Montoya and it was almost over. The movie ended at 7:40 PM and the movie is 90 minutes long so I figure about a 6:10 PM start. I watched the rest of the movie. The cool thing is that the five scenes at the beginning of the movie that I missed are all available on Youtube. I watched them all after the con. It turned out to be a great idea to watch the movie with others and I am glad that I did.

Youtube link to a playlist with 12 clips from the movie:

Sign on the door to the boardroom where the movie played.

Sunday, January 20th at 10 AM

I attended an interview with Ada Palmer, the Author Guest of Honor for ConFusion 2019. Ada Palmer was interviewed by Black Gate columnist Brandon Crilly. She is an associate professor of early modern European History at the University of Chicago. Ada Palmer first talked about her current project on censorship. She is co-writing a book called Censorship and Information Control in Information Revolutions with Cory Doctorow and Adrian Johns. Her project is funded through Kickstarter Their idea is that censorship has always been a part of society and always will. There are two kinds of censorship. The Catholic model where works are sent to a censer and edited before they are published and the English model where works are censored after they have been printed and deemed censorable.

Censorship relates to her current fiction novel series, Terra Ignota. She extrapolated certain trends from the past into the future to develop her series. Some of those trends are religiosity, the changing family unit, and gender relations. She recommended the short story The Autopsy by Michael Shae, link below. She identifies herself as a writer and not a professor. Her writing suggestion is to take an old story and edit it to half-length to get to the essence of the story. It will help the writer to be concise and make sure that every line and word is doing some work. Brandon conducted an interesting interview with Ada Palmer and I plan to read Too Like the Lightning this year. It’s on my Goodreads list.

This is Brandon Crilly’s announcement of the interview: https://brandoncrilly.wordpress.com/2019/01/16/this-weekend-confusion/

This is the Black Gate magazine webpage: https://www.blackgate.com/

This is Ada Palmer’s faculty page: https://history.uchicago.edu/directory/ada-palmer

Ada Palmer’s project is funded through Kickstarter at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/648994832/censorship-and-information-control-in-information

This is a link to the Goodreads page of Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota Book #1)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26114545-too-like-the-lightning

This is a link to the Goodreads page for the book The Weird, where The Autopsy by Michael Shae is published: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12344319-the-weird?ac=1&from_search=true

Sunday, January 20th at 12 PM

State of the Solar System panel with industrial scientist Bill Higgins, SF writer specializing in Mars fiction Martin L. Shoemaker, and professor from Connecticut State University Dr. Jennifer Piatek:

The same panel members from the Mars panel on Saturday continued their discussion about space exploration beyond Mars. They talked about the International Space Station first and then spent most of the rest of the panel talking about probes to the asteroids. The TV show Salvage 1 from 1979 starring Andy Griffith was mentioned about commercial space exploration. The show was about a man who built a spaceship intending to go to the moon and salvage the Apollo mission’s equipment and sell it on the Earth. It was an interesting panel and the room was packed, standing room only.

Sunday, January 20th at 1 PM

Supply Lines and Economics in Fantasy Worldbuilding panel with K. A. Doore, Ferrett Steinmetz, Jennifer Mace, Scott H. Andrews, Jon Skovron, and Teresa Nielsen Hayden.

They authors talked about how economics affected the story they write. The best part of the panel was their recommendations of resource books to read. They are 1491 by Charles Man, Debt by David Graeber, Great Cities in History by John Julius Norwich., and Food by Dorothy Hartley. There were two examples of novels using the topic illustrated, the Dagger and the Coin series by Daniel Abraham and War of Light and Shadow by Jenny Wurts. I wondered if six panelists were too many for them to get each of their points across, but the panel went smoothly, and each panelist had interesting comments. I put all the books mentions on my Goodreads to read list and look forward too many hours of good reading.

Recommendation – Conclusion

I had a great drive to Detroit just before the snowstorm. The con was set up well making it easy to find the locations. My star of the con was John Scalzi. He gave an excellent reading and was engaging in the panel I attended. My other highlights were Ada Palmer’s interview and watching The Princess Bride at the con. I’m planning to return next year.

Links

This is a link to John Scalzi’s post about attending ConFusion 2019.

View From a Hotel Window, 1/18/19: Detroit

The next most recent conference that I attended was Cleveland Inkubator which was held on August 4, 2018, at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library, 525 Superior Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115. The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland. This is a link to my conference recap.

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018

Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018

Introduction

I attended the Cleveland Writing Workshop on July 14, 2018, at the Holiday Inn 6001 Rockside Road Independence, Ohio 44131. The Cleveland Writing Workshop was a one-day event conducted by Writing Day Workshops who present workshops across the county throughout the year.

Summary Beginning

The day began in the large meeting room which had space for over 100 attendees. The presenter was Brian A. Klems who gave four talks during the day. He was the senior online editor for WritersDigest.com. He wrote the parenting guide for fathers called Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl which is linked below.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16219954-oh-boy-you-re-having-a-girl

There was also a writer’s got talent panel. There were three other opportunities available for writers for an added fee. The extras were a query letter critique, a critique of the first ten pages of an author’s novel, and opportunities to pitch a novel to up to seven different agents. Before the workshop, I sent off my query letter, the first ten pages of my novel, and signed up for two pitches. I will write about my experiences at the workshop.

Summary Session One

The first session by Brian A. Klems was titled A Bird’s Eye View: Publishing and Books in the Year 2018. He discussed the three ways for an author to get published. They are traditionally by using an agent, by a university press not using an agent, and by self-publishing. In traditional publishing, the author gets an advance, but the marketing is mostly done by the author. In self-publishing, the author controls everything, but it’s difficult to get your books into bookstores.

Summary Session Two

The second session was also given by Brian A. Klems about 15 Tips on How to Write Like the Pros. There was a handout on the topic. Advice highlights were to avoid prologues, avoid information dumps and edit ruthlessly (kill your darlings).

Break

We had an hour-long break for lunch. I reviewed the information I had for the three meetings I had in the afternoon. Ten minutes before the meetings I left the main hall and waited at the queue for the meetings held in the meeting room. There were eight tables for the seven agents and an editor in the meeting room. The meetings were all ten minutes long and when they were completed; I returned to the main hall to attend the session in progress.

Summary Session Three

After the lunch break, they presented a panel on Writer’s Got Talent–A Chapter One Critique Fest. Five of the seven agents that took pitches were on the panel. At check-in at the beginning of the workshop, authors submitted the first page of their novel if they wanted. I did not. I had taken part in a similar panel at a different conference. The author’s names were not on the page, only the genre identification. Brian A. Klems read the submissions. During the reading, the agents raised their hand when they knew the writing did not work for them. When three agents passed, Brian stopped reading. At the end of the reading, the agents stated why they passed or why they liked the submission. I heard 14 submissions (But not all of them. I had a meeting during the session). Brian read only a few all the way to the end.

Summary Session Four

The next session was by Brian A. Klems about 25 Questions You Need Answered BEFORE You Seek an Agent or Self-Publish Your Book. There was a handout about the questions. Highlights were if you want to get published traditionally then you need an agent, you get an agent by submitting queries and a synopsis to them, and building a platform is becoming necessary for successful authors.

Summary Session Five

The next session was by Brian A. Klems about 25 Questions You Need Answered AFTER You Seek an Agent or Self-Publish Your Book. There was a handout about the questions. Highlights were Amazon reviews are extremely important, build a platform, and stick to it.

Activities

There were four activities I did at the workshop.

I sent a copy of my example query letter to Brian A. Klems before the conference. He e-mailed a detailed critique of the query letter to me. The insights he gave were excellent. I have improved my query letter based on his comments.

I sent the first ten pages of my novel, Assassin in New Marl City to editor Ricki Schultz before the conference. We had a ten-minute meeting where she gave me a written critique of the pages and we discussed the pages. Her comments helped me clarify what I was trying to do with those first pages and setting up my story. Her critique was helpful and the changes I made to the chapter made it better.

During the Workshop, I had a meeting with agent Cyle Young. We talked about what he was looking for in clients and about my novel. He suggested that I update my picture on Facebook/Twitter (I did), use SEO for my blog (I haven’t done it, but I should), and to send him a proposal (I did). I went to his website, wrote a proposal from his specifications, and submitted my proposal after the conference. It was not a fit for him, but I learned valuable lessons about writing and submitting a query. I also learned the importance of developing a platform from him.

During the Workshop, I had a meeting with agent Gabrielle Piraino. It was not a fit. I learned that sometimes an agent and a writer do not mesh and that’s okay. It’s about finding the right match and that is why it will take many queries to find the right one for me.

Conclusion

The Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018 was interesting and useful. I am glad I took the time and the effort to take part in the added activities offered. When the workshop returns next year, I will consider attending again. I will be a better writer then and will be readier to understand what it will take to be successful.

Links

Cleveland Writing Workshop 2018

I also attended the Marcon Conference from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. It is an SF conference, while Inkubator is a literary conference. My review of Marcon is linked below.

Marcon Conference 2018

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

Introduction

The Cleveland Inkubator was held on August 4, 2018, at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library, 525 Superior Avenue Cleveland, Ohio 44115.

The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland. Literary Cleveland’s mission is to create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in North East Ohio. The group sponsors writing workshops, author interviews, and a monthly group meeting mixer.

http://www.litcleveland.org/

Summary Introduction

Registration was on the second floor of the Louis Stokes Wing. Events were held on the second floor in four rooms and in the first-floor auditorium.

There were fifteen talks divided into three sessions with three workshops and two craft talks per session. A poetry reading was held during lunch at the Eastman Reading Garden. The day ended with a keynote reading and an interview with Benjamin Percy.

First Session

In the first session, I attended D. M. Pulley’s workshop on What happens after the end? Reworking and revising your first draft. She is a mystery writer who writes mysteries involving two protagonists in two storylines separated by decades but connected by the mystery. DM Pulley has published three novels The Dead Key, The Buried Book, and The Unclaimed Victim. She is working on her fourth novel now. She handed out a PowerPoint presentation on her topic. DM Pulley went over her experiences in creating the first draft of her first novel, The Dead Key.

This is the link to the Goodreads page of the Dead Key by DM Pulley.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22914448-the-dead-key

DM Pulley’s Method

DM Pulley cut over 80,000 words from the first draft of the novel including the beginning chapters where her main character Iris’s workplace was detailed. She suggests writing the first draft for you to discover what you want to write about and then write the second draft for your audience. DM Pulley has an eight-step process to create that second draft.

Step one: celebrate. Completing the first draft of a novel is an accomplishment.

Step two: wait at least two weeks or better yet a month before you start the rewrites because you need distance from your work.

Step three: Identify your audience. She paused for us to do a five-minute exercise to describe your ideal reader.

Step four: Identify the kind of story you are trying to tell. A five-minute exercise followed to describe your story in one sentence, a. k. a. the pitch.

Step five: Review of story structure including the three-act structure, outlining your first draft, tracking plot holes, using storyboards, and doing a plot check.

Step six: Character development including the hero’s journey. A five-minute exercise followed by describing the protagonist’s character arc including the beginning, obstacles, and how the protagonist is different at the ending of the story.

Step seven: Choose a rewrite strategy. You can self-edit and use beta readers and/or writing groups and/or hired editors.

Step eight: Rewrite. Each session at the conference was one and a half hours and she ran out of time here. There were 12 more slides to the presentation, so I think this PowerPoint presentation was designed to be presented in two hours.

This was a good presentation and topical for me since I recently finished the first draft of my first novel. It was useful for me to do the exercises to help me do my rewrite.

Second Session

In the second session, I attended Crafting a Killer Plot: what makes your mystery or novel a bestseller, presented by Amanda Flower.

She is a mystery writer who specializes in Amish cozy mysteries. She thinks that the elements of the plot that are necessary are; start with a bang in your first words and first page, make the reader care for your characters, raise the stakes, put in all the fields, make room for magic by looking for the surprise, create a false high, and then have a dark moment, before the climax and the resolution.

Rewrite and repeat. Her first draft is 40,000 words where she puts down the basic plot. In the second draft, she adds subplots and red herrings to build the novel to a total of 80,000 words. She suggests authors should write every day, and she is motivated by deadlines.

I thought her writing process was interesting.

This is the link to the Goodreads page of Assaulted Caramel by Amanda Flower.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33290628-assaulted-caramel

Third Session

In the third session, I attended Kevin Keating’s workshop on Chapter One: how to hook readers, agents, and editors. He presented a slide presentation that illustrated his points through still photos from movies that applied to the theme of the topic for each slide. He says that agents and editors have an eight-line rule. If they don’t read a unique voice that commands their attention in the first eight lines then they will move on to the next manuscript because they always have a pile of them to go through. So it is imperative to make sure the first page is excellent.

The presenter stated that there are three important aspects to writing, setting, character, and plot.

  1. First, establish the setting. Don’t be vague, be precise and declare your time and location. The setting is interrelated with plot and character and is just as essential.
  2. Characters must have a goal. The protagonist must be active and not passive. They must overcome obstacles. The obstacles can be external, internal, or psychological.
  3. Many plots follow the hero’s journey which is the path of home, voyage, and return. The protagonist begins in their home, travels to another world, discovers the nature of that other world, and is transformed by their experiences in that other world. The protagonist is scarred in some way and returns to relay their new knowledge to the people of home.

I liked that he referenced movie tie-ins to illustrate his points on writing.

This is a link to the Goodreads page for the Natural Order of Things by Kevin Keating.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17081562-the-natural-order-of-things

Keynote Reading

The keynote reading was given by Benjamin Percy in the downstairs auditorium. It was the last activity of the conference. He read from his most recent novel, The Dark Net. He read the prologue about Hannah. She has retinitis pigmentosa and receives a science fictional augmented treatment for the disease. The rest of the novel involves the darknet, cyber-crime, and demons. He is an engaging reader who has a deep voice and his reading was dramatic and interesting.

The next part of the presentation was an interview conducted by Brad Ricca. He asked the author about his experiences in college as a literary fiction major, writing comic books, and his process for writing novels. The last part of the presentation was a Q and A with the audience. The keynote reading and an interview was a fitting end for this conference about the writing process.

This is a link to the Goodreads page for The Dark Net by Benjamin Percy.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30971743-the-dark-net

Conclusion

I enjoyed the programs that I attended at the Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018 and plan to attend next year. My highlights were D. M. Pulley’s eight steps for writing a second draft, Amanda Flower’s short first draft to get the plot down, Kevin Keating’s point about how critical the first eight lines are in selling a novel to agents and editors, and Benjamin Percy’s dramatic reading of the prologue to the novel named The Dark Net.

Links

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2018

I also attended the Marcon Conference from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio. It is an SF conference, while Inkubator is a literary conference. My review of Marcon is linked below.

Marcon Conference 2018

Marcon Conference 2018

The Marcon Conference 2018 was held from May 11 to May 13, 2018, at the Hyatt Regency in Columbus, Ohio.

This is the link to the Marcon website.

http://marcon.org/

Introduction

I attended the Marcon Conference 2018 on Saturday, May 12. I drove to Columbus from Cleveland in the morning. The first activities were scheduled at 10:00 AM. I arrived at 10:30 AM, registered for the day, and went to the con suite for an early lunch. Activities were spaced in 90-minute blocks. The activities generally lasted 75 minutes with a 15-minute break until the next activity. The categories of the activities were Anime, Art, Comics, Cosplay, Fan Life, Filk, Gaming, Literary, Media, Science, and Youth. I attended four panels and two game shows at the Marcon Conference 2018.

Summary

Saturday: May 12, 2018

11:30 AM – Destination Mars

The three panelists debated about how and when humans will travel to Mars. All three had different viewpoints. It will happen in the next five years, it will happen a little later when the technology improves, and manned missions are too expensive and dangerous compared to unmanned missions. They asked if the missions will be one way which will make them similar to the colonization of America. Space tourism will probably fund the way to space travel.

1:00 PM – Game of Thrones Jeopardy!

The Psi Phi Columbus Game Show Network presented this activity. The jeopardy categories were projected on a big screen and the questions were written by the organizers. I volunteered to be on the first three-person panel. The game went back and forth until I pulled ahead by 3000 points in double jeopardy. The final jeopardy question was: What way don’t you want to leave the Eyrie? We all had the correct response: What is the Moon Door? I risked 2000 points because if the second place finisher had risked none and I lost 2000 points, I would still win the game. Using that strategy, I won the panel with 13200 points. I watched the second group. I would have had a hard time winning against the second winner. It was fun. The prize that I took for participating was a Targaryen lanyard.

It’s hard to read the numbers on the picture but my name is in blue and I won.

2:30 PM – That Was the Year in Science

There were two panelists that covered the most important scientific events that happened in the past year. The bulk of the conversation was about the collision of two neutron stars that occurred on 08-17-17. Other topics included a picture of a pulse of light, Homo sapiens are believed to have appeared 300000 years ago, the use of 3-D printing of polymerized chainmail for other uses (It was originally made for the Lord of the Rings movies), a lamb born from an artificial womb, and mice and rats may be able to pass memories to their offspring.

4:00 PM – What’s Going on in Commercial Space

This presentation began as a power point presentation about the recent commercial activities in space. The premise of the talk was how the current commercial space race was similar to the plot of The Man Who Sold the Moon by Robert Heinlein published in 1950.

The current commercial space race has four major players.

SpaceX

Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX. SpaceX uses the Falcon 9 rocket to launch satellites and to service a contract from NASA to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The company’s next goal is to use the bigger Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the Dragon spacecraft which will carry humans to the ISS. After that, the goal is to use the even bigger BFR rocket to launch a manned mission to Mars.

Bigelow Aerospace

Robert Bigelow is the founder and president of Bigelow Aerospace. The company manufactures expandable space station modules. The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM, 16 cubic meters) was attached to the ISS in 2016 and remains operational today. The B330 (330 cubic meters, 20 times bigger than the BEAM) is projected to be launched in 2020. It could be part of the ISS or become its own space station. The company’s plan is to lease space on the module for experiments and manufacturing.

Blue Origin

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, is also the founder of Blue Origin. Their New Shepard rocket delivered its first payload on April 29, 2018. The bigger New Glenn rocket has enough power to put people into space with a planned launch in 2020.

Virgin Galactic

Richard Branson founded the Virgin Group which includes Virgin Galactic. The company wants to provide suborbital flights to space tourists and suborbital flights for space science missions. Test flights have been performed and paid flights are near.

The Future

Money can be made in space right now by supplying the ISS, putting satellites into orbit, and servicing those satellites. Future money making opportunities include telescopes, colonies, mining, radioactive waste storage, prisons, military bases, and garbage removal. The rest of the presentation was watching internet videos that gave different perspectives on the subject.

The whole presentation was informative and well designed.

5:30 PM – Break

I had dinner and relaxed at the con suite.

7:00 PM – Sci-Fi Wheel of Fortune

This game was presented by the Psi Phi Columbus Game Show Nexus. There were two games run before another group took the projector at 8 PM. In game one some of the puzzles were to name the power puff girls and name the teen titans. In game two there were a couple of Before and After puzzles and also name that person. I did not participate but it was fun to guess the puzzles in the audience.

8:30 PM – Writing Time Travel Sci-Fi and Doing it Right

This was a single person presentation. The presenter discussed the issues that the TV shows Timeless and Fringe had in depicting the ramifications of time travel. An example of a show that did better with the concept was the TV show 12 monkeys.

10:00 PM – Game of Thrones: Winter is Here.

I really wanted to stay and attend this panel but I could not. Sunday was Mother’s Day and I wanted to be home. I would have arrived too late if I had stayed for this panel. I returned to my car and left at 10:45 PM, arriving home at 12:30 AM.

Recommendations

My favorite activity at Marcon Conference 2018 was playing Game of Thrones Jeopardy. My stars of the con were Ken Keisel and Bob Lohman for their commitment to science. I’m glad that I made the trip to Columbus in 2018. There will be a new hotel and a new date for next year and I hope to attend the Marcon Conference in 2019.

Links

This is my recap for the SF conference Cleveland ConCoction 2018. They held it from March 9, 2018, to March 11, 2018. I attended ten activities and volunteered in the ConSuite for eight hours.

Conference Recap Cleveland ConCoction 2018

Indie Author Day 2017

Indie Author Day 2017

Introduction

The Indie Author Day as held on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

There were four activities presented at Indie Author Day.

Summary – Anna Kopp

The first activity was a lecture by Anna Kopp entitled So You Wrote a Novel: Now What? A Crash Course on Today’s Publishing Options.

This is the Goodreads link to Rise of the Chosen.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30553316-rise-of-the-chosen

She presented four steps to consider after your novel is finished.

Step 1. Revisions. Find beta readers and an editor to help on revisions.

Step 2. Pick a Publishing Path. There are three; traditional publishing through an agent, traditional publishing through a publisher, and self-publishing.

Step 3. Make sure that you are ready. Have a finished and revised manuscript for fiction. Research agents and/or publishers to submit query letters or self-publish.

Step 4. Building an author platform. Get followers on social media, do book signings, create author merchandise.

Final tips. Write, read in your genre, don’t despair, do your research, get help, and don’t give up.

After Indie Author Day, a librarian e-mailed Anna Kopp’s power point presentation to anyone in the audience that wanted a copy of it. It was helpful to review the presentation later.

Summary – Presentation

The second activity was a presentation about the free services and resources available at the library. The event was held at the William N. Skirball Writer’s Center. The librarian talked about upcoming workshops, author’s presentations, monthly self-publishing roundtables, and the Self-E program. During this presentation, pizza and refreshments were available.

Summary – Videos

The third activity was a series of internet videos displayed on the projector screen. The topics were about writing and publishing. The videos can also be re-played.

  1. Use pressbooks
  2. Write a fantasy novel
  3. Market your book
  4. The costs of self-publishing
  5. Get your book into libraries
  6. Publish with Ingram Spark
  7. Produce a professional book.
  8. Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing
  9. Draft 2 Digital and Smashwords
  10. Create Space and KDP Direct.

Videos #1 to #7 can be found at indieauthorday.com/resources

Videos #8 to #10 can be found at Teachable.com in the A to Z of Self-Publishing program.

I watched the first two videos before I went to the fourth activity. I watched the rest of the videos online later.

Summary – Book Whisperer

The fourth activity was an appointment with the book whisperer.

From 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM Deanna Adams, the book whisperer, had 15-minute one-on-one appointments to discuss questions about writing and publishing. In my appointment, I went over a query letter for my novel, Assassin in New Marl City, with her. She helped me in finding better words to use in the query. My goal is to send this query to agents to acquire representation for my novel.

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This is the Goodreads link to The Writer’s GPS.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27810622-the-writer-s-gps

Conclusion

The four activities presented at Indie Author Day 2017 were well worth the time invested for independent self-published writers and writers considering self-publishing.

Links

I attended the Indie Author Conference and Showcase on November 12, 2016, at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Conference and Showcase

The Western Reserve Writers Conference

Western Reserve Writers Conference 2017

Introduction

I attended the 34th annual Western Reserve Writers Conference on September 23, 2017. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one first page critique panel.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

Summary – Keynote Speaker

The day began in the large meeting room which had space for over 100 attendees and the tables for the presenter’s book sale. We were first welcomed by Laurie Kincer, the librarian for the writer’s center, and then by Deanna R. Adams, the conference coordinator. They detailed how the Western Reserve Writers Conference would proceed. The keynote speaker, Brian A. Klems, was introduced. He is a senior online editor for WritersDigest.com. Brian wrote the parenting guide for fathers called Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl. He had ten suggestions for all aspiring writers from the experience of an editor.

  1. Write a great typo-free story with a protagonist with well-defined goals, a believable setting, and use the active voice.
  2. Get to know the editors and agents before you pitch them.
  3. Follow specific submission guidelines for each submission completed.
  4. Write a great query letter.
  5. Have a well-established author’s platform with a website, a twitter account, and a Facebook account.
  6. Network with others with the primary objective to be useful and helpful.
  7. Embrace any feedback that you receive and don’t let criticism get to you.
  8. Strive to be the easiest person to work with.
  9. Have more than one idea going into a pitch. You never know which idea will be the one that is successful
  10. Stay positive and be excited about your story.

He was humorous and engaging. He stalked the stage and had to hurry to finish his ten points because he was running out of time since there was too much to cover in the time allotted.

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This is the Goodreads link to Oh Boy, You’re Having a Girl by Brian Klems.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16219954-oh-boy-you-re-having-a-girl

Summary – Public Speaking for Writers

The first session that I attended was given by Ray McNiece called Public Speaking for Writers. The presentation seeks to teach the attendees about simple techniques to improve reading your work to a live audience. He is a poet, performer, educator, speaker, actor, musician, singer, and writer. He first asked everyone in the audience why they choose to come to this talk and what they wanted to get out of the talk.

The first thing to do as a performer is to find a sweet spot for speaking where the audience is accessible and your voice can project throughout the area. Confidence is important because if you believe in yourself then the audience will believe you. Projecting your voice is important because you want the audience to hear and understand you. Take a full deep breath from your belly button to help in projecting your voice. Gestures are important because it helps the audience to understand what you are saying and what is important. This was an interactive presentation.

My contribution was to demonstrate gestures by repeating “howdy folks” and using gestures. Memorization of the material helps in engaging the audience. The whole group participated in memorizing and reciting a poem. We incorporated all the techniques described. The Poem was by Langston Hughes.

I loved my friend.

He went away from me.

There is nothing more to say.

The poem ends,

Soft as it began—

I loved my friend.

Ray McNiece is an engaging teacher and performer. I enjoyed his presentation and was glad that I was a participant.

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This is the Goodreads link to Our Way of Life by Ray McNiece.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3205163-our-way-of-life

Summary – Agents

The second presentation I attended was Agents: When you need one When you don’t by Deanna R. Adams. To answer the question of do you need an agent, you should first ask what do you want to do with your book. Self-publishing authors do not need agents. Many publishers do not accept unsolicited submissions so if your goal is to be traditionally published then you need an agent to present your work to the publishers.

Agents bring credibility and are able to negotiate a better contract for rights and for more money. Agents must be pitched your work by using a great query letter. She gave examples from the Writer’s Market from 2013. The query letter has four parts. Start with stating your book title, your genre, and your word count. Next, give examples of similar books and why yours is different than any other book. Repeat your title. End with a simple closing.

She gave the audience ten minutes to write an example query letter and a few audience members read their efforts out loud.

It is important to define the genre of the book. It must be a specific story to be sold accordingly. The voice and tone of the query letter should match the novel pitched. The query letter sells the novel so only put in your biographical material if it is relevant. The main thing in writing a query letter is that the agents want to know what the book is about.

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This is the Goodreads link to The Writer’s GPS by Deanna Adams.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27810622-the-writer-s-gps

Summary – First Page Critique

Next was a First Page Critique by panelists Brian A. Klems, Denna R. Adams, and Claire McMillan. At check-in, the conference attendees could submit the first page of their work in progress. The paper had a title and genre but no name attached. Pages were randomly chosen, read aloud, and the panelists raised their hand to stop the reading. They gave their reasons at that time. Twelve pages were read but only four of the pages were completely read. The comments were interesting for all the writes in the audience. The panelists ended with their dos and don’ts.

Do bring a strong hook, have the main character named, use the five senses, know the era of the story or setting, begin the story problem or conflict, and end the page with a moment of intrigue.

Don’t start with dialogue, don’t start with the setting before the character, don’t open without action, Don’t start with a prologue, and don’t use flashbacks.

Summary – Writing and the law

The third session that I attended was Don’t get fooled again with Steve Grant. Steve Grant is an intellectual property attorney. This talk was about how to deal with the traditional publishing world and how to safeguard yourself from unscrupulous companies in the self-publishing world. The copyright act of 1976 establishes that as soon as a work is fixed in a tangible medium then the work is copyrighted. Everything is owned by somebody. Your writing is owned by you unless it is a work for hire. A work for hire is when an employee writes something in the course of their work or when someone freelances a work. Remember that a contract is made to be broken so put language into the contract detailing consequences if the contract is broken.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I enjoyed all the presentations at the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2017. I thought that the first-page critique was a good concept and hope that it is used again at next year’s conference. I will be sure to attend next year.

Links

I attended the Indie Author Day on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Day 2017

Confluence Conference 2017

Confluence SF Conference Pittsburgh 2017

The Confluence Conference 2017 was held from August 4 to August 6, 2017, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Introduction

I attended the Confluence Conference on August 5, 2017. I drove from Cleveland, Ohio to the conference that was located at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. The conference is run by the Parsec organization of Pittsburgh. It is a literary science fiction, fantasy, and horror conference. The events included panels, readings, interviews, writing workshops, and filk concerts. I was focused on attending as many panels as I possibly could on Saturday. I attended seven panels, one writing workshop, one author reading, and the guests of honor presentation.

http://parsec-sff.org/confluence/

Summary

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 9:00 AM

At 9:00 AM Bud Sparhawk gave a presentation about Everything You Wanted to Know about SFWA. SFWA is the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America pronounced Sifwa. Bud Sparhawk is the CFO of the non-profit organization. It was formed in 1965 to protect the writer’s rights from the publishers. The organization funds three benevolent funds, a health fund, a legal fund, and a givers fund. They also give out grants for worthy causes. There are 2000 members, with 1600 members active, and about 600 active voters. They sponsor the Nebula Awards and the yearly banquet associated with them. An associate member has had one paid sale to an SFWA qualified market. An active member has had at least three such sales.

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 10:00 AM

At 10:00 AM Timons Esaias gave a lecture titled On Killing: Our Misperceptions of Battle. I had enjoyed his lecture on The Basics of Ancient Warfare at Confluence in 2016, so I was looking forward to attending this lecture at the Confluence Conference 2017. He went over six instances in history where the number of casualties inflicted did not match the amount of ammunition expended. The weight of metal that it took to kill a Union soldier, Lexington and Concord, the Prussian musket fire study, the overcharged guns at Gettysburg, the battle of Zama, and historical hit rates. There were two books sited in this lecture. On Killing by Dave Grossman details the increase over time that soldiers have become more likely to fire to kill and how that increases post-traumatic stress disorder. It starts with the Marshall study about fire rates in WWII and also includes data on the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

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The other book was Numbers, Predictions, and War by Colonel Dupey. I was most interested in this book because I bought a copy of it thirty years ago and recognized it from the cover. It detailed a way to numerically depict results of war based on a series of calculations. It was interesting for me because I could use the numbers in war gaming scenarios.

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This was an informative lecture on the nature of killing in war.

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 11:00 AM

At 11:00 AM Frederic S. Durbin presented a workshop on Doorways into Writing. His thesis is that all writing starts with character, setting, plot, or concept. The development of a character can be one way to drive a story. A setting can be the place to build a story around. Setting can be fluid to the demands of the plot. An idea can also drive a story. The workshop leader finds that setting is the thing that speaks to him. He then gave us thirty minutes to write a short story or scene of a larger piece using one of the four methods.

I had an idea about the career of a hybrid Dogman that I called Dogman. I wanted to write a narrative summary of his career. The narrative summary of an event of his career that I wrote totaled about 250 words. After I finished and edited the story, I called it Hybrid-Dog Confession. It was about 750 words and I intend to sell it as flash fiction.  Two people read their work in the time remaining in the workshop.

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Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 12:00 PM

At 12:00 PM Steve Miller presented his recollections of Clarion West, which he attended in 1973 and answers the question of Should You Heed the Call of Clarion? Clarion is a six-week-long science fiction writing workshop that was created in 1968 at Clarion State College in Pennsylvania. The workshop moved to Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan from 1972 to 2006. It is currently held at the University of California at San Diego. An offshoot workshop called Clarion West was established in 1971 in Seattle, Washington, and continues to this day.

Each week a different teacher representing a different background will teach the students. The students take classes in the morning and write at night while living on campus. The goal of the workshop is to prepare writers to become professional writers. Steve Miller says that the experience changes the students. Some become professional writers or editors, while others never write again. It was transformative for him, but he warns that the pressure can crack a new writer’s confidence.

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 1:00 PM

At 1:00 PM there was a panel on forgotten fantasy classics called Help! What Should I Read Next? There were five panelists who listed their favorite novels that are not generally read anymore. Some of the highlights were Lud-In-The-Mist by Hope Mirrlees, The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison, The Silver Stallion, and Jurgen by James Branch Cabell, The King in Yellow by Robert W. Chambers, and The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany.

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Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 2:00 PM

At 2:00 PM there was a panel on Marketing Your Work. The five panelists talked about their experiences with marketing their books. Some of their advice follows. Marketing is the author’s job because you are a business. You are the brand, not the book. Be involved in social media but stay away from politics because it limits your audience. Spend money on an editor and a great book cover. Know your audience so that you can market to them specifically. J. D. Barker was one of the panelists.

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 3:00 PM

At 3:00 PM was the Guests of Honor Presentation. It was a talk and a Q and A with Steve Miller and Sharon Lee. They had met at the University of Maryland and began a friendship. Many years later they were married in 1980 and began a writing collaboration. They sold three novels in the late 80s of the Liaden Universe but did not sell enough to continue the series. In 1999, by the urging of fans, they wrote a fourth book called Plan B which was successful. The series is up to 20 novels and 21 shorter works currently.

I left the conference from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM to eat dinner.

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 6:00 PM

At 6:00 PM was a panel on Avoiding Self-Pub Pitfalls. The five panelists told their tales about their experiences in self-publication. You must have a good cover, editing, and interior formatting of the book. Self-publishing gets the book to the readers who want to read it. Kristine Kathryn Rusch has a good website on the business side of publishing at http://kriswrites.com/ Writing is a business. Never use a running head; it is the sign of an amateur. Use thebookdesigner.com for interior book design. Use bowker.com to get your book’s ISBN. Send a copy of your book to the Library of Congress to get that extra layer of professionalism for your book. Find an editor. A developmental edit is the most expensive, and then comes copy edit, and the least expensive is the proofreading.

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 7:00 PM

At 7:00 PM was a reading by the Guest of Honor, Steve Miller. Steve Miller read from the story called Intelligent Design by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller to a packed room. It is a story from their Liaden Universe series. It is one of the shorter works from their series. He read about half of the story in the time allotted and it was well received. The complete story can be found at this web address. It is a free story from the Baen website. Baen is the publisher of their series.

http://www.baen.com/intelligentdesign

Saturday: August 5, 2017 at 9:00 PM

At 9:00 PM there was a presentation by horror novelist J. D. Barker on Making the Leap from Indie to Traditional Publishing. J. D. Barker told his story about how he became a successful writer. He stated that the presentation given was similar to what he does at book signings. J. D. Barker had been a magazine writer, a beta reader, and editor, a professional book doctor, and a ghostwriter but wanted to write something using his own name.

He wrote a book called Forsaken. It is a ghost story involving a writer researching his next book. He spent about 12 thousand dollars in editing and formatting the novel. The problems were that he had a bad query letter and no sales to traditional publishers. He sent Arc copies after he self-published it, so there were no reviews at the beginning to drive sales. What he did do was to write a list of what authors were doing to promote their books and he did promotional ideas that no one was doing.

Social media turned his book into a success. It has sold over 200 thousand copies. On the strength of his first novel’s sales, he was able to sell his second novel, The Four Monkeys, for a million-dollar advance. His advice for writers is as follows. Social media presence is important. He puts 10% of his profits back into marketing. Novels are a product; you can’t see it as art. He writes 2000 to 3000 words every day. Use Goodreads advertising. Spend the money for good cover design and editing. Bloggers, Goodreads, and Facebook groups lead to sales. This talk was an interesting behind the scenes presentation of the writer’s life.

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Wrap-up

I had a great time at the Confluence Conference 2017. I learned many things and was glad that I made the time to take the trip. Steve Miller and Sharon Lee were great as the Guests of Honor. For me, the star of the Confluence Conference 2017 was J. D. Barker. I thought the information that he presented in the two panels that I attended with him as a panelist was excellent. As a result, I have checked out his new novel The Fourth Monkey from the library and intend to read it. I plan to go to the next Confluence Conference. It is scheduled for July 17 to July 29, 2018.

Links

Recap for the Confluence SF Conference on July 30 and July 31, 2016, at the Sheraton Pittsburgh Airport Hotel. I attended 15 panels and the U.S.S. Improvise improv sketch comedy routine.

Confluence 2016 Conference

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference

The Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2017

Introduction

The Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2017 was held on July 29, 2017, at the Louis Stokes Wing of the Cleveland Public Library in Cleveland, Ohio.

The event was sponsored by Literary Cleveland. Literary Cleveland’s mission is to create and nurture a vibrant literary arts community in North East Ohio. The group sponsors writing workshops, author interviews, and a monthly group meeting mixer.

http://www.litcleveland.org/

Registration was on the second floor of the Louis Stokes Wing. Events were held on the second floor in five rooms and at one podium surrounded by chairs on the second floor.

Summary – Dan Chaon Interview

The events started with an interview in the downstairs auditorium. D. M. Pulley interviewed the author, Dan Chaon. Dan Chaon first read from his novel Ill Will. It was an engaging section describing when a drug-addled junkie goes into an ex-funeral parlor crack house looking for his lost friend. After the reading, D. M. Pulley asked Dan Choan about growing up in Nebraska, mixing literary and genre fiction, and his childhood correspondence with Ray Bradbury.

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There were three sessions scheduled for the day. Conference participants could attend a workshop, a craft talk, or a reading in each session. None of the activities were repeated. There were a total of ten workshops, six craft talks, and five readings. I chose a workshop for each of the sessions that I attended because I was most interested in working on my writing skills.

Summary – D. M. Pulley

In session one I attended D. M. Pulley’s workshop on Facing the Blank Page. She presented this workshop using a PowerPoint presentation. It was effective. She had been a freelance forensic engineer but found herself in a case where she felt compelled to write a novel about her imaginings. There was an abandoned safety deposit room with many locked boxes that had been locked for thirty years. She came up with a story and wrote her first novel called The Dead Key. She won the 2014 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award for the novel.

In this workshop, she ran the participants through a series of exercises designed to help the writer to discover the background of their novel. First, answer ten questions about your protagonist. Second, take seven minutes to write a scene using that information. Third, determine what the protagonist wants to know the most. Fourth, take seven minutes to write a scene where the protagonist overhears a conversation. Fifth, determine what is standing in the way from the protagonist in getting what they want. Sixth, write a scene where the protagonist has an argument with a family member.

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Summary – Lance Parkin

In session two I attended Lance Parkin’s Workshop on The First Page of Your Novel. Lance gave the workshop attendees a handout with three sections. The first section is a page with his advice about the importance of creating a superior first page to your novel. He thinks that the first page must have a hook to get the reader to turn the page, must be bold, and must show the protagonist’s goal. He says do not waste a word on that first page. The second section is an article from the penguin random house website on what our editors look for on an opening page. They want a powerful opener, a unique perspective, a well-realized world, an authentic voice, and attention-grabbing characters.

The third section was copies of the first page of six different novels. The book titles were not noted and I recognized the four that I had read previously. In the workshop, Lance talked about the first two sections and then had two different workshop attendees read one of the first pages. The workshop discussed why those first pages worked. Lance then gave the workshop attendees thirty minutes to write the first page. At the end of that time, three workshop attendees read their work and fielded comments from the workshop.

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Summary – Hillary Rettig

In session three I attended Hillary Rettig’s workshop on Values-Based Time Management for Writers. The first thing that she asked us to do was to think about what your dream schedule would look like. She said that most people would need 150 to 200 hours a week to accomplish everything that they would like to do. The problem is that with sleeping 8 hours a night, then you only have about 112 waking hours per week to accomplish the tasks that you want to do. There is a gap, so you must decide which tasks you most want to accomplish.

She had a handout called time reclamation exercise. It was used to brainstorm how the desired change could be implemented. Another handout described the five principles of good time management. They are; time is valuable, invest time and do not spend it, invest time in the things for which you most want to make progress, the purpose of time management is to eliminate the unimportant stuff, and all time is managed so choose what you want to do.

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Conclusion

I enjoyed the programs that I attended at the Cleveland Inkubator and plan to attend next year. My highlights were Dan Choan’s compelling reading, the insightful brainstorming techniques from D. M. Pulley, realizing the importance of the first page in a novel from Lance Parkin, and the benefit of choosing to spend my time on the things that I want to accomplish from Hillary Rettig. See you next year.

Links

Cleveland Inkubator Writer’s Conference 2017 is held at the Cleveland Public Library while the Cuyahoga County Public Library sponsors a similar event called the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016.

Recap for the Western Reserve Writers Conference 2016 on September 24, 2016. It was located at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library at the new William N. Skirball writer’s center which is located at the branch. It was a one-day event with an introduction, a keynote speaker, three breakout sessions, and one Q & A panel.

Western Reserve Writers Conference