And, back!

[annathepiper]

A longer post is to follow this one, but as it will take me a while to compose it, I'll just say here that this year's Writer's Weekend was absolutely fabulous! High points:

• Getting to meet seimasin face to face, do extensive Great Big Sea geeking and Carbon Leaf geeking, swap brainstorm ideas on both our projects, and last but not least, see her dive headlong into the same fabulous world of dealing with people in the industry that so bowled me over when I attended my first Writer's Weekend last year;
  
• Getting mizkit to sign my copy of her shiny new book and a copy for my boss, not to mention just getting to see Kit in general (and by the way, Kit? You look FABULOUS!);
  
• Meeting casirafics and learning that not only is she local, she's also a GBS and Carbon Leaf fan AND a flute player;
  
• Meeting alg and sitting in with her and all the other great ladies in the Fanfic/Slash reading Saturday night, and having the immense satisfaction of getting loud cheers when I started reading a scene from my Virtuosity fanfic sequel (and also, by the way, alg can write!);
  
• Seeing dr_pretentious again and swapping extensive storygeeking with her;
  
• Lots of wonderful conversation with many folks whose names I have not successfully retained, but who nevertheless greatly impressed me with their own story ideas and their various passions, including the woman I parrot-geeked with this morning before lunch;
  
• Getting a fabulous new messenger bag as a souvenir of the conference, a bag which I will in fact likely be using now on a daily basis because it's incredibly cool;
  
• Last, but not least, pitching Faerie Blood to two, count 'em, TWO agents and having both of them ask me to send them partials to see if they'd be interested enough in my work to represent me just in case Luna says yes!

Huge, huge thank-yous go out to writersweekend for organizing yet another fabulous conference, and I am thrilled that it turned out to be such a great experience for seimasin as well. mizkit pulled me in last year; I pulled seimasin in this year, and I feel like I've done my duty in passing the Good Karma.

Karen, you did very, very well. THANK YOU! (And can I say 'fabulous' enough?)

P.S. Big hellos go out to casirafics, now joining my Friends list, as well as fenton, who I see picked me up over the weekend! Also, anyone else who happens to come in courtesy of Writer's Weekend this year as well, pre-emptive hellos to you! :)

Comments

[irysangel.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you had a fun weekend! Good luck with the agents!!!

Did they post a list anywhere of the contest? ;) Inquiring minds want to know. (Did you enter the Scarlet?)

[annathepiper]

Thank you very kindly!

I did not enter the contest, and I am not aware yet of who the winners are; I actually skipped the contest since the awards were presented during the banquet, and I didn't attend that. But! I believe that dr_pretentious actually got a Judge's Choice.

Don't know yet when/if the winners will get posted on the Writer's Weekend site, or whether writersweekend herself will announce the winners over her journal, but those two places would be the best places to look!

[irysangel.livejournal.com]

So which agents were they? *g*

[annathepiper]

Evan Fogelman and Nadia Cornier. I'd actually only planned to pitch to Evan Fogelman, since he'd been at last year's Writer's Weekend and I had been impressed by the panel he gave to all us folks anxious for the Clues About How Agents Do Their Jobs, and also since I knew he includes SF and fantasy in the genres he represents. But I wound up pitching to Nadia Cornier as well, since she also takes on SF and fantasy and she had open spots in her schedule during the conference.

I found them both very personable, and very reassuring for the first two face-to-face agent pitches I've done EVER. :)

[irysangel.livejournal.com]

Very cool! They were both on my list of agents (and coincidentally, both have rejected me). *laugh*

Good luck -- either one would be faboo!

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

You look fabulous, too, dahlink. We break hearts, we do! *hugs*! It was wuuuunderful to see you!

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

Hooray for your progress with the agents! (You do have a fanbase, just so you know ;))

[annathepiper]

Yay, you're back! I have missed the Séan With Bodhran Icon on my Friends list. Great to see you online again. :)

*giggles* As for a fanbase, I think I'd better sell something first before I start using a word like that. ;)

[annathepiper]

Well, I think it helped that I was able to say to them, "I'd like to talk to you about the book I have sitting at Luna right now...!" That seemed to get their attention. :) They may certainly still give me a no, but that's okay!

[annathepiper]

Why thank you! And WHOO GOT THE DESK CLERK TO AGREE TO BUY YOUR BOOK! ^_^

[gerimaple.livejournal.com]

bah humbug on the modesty! 8) i nominate solarbird for fanclub President ;)

[otoselkie.livejournal.com]

People do, at least in the game world, releast little tidbits from their latest project and then claim that they have a 'fanbase' allready. Appearantly it increases their chances of sales or something along those lines.

(And I'm very glad to be back. I do hope I'll have more reason to use the Séan icon in the coming, um, time :D)

[annathepiper]

*giggle* I don't have fans yet--I have friends who have read and liked my work! ;) There IS a difference!

(Now, that said, both Elessir and Millicent have at least one self-proclaimed fan each, but I'm a lot better with my characters getting fans already!)

[annathepiper]

Yay, more otoselkie! Yay, more Séan! (One can never have too much Séan McCann.)

Me, now, I'm perfectly comfy with saying I have beta readers! Or friends who have read and liked my work! Not fans, yet. Though I am pleased and charmed that two of my characters do have a self-proclaimed fan each. :)

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

It was last year that my ms was on of the Judges' Choice recipients. Whoever did the programs for the banquet had a great sense of history and put the winning authors and titles from previous years on the back page.

[annathepiper]

Ah, I stand corrected! Thanks for pointing that out, hon. :) I think I must have caught the latter half of your bringing that up during the conversation we were in--words were flying so fast across those tables in the food nook that it was a challenge to keep up. :)