Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Conference 2010

When: September 10 - September 12, 2010 Where: Renaissance Hotel. Denver Colorado, 3801 Quebec Street

My second time at the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers' Conference, and my Fourth conference.

For those of you who've never been to a conference, there are four basic parts of the conference experience:

1. The Classes
With a range of topics, from how to keep your creative juices flowing, to how to pitch to an agent, to marketing, wherever you are in your writing there's a class to suit your needs.
2. The Speakers
I've only been to two conferences, but the format in both was the same, after the lunch and dinner meals a speaker, usually a successful writer, will take the stage and give a speech. Often the speech is just the story of that author's success, meant to encourage writers to stay the path, sometimes it's advice. It isn't my favorite part of a conference, but it has its place.
3. The pitch
A number of editors and agents attend these conferences. Part of their reason for attending is to seek out new talent. Part of the package for attendees is the opportunity to sit down for five to ten minutes with an editor or agent and pitch whatever story that writer has just finished. It's a bit disconcerting the first few times. I'll admit, my first two pitches were terrible, but nothing teaches like time (and embarrassment), andd now I have at least a rudimentery understanding of pitching.
4. Networking
This IS my favorite part of the conference. Between classes, at the meals, at the end of the day in the hotel's bar, you find yourself with extra time, and surrounded by writers. Talking with writers isn't lilke talking with other people, not for a writer, anyway. When you talk to someone who isn't part of that world, they have no point of reference. They don't know what it's like to finish a story, to get a rejection, to get published, to come up with a new idea. Writers do, and at a conference, you have the opportunity to connect. Sure, not everyone you meet is awesome, but a lot of them are.

While I did take my camera with me to the conference, I have to say, there just wasn't much to take pictures of. If you've seen pictures of my previous conferences, you probably already know that and were wondering how long it would take me to figure it out.

While the conference was not what I would call a feast for the eyes, it was an excellent experience. All told, I would say that this was my most successful conference, despite the fact that I did not place in the writing competition this year.

The classes seemed to be a lot better this year. I'm not sure if the classes themselves were that much better, or if it just seemed that way because I went to ones that focused on marketing. The problem that I usually have is that the classes tend to be oriented mostly towards beginners, so you see a lot of the same things over and over again, and while those things are good and important, usually they're things I already know. That isn't to say that I always do them, but I certainly know them. This year I really felt like there was a lot of new material coming at me, which I appreciated.

My pitches also went pretty well. My official pitch was with Eddie Schneider, an agent with JABberwocky (yes, the first three letters are capitalized on purpose). He was pretty young, made me feel a bit old, pitching to him, but he was polite, and professional, and he asked for my 1st fifty pages and a synopsis, so I was pretty pleased about that. I also managed to score a seat next to Peter Senftleben (the 't' is silent) during the dinner on Friday, and he asked me to send him a query letter. I sent in both requests on the Monday after I got back, and Peter replied almost immediately asking for the entire document and a synopsis, which I sent to him within an hour. Now we've reached the 'hurry up and wait' part of the submission process, wherein I attempt to be ready for whatever they might want, or want to know, without rushing them, and realizing that in all likelihood it will be the better part of a year before I hear anything from them. Not my favorite thing to do, but it's part of the process.

I didn't meet as many people this time around as I have in the past, but I did meet a few, and I got the opportunity to chat with some friends I made at previous conferences. I had a particularly enjoyable chat with Julie, and we even got to watch a bunch of writers fight with wooden swords.

All things considered, good times!