Monday, July 07, 2008

Catching up

Now I'm feeling a bit more coherent I'll attempt to talk about the conference. First though, I'm guest blogging at another of my writing heroine's blogs this week. So as well as the lovely Liz Fielding allowing me to visit you can also catch me HERE This is where I go all fan girl because you know I adore Jessica Hart's books.
Anyhoo, The Conference!
We kicked off with questions to a panel of writers all working in different subsections of the romance genre. Kate Johnson, who writes paranormal, Kate Harrison, who writes chick lit, Kate Hardy, medicals and modern heat, Anna Jacobs, Saga and contemporary and Nicola Cornick, historical. That was very interesting to hear the news from all the different aspects.
I met up with Imogen Howson, who writes for Drollerie press, Immi, who is a lovely person, disgustingly slim and pretty and a fab writer to boot, was also my editor at samhain so we had lots to talk about.
Anyway, workshops.
I went to one by Mark Thornton, from Mostly Books, based in Abingdon who talked about what to do and what not to do if you want a bookseller to stock your book.
Then I went to hear Anna Jacobs talk on polishing a manuscript, this was interesting to me because although there were similarities in how she polishes and how I polish, she is an over writer who pares down and as you all know I'm an underwriter who adds in.
Then came a session for the New Writers scheme readers.
After lunch came Midas - the PR company talking about the secrets of a successful publicity campaign. This fascinated me as I only ever see the American model on the net so to hear a UK agency talk about how they work was quite eyeopening.
A brilliant talk followed by Sue Moorcroft on writing short stories for womens magazines. I used to write a lot of short stories many years ago and I'm just starting to think about getting back into it again so it was nice to get some tips from such a successful writer in that field.
We then had a wonderful talk from Jill Mansell on how she writes. She also very bravely fielded questions.
The evening bought the gala dinner and the Elizabeth Goudge contest but I'll blog about that tomorrow.

1 comment:

Julie Day said...

I think we all had a fab time in Chichester, I know that I did despite being so tired all the time. Thank you for asking after me on Sunday about Saturday. It was good to see you again albeit briefly. As you know I bought your book at the conference, and it was one of many that made my case heavy to trawl going back. It all ended on a high note for me, and to read about it more you can see my blog. I still can't believe I did what I did, little old me.