Our WWW Conference is coming up soon. I’m going to enjoy the (virtual) conference and am looking forward to chatting with my fellow Women Writing the West!
This year I’m contributing to the charity auction with a Lowcountry Basket containing such items as a pine needle basket, Spanish moss scented candle, sea salt from the Charleston sea islands, benne seed cookies, tea & coffee grown in the Lowcountry, Gullah Gullah Gumbo soup mix, and some hand gathered seashells. Hopefully it will be unique enough to attract some high bidders!
Our keynote speaker will be Molly Glass. Molly Gloss is the author of several novels including The Jump-Off Creek, The Dazzle of Day, Wild Life, The Hearts of Horses andFalling From Horses, as well as the story collection Unforeseen. She writes both realistic fiction and science fiction, and her work has received, among other honors, a PEN West Fiction Prize, an Oregon Book Award, two Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards, the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and a Whiting Writers Award. A fourth-generation Oregonian, she lives in Portland.
If you’re interested, head over to the website and register before it’s too late!
Yesterday was the last day of the Women Writing the West Conference.
This was a great little conference — lots to do and plenty of classes for every type of writer. Thursday’s “extra” day offered Self Publishing, a Query Letter Boot Camp, and a critique you had to sign up for in advance (I went to the boot camp). Then we had “social hour” and a welcome from the current president along with readings from the finalists for the WILLA awards.
On Friday, we started out with social hour for breakfast, then dug into the curriculum with Visual Plotting, Soft Marketing Tips, Pitch Perfect, and Realistic Wilderness Characters & Settings. The next course included a Virtual Tour of Colorado Springs, Social Media, Submission Netiquette, and Advanced Writing Tips. After that, Publishing Trends in a Post-COVID World, Contracts Demystified, Historical Research & Craft, and Writing Emotion.
After lunch, we had a lovely talk by Bob Bose Bell, publisher of True West magazine, and Radio Interview Tips from Ryan Warner of Colorado Public Radio. Both of those were really fun and got us warmed up for the afternoon sessions.
These included Getting the Most from WWW, Author Marketing Collectives, a journal & magazine panel, and Mosaic. Then we had dinner hour and the awards ceremony for the Laura (short story) and Downing (journalism) Awards. Most inspiring, as was the short musical film afterwards: Here’s To The Women, by Linda Allen.
Saturday morning we settled in after breakfast hour to talk about Braiding the Essay, Peak Your Publicity, First Page Perfect, and Poetic Techniques for Your Fiction & Nonfiction. The next session included a talk on Helen Hunt Jackson, Goodreads for Authors, Set the Scene, and an Agent Acquisition Panel. Then it was time for Planning Your Book, Getting Book Reviews That Count, and Editors Acquisition Panel, and Secondary Characters.
After lunch, we had the WILLA finalists ceremony and a member’s meeting. Then it was time for Climbing Past the Fear, Homesteading the Wild Web, The Transcendent Memoir, and Turning Premise Into Plot. After that it was social hour with Open Mic and Guided Writings, then dinner.
After dinner, we had the WILLA Awards ceremony with keynote speaker Margaret Coel. Our after-awards entertainment was folk-music from Wes and Victoria Hamil from their CD White Man, Red Road. We really ended the conference with a bang!
They gave us the option to purchase recordings of the classes we had to skip, too, which is going to be occupying my days for the next little while. Thanks for a fantastic conference, guys!
Next week is another writing conference — Women Writing the West’s Climbing Higher: Endless Vistas, Unlimited Vision.
This looks like a very useful conference — not quite as much to do as Jericho Writers’ Summer Festival of Writing or League of Utah Writers’ Quills Conference, but plenty to choose from. I’ll be hitting the “Query Letter Boot Camp,” “Pitch Perfect,” “Make Your Writing Soar (Advanced Craft Tips),” “Writing Emotion,” “Peak Your Publicity,” “How to Get Book Reviews That Count,” and “Turning Premise Into Plot.” They’ve also got a keynote speech by the editor of True West Magazine, a movie night, and musical entertainment from White Man, Red Road by Wes & Victoria Hamil.
This will be my fourth or fifth virtual conference this year — I confess I’m liking the virtual format greatly. Many of them are free or greatly reduced in price, and the ones that have been “full price” didn’t include meals or hotels or travel so they’re actually half off or more. I’ll just have to remember to put on my cowboy hat for this persona instead of the space helmet I’ve been wearing with the science fiction conferences!