Topics, trailers, contests and conferences…

Topics, topics, topics…

I’ve discovered coming up with a topic or topics to cover in a blog can be brain racking and time consuming. I start researching one topic and another pops up and I get sidetracked into reading about that topic and pretty soon, I have absolutely no direction and not enough information to write about anything.

So, I’ll put aside those thoughts until I can research them thoroughly and present them with some semblance of intelligence (don’t laugh).

Trailers, websites and contests…

It seems another writing friend, Summer Falls, has created an outstanding trailer for her book “Stellar Surprise”, which is a lovely erotic fairy tale and is available through breathlesspress.com. To see her trailer go to http://summerfalls09.blogspot.com/ —both the trailer and Summer’s story are beautifully crafted.

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A good friend of mine, Dawn Boeder Johnson, has recently launched a website called www.menopausepress.net. She describes the website this way - Menopause Press is for writers and readers interested in literature for women, by women, and about women.
Yes, men are welcome, too!

Dawn offers writing tips and tricks and maintains a blog. Each month she features new works of fiction, poetry and art that are usually, but not always, created by women. Currently, Menopause Press, is running a contest for both short works of fiction and poems. The deadline is July 31, 2010, so go to menopausepress.net and check it out. And if you’re feeling adventuresome and start digging around in archives or click on artist bios, you might find a little blurb about some crazy woman named Margaret Clark, who is in reality, me. There is a short poem of mine posted in the archives there called “No End”.

Not being one to sit around and what for the next great thing to come along, Dawn has a second website called www.word-edge.com. At word-edge she offers editing, critiquing and proofreading services, plus help with cover letters and resumes. Services a writer, or just about anyone, could use.

RWA’s Annual Conference…

I am getting a little jazzed about RWA’s conference coming up at the end of July. I managed to snag an editor’s appointment with Linda Fildew from Harlequin Mills & Boon Ltd. I did my research before hand and know that Linda is interested in author’s who write Regency Romances, my preferred genre.

So, not having had any experience with interviewing with an editor, I tapped my cousin, KC Carlson, on the shoulder to ask for advice. KC was an editor for DC Comics for 10 years. Currently he freelances and works with comic book authors and artists. He and his wife, Johanna, have a website called www.comicsworthreading.com where they both review comic books and recently released DVDs of television programs. Although it’s mostly Johanna’s reviews you’ll find there, with KC as a contributor. KC also writes a blog for www.westfieldcomics.com.

I know part of KC experience includes meeting authors and artists at conferences and trade shows where they would pitch their ideas to him in hopes that DC Comics would be interested. I asked him for any advice he would have liked to have given to the people sitting across the table from him. He told me, be confident. He said the one thing he found with so many artists and writers was their lack of confidence in their work. Too many times he spent most of the interview building up the artist or author’s confidence. You know your work, he said. Go forth and present it in a confident and intelligent manner and half the battle will be won. He also advised getting to know a little bit about the editor so you could have some common ground to stand on with them. So, I’m doing both of those things and have been working on a short presentation of my book (I only have 10 minutes with her, kind of like speed dating) and doing google searches on her name, which has produced several things, so wish me luck.

Well, for not having any thoughts really collected about what I was going to blog about, I managed to bang out over 675 words.

Any thoughts? I'd love to hear from you.

ttfn

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