. . .on the American Christian Fiction Writer’s conference. As promised, I posted a picture from my recent camping trip on the Oregon Coast. The above is a photo of starfish we found while exploring the beach during a low tide.
Now onto the conference discussion. Would you believe I took NO pictures at the conference. However, I know many friends who did, and I should be receiving images from them within the next few days and will post those to the blog.
First an important announcement. The three winners of the Genesis contest in the SFF category are:
2nd Rebecca Grabill
3rd Sherry Thompson
Conferences are a great opportunity to meet up with your writing buddies–in fact, this is probably the best thing I can say about any conference. Of course, they’re for pitching your story and networking, too. My experience this year was mostly positive. Both my editor and agent appointments went well–all things considered.
This year there were over four hundred participants–a large number of people to compete with for attention, to be sure. I meandered around feeling somewhat lost in the crowd and forgotten, even though I’ve attended this conference for the last five years. As I wondered what on earth I could do to stand out, I strolled into John Olson’s class, Science Fiction and Fantasy: Writing for Elves, Vulcans and Pointy-Eared Humans where he told us what we can do to stand out in the crowd. God’s timing is always good–John’s message just what I needed to hear.
I came away from the conference with two great ideas on how to make editors notice:
1) Change my last name from Goddard to Goddess (per Randy Ingermanson)
2) Write a scary vampire story (John Olson) Bad press is better than no press.
Seriously, I’m working on my plan for this year and giving myself a deadline for each project. Time flies and before you know it, the ACFW 2007 conference will be at our door.
Don’t forget to join me at Favorite Pastimes this week for my interview with Stephen Lawhead.
Blessings!
Beth.
