James, Sarah, and a Pitch

I had a crazy long and busy day today! Mom dropped me off at Sam's house this morning, and Sam and I drove an hour to reach the writers' conference. First, there was the opening ceremony to attend. As I was looking to find a seat around one of the tables near the stage, someone called my name. It was Erin Hall (Rowan Hall to use her pen name), who I'd sat beside in my magic systems workshop with Charlie yesterday. She invited me to sit at the table with all her adult friends, which I thought was pretty nice.

The MCs at the conference this year were James Dashner and Sarah Eden. They playfully roasted each other all through the conference, and handed out Team James and Team Sarah ribbons that attached to the name tags on our lanyards. James would bribe someone in the crowd with money to pass out his ribbons, then say, "I want to be fair" and ask someone to come up and pass out Team Sarah ribbons. But as that person took the ribbons, he said, "You can have that money if you'll throw those in the trash" and such.

I attended a class called "The Difference Between Selling and Slushing" first. It was taught by an editor, so it was nice to get that sort of view. Then I went to the language workshop. It wasn't nearly as helpful as I'd hoped, even though the lady who taught it was very nice and knowledgeable. She ended up spending too long discussing real-world languages, though, and didn't get to the second half of her presentation on constructing fantasy languages. Although I'd learned some cool things, it was a bit disappointing not to hear the things I'd come to the class for. One of the people who had sat with Erin and I at the opening ceremony said to someone as we were leaving that room, "I feel bad for everyone who wanted to learn about conlangs" (constructed languages), "but what she talked about was exactly what I needed." Well, at least someone got what they were looking for! That's good.

I joined my new friends for lunch. James and Sarah reenacted a script that some children had written in response to being given a book title. They did this a few times during the conference, with titles of their own books and books of keynote speakers, but the first one they did was my favorite. The title they'd given the kids was "Drops of Gold", which is one of Sarah's books. The resulting script went roughly along the lines of:

Boy: It's raining drops of gold.

Girl: Oh, they are so pretty. I very like it.

Boy: I'm glad you like it, because it is a metaphor for how much I like you. Flirty flirt, flirt flirt ... I am not just a miner, but I am also a robber. And I took the drops of gold and made them into one million dollars.

Girl: I very love you.

Boy: Because of the drops of gold?

Girl: Because of the one million dollars.

Boy: That doesn't sound like real love, but that's okay, because that's robber love.

It was funny to see James and Sarah read and act out the scene in costume.

After lunch, I went to a class on "revising your novel with your agent". There, I met an author and her agent, who was pretty nice, and it was good to learn more about what agents actually do, since I haven't done much research in that area yet. Then I went to a class on Worldbuilding Government & Politics, and Luke Peterson made a joke about how it's a boring subject, and yet his room was full. Well, yep! Welcome to the life of a fantasy writer.

I attended a workshop called "How to Compile a Story Bible and Why You Need One", and then a workshop by Jennifer Nielson (who wrote The False Prince series, and some others) called "The Series Writer". She told us that the magical phrase we were looking for when talking to editors about maybe writing a series is, "I've written a standalone with series potential". That's kind of what "Stars and Finches" is right now, so it was good to learn that kind of phrase.

We had dinner, and Ally Condie was the keynote speaker. I'd read her Matched series, and it was okay, but I didn't really like it. I thought she was a bit strange for a keynote- she rambled on about her childhood a lot. She didn't really say anything relevant to us, it seemed. I don't know. She told a cool story about how her grandma gave her a drawer in her desk as a child and how she'd always felt safe going to her grandma's house, but I didn't really get why she was telling the story. Maybe this was a normal way to speak to us during dinner and my definition of "keynote speaker" wasn't quite right.

There was supposed to be a mix and mingle event with publishers upstairs after the workshops. I went up there, but was surprised not to see a lot of people. Especially not publishers. However, I did sign up to put my name in a drawing bowl, and had someone tape a paper with my name and the genres I write on my back. We were supposed to talk with ten people, learn something new about them, and write it on their back. When we got ten, we received some candy. I also saw Erica, so that was fun. Shame I didn't get a picture.

I was up there for quite awhile, but it became obvious that no editors or publishers were going to show up. People continued coming up the escalators as the night drew on, so I suspected the publisher's mix and mingle was downstairs; I think Sam had said something like that. I wanted to leave and check it out, but I'd been eyeing a giant milk chocolate Hershey's bar on the prize table all night. I didn't understand why, but people who had gotten their names called were only taking things like small pink notebooks and chattering teeth. The huge chocolate bar hadn't been touched. I thought, "Please just call my name, and then I can feel okay to leave and look for the editors". Shortly after that, they actually did, and I got my giant chocolate! 

I quickly left and went all the way to the bottom floor. That's where the exhibit halls were. Sure enough, the publishers were there. I paused in the doorway to the exhibit hall in question, because it was very empty. Everyone was sitting; it didn't look like much of a mix and mingle. The sign by the door said, "Publishers". Were authors supposed to be here? Or was this just a place for publishers to talk to each other? What would be the point of that?

The room looked like a cultural hall at the church, but without basketball hoops and with some sort of concrete-like material rather than carpet. Kind of cold and intimidating. I went in. Covenant Communications had their set-up at a table in the back, so I snuck over and asked Sam if I could leave my backpack with her, and checked to be sure authors were supposed to be here. She said yes to both questions. Now I just needed to figure out who to talk to. Covenant doesn't really publish fantasy. I wanted to know if Shadow Mountain was here, or if there were any other names I recognized. 

Figuring that I'd start with the table nearest the door, I headed back over there. I'd just wanted to look at the yellow name card on the table, but when I strayed close, two women jumped from their seats. One asked me, "Are you looking for an interview, sweetie?" I found her tone slightly demeaning, but I let it go. I tried to explain that I was just trying to look, but I didn't want to hurt her feelings, so I said something like, "What do they publish?" that fumbled into, "Who is this?" I saw the label "Jolly Fish" then. The woman grabbed my shoulders and whispered in my ear, "They're probably the most prestigious ones here."

That surprised me a little, because I'd never heard of them before. I asked, "And do they publish fantasy?" She said yes, that they were great about it, and then stood up, stared towards the back of the room, and murmured something like, "Or maybe Shadow Mountain would be better..."

Now, Shadow Mountain I know. And I'm pretty sure they're more prestigious than these Jolly Fish people. I guess it makes sense that the more prestigious names that everyone wants to talk to would be in the back, and the ones that draw a smaller crowd near the door. But, I didn't have a chance to go anywhere. The lady literally took my shoulders and pushed me into a seat beside the woman. She was still talking with the man in front of her, but the lady who had pushed me tapped his shoulder and said, "Once you're finished, this girl is waiting for an interview", or something along those lines. So when he left, I awkwardly got up and moved over to sit across from the woman, and began.

Even though I'd had a synopsis in my mind, I got a little paralyzed sitting in front of her. I stuttered some, and asked her what exactly she was looking for right now (I wasn't clear on if I was supposed to dive straight into my pitch, or do any sort of small talk first to give her a chance to breathe after this guy, and wait for her to ask me what I was writing). She was nice to me, and urged me to introduce myself. Oh, yeah. I guess that's important. Anyway, I gave a somewhat clumsy pitch and talked to her about some things, like what she as an editor likes to see, and what turns her away from a manuscript. 

I tried to stall a bit so I could gather my thoughts, and I was panicking because I didn't know what to expect- Was I taking too much time? No one was waiting for me, but I would assume it would be selfish to hog someone like this, especially when I was using her to ask questions, and wasn't pitching anymore. Anyway, we ended when I said, "I had another question on the tip of my tongue, but I can't remember it", or something. She gave me her card with her email and number. I guess in the future, the graceful way to bow out of this conversation would be, "May I have your card so I can contact you if I have any more questions?" Maybe next year. I'd like to talk to Lisa Mangum at Shadow Mountain.

I didn't tonight, though, because I'd come in so late, and she was very busy. Unlike the Jolly Fish lady, who met with people one at a time at the table, Lisa sat in a circle of chairs with about six other people. I suppose I should have joined in, but I felt like I'd be intruding, and a guy had announced that we were supposed to be wrapping up so he and the editors could leave. Anyway, I wanted to grab my laptop and write down the advice the editor had given me before I forgot it. And, I wanted to look up Jolly Fish and see if they actually were prestigious.

As I was doing so, Sam began gathering her things to go, so I packed up my stuff too. Another woman came to talk to her straight after though, followed by Traci Abramsom (one of her authors), so she had to sit down again.

While Sam talked, I saw a woman finish talking to the Jolly Fish lady, so I went back and talked to her. I said, "Actually, I do have a question." I questioned her a bit about the plot for my story, and asked her for advice from an editor's perspective in certain areas. It was nice of her to talk to me, and honestly she may have been more help than Traci's workshop yesterday, if for no other reason than because I felt comfortable taking some time to talk one-on-one. Either way, it was good. I spoke more confidently (probably because I had my backpack on and was standing for most of the conversation, rather than being pushed down into a seat), and even if she never remembers me, I felt redeemed having talked to her again without stumbling all over my words.

Sam and I eventually were able to get out of there- we and Traci were the very last people to leave. We had a ways to walk to the parking lot, and at a stoplight, Traci asked what the policy was for jaywalking in Utah. Sam advised her not to do it if there was a cop. Sam and I crossed the other way from her because we had a walk signal. Then we waited to cross the street again, so I joked to Sam that we had told Traci she could cross if there were no cars and the signal was red, but we were waiting.

We drove home again. Sam dropped me off, and I told Mom briefly about my day before I headed to bed. It was a late, long day, and my forehead felt warm as though my brain was overheating. Hopefully tomorrow is a great day too.