PSWA CONFERENCE 2021 – PART I

 We attended the PSWA Conference in Las Vegas last month. Last year’s was cancelled, so we especially looked forward to this one.

It was our longest trip in our Tesla, and she performed wonderfully. (See previous blog: TRAVELS WITH ELSA.)

We drove up on Wednesday, even though the conference itself didn’t officially start until Friday. We like having a day to relax before the hustle and bustle of the conference. It gave us a chance to catch up with a few people.

As we were checking in, we spotted Marilyn Meredith, one of those we most wanted to see.

We went to our room and settled in. Just as is often the case, our room was near the end of a long hallway. My response was, “Well at least we’ll get some exercise.” Unfortunately, not long before, Larry injured his leg standup paddle boarding, so he was walking with a cane. Everywhere in the hotel was at a distance, so I had to slow down to stay at his pace. (Not the usual circumstance!)

We had eaten in Primm in the late afternoon before we arrived in Las Vegas, so neither of us was very hungry. I always try to travel with some protein bars. This time, we also brought along a couple of protein drinks. Instead of dinner, we split a protein bar, and it was fine.

THURSDAY, July 22

Although Friday was the first official day of the conference, they offered a Writers’ Workshop on Thursday. Marilyn spoke, along with Kelli Peacock and Michael Black. The workshop included questions and discussion. Very worthwhile.

We went to Fuddruckers in the hotel and ate lunch. Larry ordered a mushroom burger, and I had a turkey one. They were very good and satisfying.

Although there was a reception scheduled for six, we were ready for dinner earlier. We knew the reception would probably have appetizers, but I suspected I would be unable to eat some of them. Besides, I had noted a salad on the menu at lunch, and it sounded really good. (It was.) Larry also ordered one and a vanilla shake.

Registration began at 3:00, so we picked up our materials and went back to our room and got our things sorted for the remainder of the conference until the reception began.

Of course, Larry grazed his way through the reception! We had a chance to meet some folks we didn’t already know, and it was a good way to start the weekend.

FRIDAY, July 23

We went to the conference area and dropped off our books for sale.

At 9:00, the conference proper began with introductions and a welcome message from President John Schembra. We observed a moment of silence in remembrance of the PSWA members who had passed away during the previous year. Member Joe Haggerty read his moving poem, “Why Wasn’t I There?”

A special presentation was made to Marilyn Meredith for her longtime support for the organization.

The first speaker of the day was Michael Brandt speaking on “The Art of the interview.” He made a distinction between interrogation and interviewing. He gave good advice for writers on how to describe the process.

After a break, we were treated to a panel discussion called “Keeping Things Real,” featuring Dave Freeland, John Schembra, Darlene Record, and Al van de Steege. They discussed how to avoid writing scenes that don’t ring true while maintaining excitement.

Following another break was a panel called “Research; The Art of Mining Yourself and Your Experience for Writing Fiction.” Jim Guiligi, Thonie Hevron, Frank Hickey, and Bill Rapp discussed bringing our own experience and doing research to make our writing authoritative.

Lunch was delicious—as it was every day of the conference.

The afternoon began with Featured Speaker Rannah Gray. She told us about her true crime book, Familiar Evil, and turning it into a documentary. It was a compelling story—so much so I downloaded the Kindle version and read it the next week. It is fascinating!

The book has been turned into a documentary called The Lies That Bind. It is on YouTube.

Following a break, we enjoyed another panel, “Steps in Conducting an Investigation,” with Mike Brandt, Dave Cropp, Scott, Decker, and Bob Doerr. They described how actual investigations differ from TV depictions.

After another break, we heard a panel discussion of “Fiction Typecasting—Writing Novels, Short Stories, Flash Fiction, and Poetry,” with Joe Haggerty, Dave Cropp, Barbara Lloyd, and Darlene Record.

Yet another break, and then anther panel on “Dealing with Censorship,” with Barbara Hodges, Thonie Hevron, John Schembra, and George Cramer. Their agreed they all self-censored their work.

At the end of that session, we did some book signing.

We were free for dinner, so we met Marilyn Meredith and her daughter, Lisa at the Café in the hotel. After our fabulous lunch, none of us was interested in anything much for dinner. We enjoyed our time together. Seeing Marilyn was one of the main reasons we attended the conference, so this was a precious chance to be with her. We had also gotten to know Lisa on previous occasions, so we consider her a friend as well.

We returned to our room, prepared for the next day, watched some TV, and got some sleep.

Next: The rest of the conference.

California Crime Writers Conference – Part 2

 Today, I am writing about the second day of the California Crime Writers Conference 2019.

Day two of the conference was jam packed with lots of learning opportunities. Larry and I chose different workshops for the first period.

I went to the presentation on Your Author Website. I was pleased to see that we were doing everything the presenter recommended, thanks to our fabulous webmaster, our son, Toshi. Several years ago, he offered to redesign it. Actually, he begged to do it. I must admit my former quick-and-dirty one was terribly old-fashioned looking. The new one is beautiful, and we love it. He promised he’d keep it updated, and he has. I can’t ever thank him enough!

Larry attended the presentation on Creating Audiobooks. Since we have most of ours on audio, he wanted to know what we should think about. He discovered ACX/Amazon dominate the field. It takes about six hours for each hour of completed narration. You can either pay up-front or share royalties. (We always do the latter.) However, if you are a major author with lots of sales, paying up-front makes sense. (The cost is $200-$400 and can go up to $1000, based on the length of the book and the reputation of the narrator.)

We both attended the panel on Cozies on the Edge: Meeting and Subverting Reader Expectations. This one was fun because each of the panelists writes books which differ from traditional cozies. Yet they meet some of the criteria: the incident (murder, etc.) happens offstage and they usually feature an amateur detective. Several friends were on this panel, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The next one was on A Winning Team: Author, Agent, and Editor. Since we don’t have an agent, and I do my own editing (not just for our books, but for others), it was interesting. The takeaway for me was getting an agent mostly depends on luck and timing. In the age of self-publishing, it is no longer necessary to have an agent unless you are aiming for a New York publisher, and those are fewer and fewer all the time.

The keynote speaker at lunch was Catroina McPherson. She spoke about writing with passion. I totally agree with her. Authors should never write anything unless they are emotionally committed. She is a witty and totally enjoyable speaker.

After lunch, we attended a panel on Marketing Without a Budget. This one was especially interesting since we are both cheap. We have done many of the things suggested. (A few actually sounded pretty expensive.)

The last panel of the day was How to Build a Long Career. My takeaway was: keep writing. I’ll never begin to catch up with A.J. Lewellyn with over 300 titles! But we now have twenty published between us. Neither of us writes quickly. We do research. And we both “craft” our writing, analyzing each word choice and sentence. This takes time, and it’s time we are willing to spend to produce books we can be proud of.

Tess Gerritsen gave the final presentation: How to Find Your What If. She talked about where she gets her ideas. Some come from current events. She keeps newspaper clippings she finds interesting. Later on, something else may happen, and she realizes the two things can be woven into a cohesive story. She has also written books based on her dreams. She is a terrific speaker as well as a wonderful author.

The last event was interviews of Tess and Catroina by the organizers of the conference. It was nice to learn a bit more about them and their backgrounds.

We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend and plan to attend the next one in two years. This is one we highly recommend for mystery writers.

California Crime Writers Conference

We spent the past two days at the California Crime Writers Conference.

This one is held every two years, and we always enjoy it. We have attended several in the past. Why do we attend? Because we always learn something, and we get to see old friends we don’t see anywhere else.

For each Panel/Workshop session, several options are offered. It’s a regular smorgasbord of choices.

Since we write historical fiction, we chose “Bringing the Past to Life” for the first one. All of the panelists write in different eras, so the discussion was most interesting. Someone suggested looking for old maps as a resource. We’d never really thought about it, although we saw some doing the research for The Memory Keeper, and the book itself contains one. 

We already knew a couple of the panelists, but we met Rosemary Lord. She writes about the history of Hollywood, and did some voice-overs for one of my favorite movies, The Holiday. We’re now Facebook friends.

The next panel I attended was called “Killer Dialogue.” Anne Cleeland moderated a great group of authors. I so enjoyed some of their suggestions of how to make dialogue authentic and interesting, including using humor.

At lunch, Tess Gerritsen delivered the keynote speech on writing with emotion. We had heard her in 2005 at the Maui Writers Conference and enjoyed her both then and now. She talked about finding the thing you felt compelled to write about, but making sure you included the character(s) emotions. Since I have a short attention span, I keep finding different things I want to write, and some of the others move to the back burner. I know I do my best writing when I am fully engaged in the subject. And when Larry and I write together, I'm the one who writes most of the emotional scenes.

The panel on “Hallmark Mysteries” was fascinating. They had a producer, writer, and show runner for the channel. No surprises here. Their stories are formulaic (a single woman amateur sleuth—played by an actress too old for the part). How do you get your story made into a Hallmark movie? It’s really all a matter of luck and who you know. Sorry about that. However, they also pointed out that with so many places now producing content (Hulu, Amazon, Lifetime, Netflix, etc) the chances of your book or series being selected are much better than they were in the past.

On Saturday afternoon, they lined up quite a few “experts.” We then played a form of “speed dating.” The attendees sat at tables, and the “experts” moved from table to table. We each got to hear three different people, and their assignments were random. The first at our table was Scott Williams, the executive producer for writing on NCIS. He shared some terrific stories.

Next, we got to chat with Valerie Woods, who is a writer on the Queen Sugar series. She was fascinating. She is clearly someone who loves writing.

Last, was Cindi Parent CFO of Tule Publishing, a relative newcomer to the world of publishing.

The last event of the day was another keynote from Catroina McPherson. She was a delight. Born in Scotland, she has a terrific sense of humor. She titled her talk “Deep in a Bowl of Porridge.” She spoke about clues and how and when to insert them.

And this was only on Saturday!

My next blog will be on Sunday of the conference.