Conversations at the Conference

One of the most important parts of a writing conference is networking, or talking with other writers or people who are a part of the literary world. I enjoyed meeting Jubal Tiner and Lonnie Busch who publish the Pisgah Review. They had a table set up near the meeting rooms and they met a number of writers, I’m sure. Lonnie’s book Turnback Creek as well as the Review attracted attention. I wish more of our Netwest writers had been there making the connections they need to sell their books or stories and articles.

Press 53 is an up and coming southern press located right here in North Carolina. Marjorie Hudson’s book, The Search for Virginia Dare, was published the second time by Press 53. She wore a big pin on her shirt promoting her publisher. Press 53 goes beyond publishing your manuscript. They have contacts with film companies and Marjorie’s book could be picked up by an independent film company. She has been fortunate to have her book become a favorite of book clubs whose members arrive in Manteo, NC where they read about Virginia Dare and visit the places mentioned in the book. More and more writers are trying to take advantage of Literary Tourism. Surely writers in western North Carolina and North Georgia should be able to find a way to do that. We do have some tourists come here in the summer and in the fall.

Sitting with Marjorie Hudson at breakfast on Sunday, I met an agent from Washington, D.C. She had worked in New York and she recommends that your agent, if living outside of the big apple, have experience in the publishing world in New York. This agent had turned down Marjorie’s book, but said she had liked it. She had to consider what her company would want, however.

Sitting at the same table that morning was Amy Tieman who has the blog, mojomom, and also a book by the same title. She is young, but extremely intelligent about her business and the digital world we live in today. She left the table to go and get ready for her panel discussion on blogging, podcasting and other digital matters above my head. Later, I’ll tell more about that session which was full with standing room only.

Saturday morning I began my day with a full breakfast at the Bayberry restaurant in the Hawthorne Inn. I felt I'd need it in order to accomplish everything on my schedule for that day. JC Walkup invited me to sit with her and another young woman. JC and Buffy Queen had gone to an expensive place for dinner Friday night instead of joining us at the Bayberry. I'm sure they had better food, but I couldn't have had better dinner companions.


Valerie Nieman was instructor for writing narrative poems. Michael Beadle, poet from Canton was in that group. I like Val and found the class interesting. I am a story teller and most of my poetry is narrative.


The class, held in the hospitality room with several large round tables was not the best setup. The room was filled with people of all levels of writing. Val had us do some association of words which gave me ideas of subjects for poems I'd not thought of before.


I wish I'd had time to take all the poetry classes and there were a number of them. Keith, of Asheville Poetry Review, and Tony Abbot among many other poets, led classes.


My second class for the day was with Marjorie Hudson, author of The Search for Virginia Dare. Marjorie led us in a marathon writing class. Nancy Cash and I sat together. Pat Davis was also in the class and she hated it. Nancy and I discovered some issues we plan to write about someday. Poor Nancy lost her notebook with all her notes from THREE conferences in that class. That ruined her day. Marjorie invited us to join her for breakfast on Sunday to discuss publishing. That was a generous gesture on her part. Her class turned out to be much larger than she had expected with 48 students. I found the timed writings fun and helpful.
She used Haven Kimmel's books to illustrate her subjects and Haven is one of my favorite authors.

The biggest problem at the conference was the class rooms were separated and on different floors. Our folders had no instructions as to were they were located. We ran up and down stairs a good bit, but it was good for me, I'm sure, since sitting for long hours is the worse thing for me to do.


Later, I realized there was an elevator I could have used. But my adrenaline was super high and the stairs became easier and easier.


We picked up box lunches in the lobby and found seats in the large room where we had met the night before. Nancy Cash and I ended up sitting together again. She is good company, but was still worried over her lost notebook. I'll tell more about the lunch program in my next post. Hope to learn how to include photos by then.