Life Between the Cons

The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity (C3) Con is over but that doesn't mean the work is over. In the military we called the next step a hot wash. It's that meeting where you go over everything you did during an operation, critique your actions and the results, and make decisions about what you could do better next time. Which panels were hits and which were misses? How should those panels run? (It's clear now that panels do need moderators.) What started too soon, or ran too late? Were the name tags the right size? How was the food? There are so many details involved in making a 3-day Con happen.

Once the decision was made to do it again next year, we had to confirm a venue, and dates. We're on the hunt for keynote speakers and local guests. We have panels to choose and a menu to put together. Not to mention all the work involved in turning last year's web site into this year's web site. We even decided to set up a Facebook page to make it easier for people to give us suggestions and keep up with Con happenings thru the year.

This year there are only ten days between the Con Intrigue Publishing puts on and one that we all attend - Bouchercon. That involves preperation too. Thursday through Sunday we'll be fishing for C3 keynote speakers and attendees among the 1,000 authors, fans, publishers, reviewers, booksellers and editors who will be in Raleigh NC for that 4-day event. We must go over the schedule to figure out which panels we'll get the most out of (7 at a time over 4 day!) Plus I'm on a panel Friday. It's called "Research: Alcohol, Drugs, Weapons & the Psychology of the Insane." As you might guess, that calls for a little research itself, so more prep.

Plus, I'm promoting my novel that willt be released next month, Intrigue's anthology that will be released in December, rewriting my next novel, and there's the usual day-to-day business of running a publishing company.

So it's a very full life in between the two Cons. But I'm not complaining. It's like the working space between two great vacations!   

One Week Before the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con

For me, publishing and even writing take a back seat for the next week while we gear up to present The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con is a great chance to spend a weekend with fans and authors of mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal fiction. For some of us, that’s enough to prompt us to attend, but for you others I’ll count down a dozen more good reasons.
the Mid-Atlantic's coolest literary event of the year.

Reason #1 to register for the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity con today: HEATHER GRAHAM! The ITW’s 2016 Thrillmaster and author of more than 150 novels and novellas gives the keynote address at Saturday dinner.  Later she’ll also give a discussion later, explaining how she has managed to balance real life with her wildly successful writing career.

 

Reason #2 to register for the C3 Con: F. PAUL WILSON will give Friday night’s keynote talk. This NY Times bestseller and creator of the Repairman Jack series has written horror, thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, Young Adult stories and a few works that defy categorization. In a class at the C3 Con he’ll shares how he is able to shift genre, what he has to do differently, and how he decides what he’s writing next.

Reason #3 to register: ANDY STRAKA: Six books into his Frank Pavlicek series, he continues to present a Private Eye who is at once traditional and totally unique. I’ll interview him at Saturday lunch and in a separate class he’ll explain the ins-and-outs of writing detective fiction, and how he decides when to stick with the conventions of his sub-genre and when to throw them out the window.

Reason #4: S.D. SKYE: a former Intelligence Operations Specialist/Analyst in the FBI's counterintelligence program, senior intelligence analyst with the DIA, Coast Guard Intelligence, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She’ll be interviewed at Sunday breakfast, then she’ll give a class telling fellow authors how to write realistically about intelligence and law enforcement – and telling readers how to spot when a writer is just making it up.

Reason #5: John French (crime scene supervisor with the Baltimore Police Department Crime Laboratory) and Dana Kollmann (C.S.I. for the Baltimore County Police Department) will give a team presentation on their expertise and take questions... no matter how weird.

Reason #6: Enjoy 28 panels and presentations of interest to readers, fans and writers.

Reason #7: One lucky attendee will win a new Kindle Fire in our Twitter contest for the most tweets using our hashtag #MdC3Con.

Reason #8: The registration fee includes five meals: Friday’s dinner, 3 meals Saturday and Sunday breakfast. Readers and writers dine side-by-side! (ask those questions you’ve always wanted to ask!)

Reason #9: Every attendee receives a goody bag that contains, among other cool stuff, a copy of this year’s C3 Anthology, our annual collectors’ item collection of short stories contributed by authors in attendance.

Reason #10: authors get to spend time with their fans, and to expose new readers to their writing by presenting on panels.

Reason #11: Registered authors’ books will be available in the on-site bookstore and there will be two giant book signings.

Reason :12: All attending authors are posted on the C3 web site and will be pictured in the C3 program

AND IF YOU DON’T WANT TO REGISTER you can still meet all the authors and get signed novels at the Mid-Atlantic’s biggest book signings. The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con hosts two book signing events – both free and open to the public. Get novels signed by Heather Graham, F. Paul Wilson, and 30+ other authors. Grow your collection of mystery, thriller, suspense, horror, sci-fi, fantasy and paranormal fiction with signed copies. That’s Friday and Saturday from 5pm to 6pm

It all happens at the Hunt Valley Inn, 245 Shawan Rd, Hunt Valley, MD. Want more details? They’re all on the C3 website – http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com

Why Should Writers Attend the C3 Con?

In the last few weeks I’ve used this blog to chatter about what was going on in my writing life and my publishing life. But now, within a month of my company’s event of the year, I need to spend some time reminding you of all the reasons you should attend the Creatures, Crimes& Creativity (C3) Con.

This year the C3 Con runs from noon on Friday, October 10 to Sunday October 12. At the Hunt Valley Inn, just outside Baltimore, we will gather readers and writers of mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal fiction.

           

The $275 registration fee includes 36 panels and master classes, two keynote addresses, interviews with two bestselling authors, and five meals: Friday’s dinner, 3 meals Saturday and Sunday breakfast. The meals are included to encourage all the authors and readers to dine side-by-side.  It creates a chance for fans to ask those questions they’ve always wanted to ask.

And BTW, members of major fiction writer organizations (MWA, ITW, SFFAA, SinC) get a substantial discount off the registration cost.

The C3 Con offers a lot to published authors.  It is a great opportunity to spend time with their fans, and to expose new readers to their writing by presenting on panels.  Their books will be available in our on-site bookstore set up by Novel Books. There will be two big book signings, Friday and Saturday before dinner.  Each author’s name is posted on the C3 website with a link to their website or their book. Their photo and bio will be posted in the C3 program book and they are all invited to contribute to the C3 blog. 

Pitch sessions are available with two literary agents.  One, Dawn Dowdle runs the Blue Ridge Literary Agency, a Virginia firm focused on helping authors, especially new authors. The other, Alec Shane, is with Writers House, one of the biggest New York agencies.

Among the great presentations, bestselling mystery author Brad Parks will teach a Master Class called “Where Papa Going With That Ax?” He says writing page-turning fiction that seizes a reader’s imagination and then holds it for 350 pages is hard, but the concepts behind it are actually quite simple. As a matter of fact, one novel he will discuss accomplishes everything you want fiction to do in just four paragraphs. Attendees will also study voice, character, pacing and unveil the patented Brad Parks Formula For Suspense.

International bestselling romantic suspense/sci-fi/fantasy author Rebecca York will also teach a Master Class. She says, "A novel must look, sound, smell and taste real to the reader.  But it’s not reality.  It’s a world you build.  From plot and character to setting and dialogue, you make the decisions that define your fictional universe." And she will show you how.

There are more good reasons for writers to attend, but next week I’ll want to focus on reasons readers and fans will want to be there.  Meanwhile you can gather more details, and register if you’re smart, at http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com

The Other Side of Cons

Last week we talked about Love is Murder, a favorite fan/author gathering.  That's one type of writer's conference, but there is a very different animal that uses the same name.

Yesterday I was part of the faculty of the Bay To Ocean writers conference. This was not a gathering of fans watching their favorite writers present on panels.  This was a couple of hundred aspiring and emerging writers attending classes to improve their craft.

The atmosphere is just as warm and cordial at either kind of event, but whereas one set of cons is all for fun, the other, the Bay to Ocean set, puts the emphasis on learning. My role this year began with 30-minute individual meetings to critique work submitted by new writers.  I am always tense before these meetings, because I have to be honest about work that is often less than professional.  But new writers almost always appreciate being told exactly what they can do to make their work better.  I try to be encouraging with every writer, pointing  out what's good about their work before I get into the flaws and weaknesses.

After a lunch full of networking I sat before an audience with another talented author, Candice Porch, to discuss a challenging subject: bringing diversity to characters in fiction.  For an interactive hour, we spoke with the audience about using minority characters, how to distinguish them from mainstream white characters and what not to do if you want to avoid being hated by the reading public.

Finally I moved to the auditorium and gave a one-hour lecture on the use of conflict and suspense.  I have to admit that I  prefer the direct lecture on craft, and I'm happier at the podium by myself.  The audience was very welcoming and attentive - a good sign.  And I saved 15 minutes at the end for my favorite part of any class, when I open the floor to questions and the audience plays "stump the author," asking anything and everything they can think of.

I can't say that I love one kind of writers Con more than the other.  Both are great fun and both are necessary to a successful writing career.  Because in both cases, it's about being part of a writing community. 

C3 Conference - polished paneling

When planning the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity conference it was easy to decide what we wanted the content to be in general.  But the devil’s in the details.  The plan calls for a total of 13 hours of panel with three presentations happening at a time.  That means we need 39 different presentations that will be fun and interesting to readers and to writers of seven genres of fiction. 

Filling two of those slots was easy.  Our local special guests, thriller author John Gilstrap and suspense writer Trice Hickman each offered to give a one-hour presentation.  Both these best sellers have had interesting writing journeys and I think their fans and fellow authors will be jump at the chance to get up close and personal with them and ask their own questions. 

We’re saving one of those hour-long slots for a special event I’ll tell you about later.  That still leaves us with 36 spaces to fill.  Luckily we’ve all been to enough cons to have seen dozens of panels, and we know which ones we liked and which we didn’t.  So the group got together and started throwing out ideas.

In conversation we’ve learned that a lot of people have heard of steampunk but don’t know what it really entails.  So a “What is steampunk” panel seemed a natural.

The team is pushing for me to do a one hour class called “Let’s write a mystery” in which the audience will collaborate, with my guidance, to build a story from scratch.  I love the panel idea, but I’m looking for another mystery author to take it over.  We’d also like to see a panel of new writers talking about how their first book came about and what the experience of being a first-time author is like.

Like the previous idea, a panel discussing how to create a strong protagonist can have writers of different genre.  For mystery and thriller fans we’d like a panel on real-life crime fighting and forensics.  And we plan to mix the genre again for a panel of writers discussing where their ideas come from.

Of course this only scratches the surface – the ideas bubbled up out of control.  The real challenge will fall to romantic suspense author Deliah Lawrence who is our talent coordinator.  As each author registers for the conference she will contact them to learn about their genre and their talents.  Then she will place them on a panel or two with others who will provide the right balance of similarity and contrast. 

Honestly, I can’t wait to see some of these panels, and we haven’t even assigned any authors yet.  And we’re still open to ideas so if there’s a panel YOU’D like to see… or be on… let me know!

C3 Conference – Book ‘em

There is no “how to give a literary conference” kit.  So I’m building one.

Next year’s Creatures, Crimes and Creativity conference will give avid readers a chance to mix and mingle with some favorite writers and meet some new authors they’ll want to get to know.  Many of those fans will want to pick up books by those writers while they can get the books autographed.  That means the C3 Con has to have its own bookstore.

Some conferences have volunteer staff run an onsite bookstore.  While that can work, it has its limits.  Authors have to bring their own books, whereas many published authors don’t keep books because bookstores usually just order from a distributor.  You need several dedicated volunteers to make a bookstore run.  And someone has to handle cash and figure out how to take credit cards.

We decided to let a professional handle the book sales at the C3 Con.  In addition to the reasons above we wanted to support a Maryland-based, privately owned bookstore.  We considered several, but it didn’t take long to narrow the choice down to Mystery Loves Company in Oxford MD.

As their name implies, Mystery Loves Company is well versed in handling genre fiction.  Aside from that, Kathy and her staff have a long history of showcasing local authors (including this one) with book signings and other events.  Plus, they have extensive experience working outside their own store.  Mystery Loves Company handles the book sales at the Bay to Ocean writer’s conference and the Malice Domestic mystery convention, not to mention the monthly Mystery Writers of America meetings.

The good news for us is that we will only need for one volunteer to deal with the bookstore.  Romantic suspense author Deliah Lawrence has volunteered to interface with all the authors who register for the conference.  She will get their book titles and ISBN numbers and feed those to Kathy at Mystery Loves Company so she can order them.  Published authors who don’t have distribution will bring books to the conference, where Kathy will log them in and add them to the display for sale. 

We want every author who registers for the conference to have their books available there.  Fans can get to know the writers, hear them speak on a panel or two, and have extra insight into that autographed book they take home.

The Key to the Keynotes

If you decide to produce a mystery conference you want to get a big-name mystery author to give a keynote speech.  That name lends credibility to your project and attracts fans who want a chance to get up close and personal with the master.  But what if you’re giving a mystery-suspense-thriller-horror-science fiction-fantasy-steampunk conference like our own Creatures, Crimes & Creativity Con?  Well, to draw those various fans you better have broader big name representation.  How do you do that?

Well, here’s what not to do.  Don’t write to the publicists, managers, editors or agents of your favorite writers.  Those folks are in the business of getting lucrative gigs for their authors.  One vampire-writing Southern belle gets more for a speaking engagement than our entire conference budget!  Even local mystery bestseller Laura Lippman gets $5K to appear.  (To be fair, Ms Lippman does donate every penny of that to the Enoch Pratt Free Library, a marvelous way for an author to give back.)

You get those big names to your conference by being part of the writing community so you can ask them personally.  Jeffrey Deaver has put so many thrillers and mysteries on the New York Times bestseller list that he could almost name his price to appear at a conference.  Even if you’ve never read a mystery you probably know who his sleuth Lincoln Rhyme is or have at least seen The Bone Collector, one of his novels that made the jump to the big screen.  But when I asked him, at a Mystery Writers of America meeting, if he’d be willing to headline our new conference he checked his PDA and said, “Sure, I’m free.”

Similarly, our local guests of honor are people we know beyond their writing.  I’ve met John Gilstrap, another New York Times bestselling thriller writer, at several writers’ club functions.  He gives classes in the area and works with local writers whenever he can spare the time.  John always supports other authors and he quickly agreed to attend the C3 conference.

Urban drama author Sandra Bowman is a master (mistress?) of networking.  She knows all the local writers worth knowing and met bestselling romantic suspense author Trice Hickman on Facebook.  When Trice learned of our planned conference she was the first to offer her talents and marquee name to the cause.  She, like Gilstrap, will be interviewed at the conference and will give a seminar on writing and getting published.

Our second keynote speaker, New York Times bestselling horror and science fiction writer Christopher Golden was NOT a personal friend.  However, Golden is a longtime friend of a longtime friend of mine, Meloney Crawford.  When Meloney was a comic book editor she gave Golden one of his first breaks as a writer.  When she reached out to him for me, he was happy to come on board.

Networking and professional friendships are the secret to getting great celebrity guests for a conference.  And I think we have some real shining stars for the C3 Conference.

Conference Planning: Location, Location, Location

 Last week I told you that we here at Intrigue Publishing will launch a new conference for writers and fans next year.  Once we decided to hold the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity (C3) conference the next decision we had to make was where to put it.

We wanted our con to draw readers and writers of the chosen genres from the entire DMV – The District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.  We also wanted it to be easily accessible for people coming in from farther away.  And we wanted to keep costs down.  The less expensive the venue, the less we would have to charge for registration.  But we had absolute minimum space requirements.  We needed enough rooms to have three panels going on at one time, plus spaces for a bookstore, registration, an author roundtable and special events.  The hunt was on.

A cost comparison quickly ruled out any venue in DC.  Several places in Northern Virginia were in contention, especially in Arlington where Malice Domestic was held for several year, in easy reach of Reagan National Airport.  Then we looked at some promising places near Baltimore Washington International Airport. 

We found what we were looking for just north of Baltimore.  The Marriott Hunt Valley had the space we were looking for at a reasonable price.  It is an easy train ride from BWI Airport.  Plus, the folks there have valuable experience.  For years they’ve hosted Balticon, one of the better known science fiction gatherings.  They know how to do this con thing, and how to handle the special kind of people we call fans.  And did I mention that they offered us a really nice discounted rate for attendee’s hotel rooms?  We met with them and ran through all the details with smiles on both sides of the table.

The next decision was about food.  At some cons the visitors are on their own for dining.  At others meals are included.  We decided to follow the Love Is Murder pattern and include as many meals as possible in the registration price.  This would prompt people to stay in the hotel and network when they weren’t watching a panel.  We arranged to have Friday’s dinner, all three meals Saturday and Sunday’s breakfast be part of the package.  And since the panelists will all be there, fans will be able to sit at a table with their favorite writers, or maybe with new authors they just met.         

Of course, there are a lot of other details involved in putting a con together.  I’ll talk about more of them next week.