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

C3 Conference Countdown

The Creatures, Crimes & Creativity conference is the Mid-Atlantic's literary event of the year.  But the con is almost 10 months away, so I am often asked why any reader or writer of genre fiction should be thinking about it now.  To respond I decided to put together a list of reasons in the form of a countdown, ala David Letterman.  The thing is, I couldn't bring it down to a top ten.  The best I could do was

Reason #17 to register the Creatures, Crimes & Creativityconference today: Attendees can enjoy 36 panels and presentations of interest to readers, fans and writers.

Reason #16 to register now for the Creatures, Crimes &Creativity conference: Every attendee will receive a goodie-bag filled with cool stuff, including our exclusive anthology filled with stories written by attending authors.

Reason #15 to register now for the C3 Conference: one lucky attendee will win a new Kindle Fire in our Twitter contest  - -#MdC3conference.

Reason #14 to register now for C3: one lucky attendee will win an Amazon gift certificate in our fun scavenger hunt.

Reason #13 to register right away: International best-selling thriller/fantasy author Eric VanLustbader will deliver a keynote address at Saturday’s dinner.  Come meet the author of The Ninja and the Jason Bourne series! 

Reason #12 to register now: International bestselling romantic suspense/sci-fi/fantasy author Rebecca York will deliver a keynote address at Friday’s dinner.

Reason #11 to register now: It's a chance to spend a 3-day weekend with fans and authors of mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal fiction. 

Reason #10 to register: The registration fee includes five meals: Friday’s dinner, 3 meals Saturday (Including the banquet dinner) and Sunday breakfast. Readers and writers dine side-by-side in a comfortable, informal atmosphere.

Reason #9 to register: Attendees are all invited to contribute to the C3 blog which posts their comments year round. Promote your books, or ask your fan questions, to all the C3 attendees.

Reason #8 to register: All attending authors are invited to submit a short story to the exclusive C3 Anthology which goes to every attendee.  This exclusive collector's item will never be sold in stores.

Reason #7 to register: Attending authors can sign up for agent pitch sessions.

Reason #6 to register: Mystery author Brad Parks will be interviewed at Saturday’s lunch and will give a master class for authors.

Reason #5 to register: Paranormal/urban fantasy writer C.J. Ellisson will be interviewed at Sunday breakfast and will give a master class for authors.

Reason #4 to register: Published authors get to spend time with their fans, and to expose new readers to their writing by presenting on panels.

Reason #3 to register: Registered authors’ books will be available for sale in the on-site bookstore and there will be two giant book signings.

Reason #2: Attending authors will be pictured in the C3 program book and linked on the C3 web site.

AND the number one reason to register for the Creatures, Crimes &Creativity conference today:

If you register now you save $40 with the Early Bird registration cost.

So... get to the C3 web site and REGISTER TODAY!

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!