Wednesday, October 21, 2009

SIWC 2009

Here I go, diving into the deep end, no life preservers, no swimming lessons and no life guard. I am heading to Surrey tomorrow for the Surrey International Writers Conference for 4 days...all be myself. EEK!

There is lots to learn, workshops to attend, people to meet and agents to pitch. Yeah that last one would be the stress that is causing pimple breakouts, sleepless nights and headaches. The Pitch. Sitting down with an editor or agent and trying to tell them all about your book, how fabulous it is and why they should take you on, in ten minutes or less. A query letter is easy, you print one up, send it off and it doesn't matter how much you're sweating, how shaky your hands are, those agents don't see it. But a pitch, right to that agents face, wow, they can see sweat stains, nervous twitches and smell that onion breath!

The trick I think is to be prepared. I have, besides my Q&A list, extra deodorant and body spray, Listerine, scope and gum, and enough makeup to weigh down that nervous twitch. Hopefully that covers all the bases, if not I may start drinking this weekend. ;)

All and all, I am terribly excited and I can't wait to tell you all about my first major conference, but I won't be able to write anything until Monday. So wait for me with baited breath, there is sure to be at least one story about me making a fool of myself.

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