Writers League of Texas Agents and Editors Conference

I spent the weekend in Austin at a conference; pretty expensive stuff, but great fun. I didn’t meet any agents or editors in my corner of writing, but made some good connections with writers. Like any conference, I heard a lot that I already knew or didn’t really need to know, and in the mix heard fifteen minutes of very helpful information. As a finalist in the Manuscript Contest, I got to read my ‘pitch’ for AWOL 21 in front of the attendees (I chose not to read from my manuscript, as by that time any reading needed to be short). Awol 21 is my complete-but-in need-of-polishing story of an Air Force pilot; I had quite a few comments over the weekend about it. One funny story – I had a random conversation with a guy standing near me, and when it was time to part, he handed me his card – David Deming. I handed him my card – Robert Deming. We weren’t wearing nametags, so it came as a shock to both of us. He stood and introduced us to the entire body of people as long lost cousins, and we both heard a lot about that over the next two days.

The best part was making connections with other writers. I learned about making audio-books from two – writers, not panelists – who had made them. Agents and editors had the ‘deer in the headlights’ look by the end. I met a girl in the parking lot who told me some of her story – about a woman obsessed with a dead jazz musician – non fiction, memoir! I told her she might be scary; she laughed, and we went to find our cars. And then there was the ‘hanging out at the hotel bar with writers’ part, which was as much fun as anything.

WordPress has changed and I haven’t figured out how to change with it; otherwise, I would post some photos. If anyone can tell me how to post photos with this new format, I would appreciate knowing. Otherwise, it will mean the dreaded call to tech support.i can only upload photos from my phone.