C. S. Rickard

Archive for the ‘conferences’ Category

I’m heading to Worldcon this year!!!

Truth be told, I was just as excited about the location as I was about the event. Although I think I’ll withhold that tidbit of information from any die-hard worldcon members I may meet. The conference is being held in Montreal this year, so I get to brush up on my french!

I have never been to a worldcon before. In fact, the only writing/literary conference I’ve ever attended was the Florida Writer’s Conference last fall. At first, I thought this was purely a fan-based conference. The original website, which is quite sparse by today’s standards I must say, didn’t give much info. I gathered that it seems fairly large, predominantly fans attend, there are book signings and parties, as well as the Hugo awards.

I thought it would be neat to meet some authors and see what people are reading and saying about what they read. So, I joined (you have to be a member to attend the conference). I hadn’t realized until then that the members are the ones that select the Hugo winner.

I’m now working my way through the nominated novels, as I hadn’t read any of them yet. The first one I decided to work on was The Graveyard by Neil Gaiman. He’s also the guest of honour at the conference this year.

The votes are due in July, but I don’t think I can read every nominee in every category by then. I’ve decided to start with the novels and work my way down in categories and get done as many as I can.

I just visited the worldcon 2009 site again last week and noticed they’ve added quite a bit of info. Writing sessions are being offered now too. COOL! I really hadn’t expected that based on the first website they had loaded. It looks like this will be even more interesting than I originally thought!

I also volunteered to work a few hours each day at the conference, but I haven’t heard anything back on that.

I did get a really good deal on a hotel nearby though, cheaper rate than the ones on the conference website and it’s only about a block and half away from the convention. I got it through hotel.com. Gotta love internet travel sites!

I can’t wait! My first time at a huge conference, in a different country, where I don’t know anyone! This is going to be FUN! (seriously — I love this kind of stuff)

Well, work has double, triple, quadrupled…or at least it feels like it. It’s been over 2 months since my last post. I’ve only written 2 more chapters in that time frame. I’ve also been house hunting. In fact, I just signed a contract on a house I’ve been watching for awhile now. I’m really excited. Of course, that means my posts will be just as sparse over the next two months as I try and balance work, kids, moving, holidays, oh and writing. If the schedule goes as planned, though, I’ll be completely moved in over Christmas. So January should see a more regular routine…yeah right.

I’m attending the Florida Writers Conference in Orlando next month. This will be my very first writing conference! I’m not ready for the one-on-one sessions yet, but several of the seminars and instructional sessions look interesting. Plus there are two agents attending whose blogs I read. So now I’ll get to meet them in person, which is pretty cool.

Next year I have my eye on a few more conferences. Of course, all require plane trips, so we’ll see how the finances are looking then, but my goal by next summer is to be ready to
start pitching my first novel. We’ll see how that works out!