Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Conference: New England Chapter RWA

by Raelene Gorlinsky

I had a great time at the NECRWA conference in Massachusetts two weeks ago. The hotel was comfortable, the food was excellent. Even my plane flights were good - on time, and not crowded!

The chapter members were marvelously friendly and helpful. My thanks to all of them, especially chapter president Cindy Gregory (who amazed me by remembering I am diabetic and making sure I got a sugar-free chocolate bar!) and member Kate Sohl, who transported me between airport and hotel and kept me well-entertained with her stories.

This conference had what I most appreciate - ample opportunity to talk with people and to network. I got to chat with ECPI authors in attendance, to aspiring authors, to published authors, and to editors and agents. I love to discuss the publishing industry with others, get their take on what's going on, what's hot, what trends are developing. Brenda Chin from Harlequin was especially informative and interesting. Jessica Faust is one of the agents I most admire in the business, I read her blog regularly. Alas, agent Meg Ruley and I had time only for a passing greeting, due to our schedules; we've met at previous conferences and she's a great and fun person. I enjoyed chatting with experienced authors/conference speakers Lisa Gardner, Jessica Andersen and Jennifer Greene.

I was impressed with the quality of the pitches I heard, and am eagerly looking forward to receiving several submissions.

And of course it was very gratifying that my workshop was so well-attended and successful - people commented on it all day. Nothing like making people pretend to be serial killers or nipple-sucking giraffe shapeshifters to keep an audience's interest!

4 comments:

Alexis Fleming said...

ROFL Nipple-sucking giraffe shapeshifters? Okay, I'm having trouble getting my mind around that one.

Hot Ash Romance Novels said...

I SO wish I could have been at your workshop, Raelene. Will you be giving it again somewhere?

Unfortunately I was next door and could hear all the laughter coming through the walls. One attendee in our group even said, "I'll have what they're having!" LOL

Ash

Kate Sohl said...

The pleasure was entirely mine, Raelene. I'm happy be your driver anytime you'd like to come visit us here in New England. I can't thank you enough for sharing your insights and experiences with me. I'm sure Leah won't soon forget all we learned, either.

Your seminar was great. I thoroughly enjoyed being the embittered worker with a briefcase problem, and in the process learning how to make sure action works. I hope you'll consider offering this or other seminars at future NEC conferences.

Thank you, again!
Kate

EmilyBryan said...

Wow! How did I miss your workshop? I must have been doing my JOY OF WRITING SEX one or fretting about it at the time!

I did appreciate everything you shared about the industry and your role at the editor panel.

Thanks for coming to New England!