Picture of the Day for 2/28/2010. The last day of Sleuthfest ended with a panel discussion. The participants were Barry Eisler, David Morrell, Oline Cogdill, and Neil Nyren. Barry and David are novelists, Oline is a journalist, and Neil is a BIG DEAL VP at Putnam's (see his bio below).
"Neil Nyren is senior vice president, publisher and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons. Among his authors of crime and suspense are Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Patricia Cornwell, Robert Crais, Jack Higgins, W.E.B. Griffin, John Sandford, Daniel Silva, Ken Follett, Frederick Forsyth, Randy Wayne White, Alex Berenson, C.J. Box, Ace Atkins, James O. Born and Carol O’Connell."
Stephen Cannell was supposed to be on the panel, but his wife had a medical emergency which forced them to leave the conference early.
Barry caused hearts to swoon since he is quite pretty (see picture below). Even more important (in my opinion) is he is really nice. He wrote a lovely inscription in the book I asked him to sign.
I ended up becoming friends with a couple of the authors- Diane Stuckart and Deborah Sharp. Diane and I bonded over Tarot cards. She's done a bit of research into the topic for one of her novels. Below is a picture of Diane with Al Abramson who is not a novelist, but a world-class smart-aleck. I got a kick out of him. Diane is making the "loser" sign (it became a running joke that we were sitting at the loser's table) and Al is making a "read between the lines" gesture with his fingers.
Sleuthfest ended at noon so I had the whole day ahead of me to explore the area. Deborah Sharp gave me the suggestion to go shopping on Las Olas Blvd in Fort Lauderdale (see picture below). I was geeking out the whole time since Elaine Viets' novels are set on this street.
I ate lunch at The Floridian on Las Olas. I loved the sentiment printed on the front cover of the menu.
After exploring Fort Lauderdale, I drove up north. Below is a snooty picture of a snooty beach in snooty Palm Beach.
Picture of the Day for 2/27/2010. Stephen Cannell was Guest of Honor #2 and the keynote speaker at today's luncheon. He's been involved as a writer/producer in TV shows too numerous to mention. OK, I'll mention just a couple- The Rockford Files and The A-Team. It has just been within the past few years that he turned to novel-writing. The major theme of his talk was "never give up." He spoke of the numerous obstacles he had to overcome (severe dyslexia which held him back a few years in school) before he made it in Hollywood. After college, he went to work for his dad, but spent every night for five or six years writing for 5 hours a day before he caught his big break. That is determination. If there's one thing I'm learning from this conference, becoming a writer is not for the faint of heart. It's a LOT of work- not just the writing, but looking for agents/publishers, doing the marketing for your books, etc. Cannell looks like he belongs in Hollywood, but I was impressed by his obvious devotion to his wife of 45 years.
I attended the following sessions today:
-Negotiating a Killer Contract
Avoiding deadly mistakes found in some contracts.
Donna Bagdasarian, Paul S. Levine (agent), Shannon Jamieson Vazquez
-How to Get an Agent
Authors and agents discuss the how-tos and how-not-tos.
Karen Harper, Michelle Brower, Barbara Poelle, Jack Cummings
-Hollywood War Stories
Tales from the trenches.
Stephen J. Cannell, Paul Levine (author)
-Randy’s Book Broads
Authors and booksellers chatting about the book biz.
Randy Rawls, Heather Graham, PJ Parrish (Kris & Kelly), Deborah Sharp, Joanne Sinchuk, Christine Kling
Picture of the Day for 2/26/2010. David Morrell was Guest of Honor #1 (there's a Guest of Honor #2 - I'll write about him later) and the keynote speaker at today's luncheon. He's the author of almost 30 novels, most notably "First Blood" upon which the Rambo movies are based. He is a nice guy. That seems to be true of all the authors I met- they are all really nice and approachable. The following are key points from his speech:
-He urged all of the writers to be a "1st rate you" rather than a 2nd rate author who chases market trends in publishing.
-One technique to writing fiction is to identify your dominant fear in life and explore that.
-Writing is "dramatizing daydreams."
I attended the following sessions today:
-CSI – TV
The Negative Factor
Real Science vs. the Science Fiction of CSI.
Al Hallonquist
-Sex: It Ain’t What It Used to Be
Write sex scenes so hot your fingertips will sizzle on the keyboard.
Rhonda Pollero, Leanne Banks, Traci Hall, Amy Fetzer
(I'm kind of disappointed. The authors did NOT discuss how to write hot sex scenes. Oh well...)
-Perfect Protagonists & Vile Villains
The eternal conflict between good and evil.
Jonathon King, Caroline Todd, Terry Griffin, Britin Haller, Heather Graham
-Gummed To Death
Creating smooth-talking dialogue.
Karen Kendall, Deborah Shlian, Steven M. Forman, Michael Haskins, Phyllis Smallman
-The Short Story
The discipline of brevity: claustrophobic or mind-expanding?
Peter Robinson, Elaine Viets, Diane Stuckart, Don Bruns, Oline Cogdill
(I attended this one solely for Elaine Viets. I'm a BIG fan of her Dead End Jobs mystery series. See the picture below. Elaine is on the far left.)
I did have an interesting encounter with one of the organizers of Sleuthfest today. She came up and asked my name. She said the woman she was looking for was pregnant and since there weren't that many pregnant women in attendance, I might be the woman she needed to find. Sigh. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'm not pregnant. I've got to do something about this belly of mine.
Picture of the Day for 2/25/2010. I'm in so much trouble. These are the books I've collected so far to get signed by the authors presenting at Sleuthfest. I'm sure I'll be collecting a lot more before the weekend is over. I'm going to be hating life when I have to haul all these heavy books back to Salt Lake.
The first day of Sleuthfest was great. I attended the following courses:
-Let’s Play with Kidnappers!
Learn hostage negotiation from a master.
Al Hallonquist
-Building a Better Arc
Identify and strengthen your chapter, character, and book arc so your novel stays afloat.
PJ Parrish (Kris Montee and Kelly Nichols)
-Power Pacing
Keep the tension high and the emotional depth engaging without explosions or killings on every page.
Dianna Love
I think the "Building a Better Arc" session was the most helpful in terms of the logistics of writing a novel. I loved Dianna Love's presentation. She repeatedly mentioned how she just loves to kill people in novels. She said it in such a charming way that it was highly amusing rather than disturbing.
