You’re Back from RWA, Now What? – What to Do After a Writer’s Conference

30 Jul

Congrats!  You survived RWA 2012!  It’s been a long couple of days filled with workshops, signings, parties, and margaritas, but you’re finally home!  Time for a siesta.

……

Okay, that’s it.  You spent the time and money, now you need to put it to good use.  I get that the kiddos are excited to see you, that laundry is piled to the ceiling, and all you want to do is sink onto the couch and watch your DVR’d shows, BUT there are a couple of things you need to do.  Sorry to burst your bubble of relaxation.

Here’s my checklist of what to do after a writer’s conference:

  • Follow Up
    • You met so many people, now keep in touch with them.  Follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, do whatever you need to do to keep them on your radar.
  • Send off your manuscript.
    • If you met with an agent or publisher and they wanted to see more, send it off!  Don’t wait so long that  they don’t remember who you are.  If you said you were done and you weren’t, then you’d better finish those edits!  I’d send it off no later than 3 weeks from the date you met.
  • Go through all of your notes and handouts.
    • Make sure you can read the notes you took and add any notes to the workshop handouts while the information is still fresh in your mind.  Looking back at an outline diagram you scribbled down might not make sense 3 months from now.
    • Jot down all of the new writing tips and techniques you want to try out for your current WIP and then all of the ones you want to try for future books.
  • Get back to writing.
    • Guess what?  That manuscript you left behind hasn’t finished itself.  After meeting all these great authors and agents, you should be more inspired than ever to get your novel done so start writing.  Remember, this is why you went in the first place.

Have any other tips?  Let me know what I should add!

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RWA Packing List

23 Jul

First, in a very last minute decision (as in on the cutoff day), I signed up to go to this year’s RWA!  Fortunately it’s being held in Anaheim, CA, which makes it drivable for me.  It’s my first time going and I can’t tell you all enough how excited I am.  For those of you who don’t know what RWA is, it’s the biggest conference of the year for romance writers.  There’s workshops, luncheons, publisher’s parties, and the opportunity to mix and mingle with everyone who’s a fan of romance just like you.  

So while I know many of the RWA attendees have already left/arrived, here’s a list of the things I’m bringing on my daily trek to the conference:

  • RWA agenda – Don’t wait to figure out which workshops you want to go to, use RWA’s handy agenda builder to create your schedule .  
  • Literacy Autographing list – With over 400 authors going, print out the list and highlight the ones you want to meet.
  • Big purse/ laptop bag – there are handouts and goodies to take home and you don’t want to lose anything!
  • Laptop – Great for taking notes.
  • Phone – I’ll be using mine to tweet on.  I heard there’s a Wi-Fi charge, so I’d rather use my phone.
  • Camera – Don’t know about you, but I’m be super excited to meet my favorite authors and that’s going to need a photo.
  • eReader – You never know when you might have a few moments to spare and sharing whatever you’re reading is always a handy icebreaker.  
  • Business cards – Keep in touch with all the other readers and authors you meet.  I designed mine just last week and they’re due to arrive today! 
  • Water & snacks – To tide you over in between meals.
  • Sweater – As with all hotels, temps vary from room to room.
  • Pen/Paper – For taking notes, jotting down reminders, etc. 
  • Cute heels – A girl’s always gotta look her best!
  • Bookplates, pens, other promo materials – I don’t have these just yet, but they’re great giveaways once you’re published.  

Did I forget anything?  Let me know!  By the way, if you’re going, be sure to drop me a tweet at @kristynnichols—I’d love to meet you!

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Fifty Shades of Grey Trilogy Review

12 Jun

It’s here at last—a romance author’s review of the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy.  Originally, I was going to post a review for each of the novels, but after a questionable reaction to the first, I decided to read them all before posting.  As a writer, I’m not usually comfortable posting critical reviews of other romance novels.  It just feels wrong and mean to me.  That said, all this hullaballoo, an impassioned response to the subject-matter, and multiple inquiries as to what I thought of this book, prompted this post. So if you are Fifty Shades of Grey’s biggest fan, you might want to click back now.  I would like to point out that I went into this with an open-mind, wanting to like the books despite the warnings that there would need to be a serious suspension of disbelief.

As you may or may not know, the story was originally written as Twilight fan fiction (fan fiction is a story created using the characters if not the entire world of an established TV show/book/movie/etc.).  Having grown up writing a couple of my own fan fiction pieces (go Buffy!), I was interested to see how she was able to get this published with these roots.  In my opinion, there’s an intrinsic flaw in using characters created by someone else when publishing your own work.  Yes, their names are changed, but still.  If someone were to one day write fan fiction with the characters I created, I would be truly be thrilled and flattered.  However, all those happy feelings would rapidly circle the drain the second I heard they were trying to publish their work after a quick search-and-find name replace.  Now was it a direct funnel from Twilight over to 50 Shades?  No.  Christian wasn’t a vampire, but that’s what they call Alternate Universe fan fiction.  Ana, however, is a young, impressionable and klutzy young woman who literally falls into his office and proceeds to jump into a relationship without knowing all the facts.  What a coincidence.

The story follows young and innocent Anastasia Steele and her developing relationship with sexually experienced billionaire Christian Grey.  Essentially, she wants a normal “vanilla” relationship with Christian, but he can’t give her one.  I’ve read and heard so many people call this “groundbreaking” and “fresh.”  I don’t want to shock you too badly (as the book’s already apparently done so to many people), but erotica is not new!  BDSM is not new!

Maybe it’s that I’ve read novels where the author has done in-depth research into the BSDM world and done some research myself for a WIP, but the titles (dom, submissive, etc.) shouldn’t be used as an excuse or as an explanation for their actions.  He had a horrible childhood, so he’s a dominant?!  Umm, that’s not how it works.  Christian’s needs and desires shouldn’t be portrayed or treated like they’re a sickness.  I applaud that he was going to a therapist, but the novels made it sound like he needed to be cured.  People like what they like and as long as it’s safe, sane, and consensual, it’s OKAY.

Continue reading →

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Man Candy Monday #012: Sleepyheads

14 May

With all the Mother’s Day hoopla yesterday, I am exhausted!  I would give just about anything to crawl back into bed right now.  The only thing that would make it even better would be one of these sexy sleepyheads greeting me…

 

 

Have a great week, everyone!

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Valentine’s Day Contest Winner

15 Feb

:: Contest Announcement ::

And the winner is…. Cathy M!  Cathy’s favorite romance novel couple is Eve Dallas and Rourke from J.D. Robb’s In Death series.  I haven’t read the series yet, but it’s definitely going on my TBR list–a lot of people commented on them.  There were so many couples that I loved Scarlett and Rhett, Darcy and Elizabeth, and Cat and Bones.

Cathy, I’ll be emailing you later tonight with your Amazon gift certificate!  Happy reading!

 

Thanks to everyone who participated!  I’ll have another contest coming up soon, so stay tuned.  

My Reaction to The Vow

12 Feb

Seriously.

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