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 Tuesday, July 29, 2008
We're going to Maui!
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, It's my great pleasure to announce our sponsorship of the 2008 Maui Writers Conference, which this year is on the road to Honolulu. Brian and I will be there for three full days over the Labor Day holiday, August 29-September 1 reporting live from the conference via this blog and our e-newsletter. So stay tuned, and if you can get yourself to the Maui Writers Conference, I can promise you won't regret it--this is one of the premiere writing events of the year! Tell me, who looks more Hawaiian, me or Brian? Check out the poll on the WD forum or leave comments here. Mahalo. Keep Writing, Maria  
writing conferences
7/29/2008 9:58:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
From fired to inspired?
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
I've been attending a lot of writing conferences recently and in listening to keynote speeches I've noticed an odd correlation in the first-published stories of many writers.
Just off the top of my head, I can name three bestselling authors who cite being fired as the impetus to write and sell their first book.
• Lee Child lost his job with the BBC and soon after wrote and sold his first Jack Reacher novel.
• Sandra Brown wrote her first novel after being fired from her TV reporter position.
• Laurell K. Hamilton was downsized from her job with IBM when she decided to give the writing thing a real crack.
Anyway, don't go off and tell your boss off, this is merely an unscientific observation, but I have started to wonder if "fired" leads to "inspired." What do you think?
Keep Writing,
Maria
the writing life
7/22/2008 11:57:45 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, July 18, 2008
Mary Feuer's New York trip to meet agents
Posted by Maria
Hi Writers, Remember last month when I was blogging about my trip to New York to accompany our annual contest winners to meet literary agents? I asked our winners to sum up the experience for me, and here's Mary Feuer's experience in her own words:
It's hard to believe it's been an entire month since we were in New York. Time has been more than flying over here on the Left Coast--I think it's passing the speed of light. I apologize for not writing my promised blog sooner, but I have an excuse: I've been busy shooting my original web series, "With the Angels," for Strike.TV.
Anyway, it's never too late to share observations with the blogosphere, where words seem to live forever, so here are mine.
Let me say up front that I think tag-team pitching should be the standard. Having Alegra (and of course Maria) there, being able to bounce off of someone after getting out of a particularly interesting or challenging pitch, made the whole thing not only less stressful but - dare I say it? fun. The chats we had in cabs or walking down sidewalks in between meetings about each others work were probably the best, most enlightening moments of the trip for me: I felt, by the end of two days, that Alegra, Maria, and I had become collaborators, a de facto writing group strolling the streets of New York. It was a nice feeling.
What impressed me most over the course of our two days of meetings was the way in which both Alegra's and my pitches subtly and not-so-subtly changed with feedback and discussion. I could almost feel that lightbulb go off over my head, and see it go off over Alegra's, when a challenging or insightful question was asked. I know I reconsidered the story I was planning to tell more than once, each time getting a deeper understanding of what's important about it to me.
Ultimately, though, our agent meetings reinforced and illustrated one of the most fundamental truths of what we do: writing, and all creative pursuits, are so completely, totally subjective, even on the business end. One agent would tell us to forget the idea of "literary fiction"--would just reject that moniker wholesale--and then the next would tell with absolute certainty that literary fiction was all the rage. One would respond to the more plot-driven aspects of a story, and the next would be nudging us toward a character study. The lesson, for me, was: Write what excites YOU. Chances are it will excite someone else--you'll just have to find the right someone else. And if it doesn't, that's what rewriting is for!
The New York trip made me thirsty for the kind of immersion, the kind of without-a-net high fiction gives me. It made me want to wish plunge right into my novel, but unfortunately, more immediate concerns have already pushed it to the sidelines of my mind.
Still, coming back to Los Angeles, back to my life, I realize how lucky I am that I make my living writing. it's not always the most satisfying stuff, or the deepest, or the closest to my heart, but still.. I get paid to put words in a certain order, an order that makes them mine no matter who's signing the check. That's an incredible gift. Thanks to Writer's Digest for letting me live out one more part of that fairy tale life, even if only for a few days.
I'll keep you posted on Mary and Alegra's progress in getting their novels published!
Keep Writing,
Maria
the writing life | Writer's Digest news
7/18/2008 2:12:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 15, 2008
The final thrill
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, If you want to get more of an idea of what ThrillerFest was all about, here are my (almost daily) newsletters that went out to our e-newsletter subscriber list during and just after the conference. So, if you didn't get enough thrills already, here are links to even more from ThrillerFest ’08. If you’d like to sign up to receive e-newsletters from Writer’s Digest, you can find a sign-up link on writersdigest.com. ThrillerFest Day 1 ThrillerFest Day 2
ThrillerFest Day 3Keep Writing, Maria p.s. I'm getting ready to head out to the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference in Seattle. I'll be doing more blogging from that conference so be sure to check back.
Writer's Digest news | writing conferences
7/15/2008 1:28:20 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, July 14, 2008
...and the thrills go on!
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
I hope you've enjoyed coming along the wild ride of ThrillerFest with me. I'm back in Cincinnati and wanted to thank all of the great people at ThrillerFest for putting on such a fabulous conference and for inviting Writer's Digest to co-sponsor their event.
Since I don't often get to post visuals, it's been really fun to hone my photojournalism skills, and I have a few more photos to share with you today.
I had the best time with Steve Berry, Brad Thor and James Rollins: Three bestselling novelists and also friends who write each others characters into their books. Also of note: Thor, whose book is currently leading the NYT bestseller lists with The Last Patriot, is under heavy security because he's had a fatwa declared against him due to his novel's questioning of the origins of Islam.
Here's a picture of me with David Baldacci, taken just after I interviewed him. He is just the nicest, most intelligent and eloquent person--well deserved of his phenomenal success. He also was honored with the Silver Bullet Award at ThrillerFest for his work with the advancement of literacy.
And finally, here's a picture of me at the award's banquet and two of the attendees who won seats at our table: Joan Johnston and Andrew Marino. You may recognize Joan as the author of 50 novels, with 10 million copies of her books in print!
There will be video streaming of many of the best sessions from Thrillerfest available on writersdigest.com starting August 1, so be sure to check back soon!
Keep Writing,
Maria
  
Writer's Digest news | writing conferences
7/14/2008 1:21:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Saturday, July 12, 2008
ThrillerFest and Sandra Brown
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
It's my final day at ThrillerFest and the thrills just
keep coming. Today I did video interviews with Lee Child, Sandra Brown,
David Baldacci among others. Those videos will be available on our
website in a few weeks, I'll let you know when they're up.
Here's a picture of me with "ThrillerMaster" Sandra Brown--not only is she incredibly prolific, she is utterly gorgeous.
More to come!
Keep Writing,
Maria
pictured below: Sandra Brown and yours truly
Writer's Digest news
7/12/2008 1:33:19 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, July 11, 2008
AgentFest and the after-party
Posted by maria
Writer's Digest news
7/11/2008 10:25:26 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, July 10, 2008
I'm at ThrillerFest!
Posted by Brian
Hi Writers,
I'm in New York reporting live from the Thrillerfest/Craftfest writing conference we're sponsoring. There are so many famous writers here, it's unbelievable. The first day of the conference was yesterday and I met Lee Child, James, Rollins, Eric Van Lustbader, Steve and Liz Berry, Kathleen Antrim and more.
I'm getting ready to go back and cover the show today, but I wanted to post some pics from the conference.
Funniest quote overheard at the conference so far: "What's the difference between a mystery and a thriller? About $100,000." This is attributed to Tess Gerritsen, one of the sponsors of the conference and a founding member of the International Thriller Writers organization.
More tomorrow!
Keep Writing,
Maria
pictured below:
(these are all from the evening reception/cocktail party)
Victoria and Eric Van Lustbader
Steve and Liz Berry
our super-cool ad director Guy Gonzalez and conference chair Kathleen Antrim
  
Writer's Digest news
7/10/2008 10:48:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Digital Voice Recorder Recommendations
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, I'm all set to travel to New York tomorrow to cover the Thrillerfest writing conference. I'm going to be writing live from the conference on this blog as well as special show dailies for our e-newsletter subscribers (sign up via writersdigest.com if you're interested.) Alas, as I've been preparing to be the ace reporter at Thrillerfest, I've discovered that my voice recording devices are oh-so-last-century, as in, they *gasp* use tape. Imagine interviewing people who spend their days dreaming up stuff like watches that detonate bombs and pens that are really surveillance cameras and—oops! (@#$#!)—ace reporter has to stop and flip the tape! So I'm shopping today for a digital voice recording device. I've just about talked myself into an iPod classic with microphone attachment, but I was wondering if any of the other ace reporters out there have recommendations. Let the recommendations begin! And don't forget to join me all week long for the inside scoop from Thrillerfest! Keep Writing, Maria
journalism | Writer's Digest news
7/8/2008 10:54:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, July 02, 2008
New CD from WD
Posted by Brian
My workday is pretty standard: I spend 95% of it writing/editing and 5% trying to convince Maria to put my face on the next issue's cover, to which she always says no. So when she asked me to post about our new CD, I wasn't sure if I was the right pitchman for the job. I'll let you be the judge: All of our blood, sweat and ink from 2007 have been put together on one disc—yes, one disc—that's now up for purchase. The Writer's Digest 2007 Compilation CD is filled with all six issues from last year, including the WD Interviews, software guide and, most important, my Q&Q column! How could you pass on that? Now I could continue to entice you with all the other can't-miss material on the disc, but instead I'm going to show you a video of the staff giving it an unprecedented rating of 5 thumbs up: So take a minute to swing by our site to pick up your copy of The Writer's Digest 2007 Compilation CD. And, if you'd be so kind, ask Maria to put me on the cover. The more comments below, the better. Take care of yourself and your writing, Brian
Writer's Digest news
7/2/2008 11:27:08 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, June 30, 2008
The L-Word
Posted by maria
Hi Writers,
To follow up on my previous post, I wanted to comment further on the term "literary" as in a "literary novel."
First, I want to say that I love smart, character-driven literary novels. They are what I gravitate to for my own leisure reading.
So please don't get too angry with me when I share that labeling your book "literary" will, in the minds of many agents, brand your book as being dark, depressing, boring, overly intellectual, mid-list, unsalable, (insert your own adjective for not-money-making here), etc.
When our annual competitions winners (see below) called their novel manuscripts "literary" you could almost see the agents' eyes roll up to the ceiling. As Peter Rubie put it: "When you call your novel "literary" you put yourself on a really difficult level—up against Annie Proulx, Philip Roth and the like."
But what did get the agents revved-up were terms mentioned in my post below, for example "crossover novel" (catchword meaning: a character-driven novel that might actually sell to a mass audience), or book club novel (catchword meaning: somewhat intellectual, culturally relevant, might actually sell to a mass audience if it catches on with the book club set). Much of this is industry jargon, but it's certainly worth knowing if you're trying to pitch a novel.
Feel free to share your thoughts on this but please don't shoot the messenger, I've got a busy schedule this month.
Keep Writing,
Maria
publishing news and views | the writing life
6/30/2008 1:21:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, June 26, 2008
Random stuff overheard from New York literary agents
Posted by maria
Hi Writers, Sorry for the lame headline. I’m putting the October issue of Writer’s Digest to bed and my clever headline writing capacity is shot. But I wanted to share some of the notes I kept during my recent trip to New York to accompany our annual competitions winners to meet agents (see posts below). Many thanks to the agents who guided us including: • Annelise Robey • Mollie Glick • Peter Rubie • Stephany Evans • Jennie Dunham • Michelle Brower • Donald Maass So here, in no particular order of importance is random stuff overheard from New York agents: • The term “book club novel” is hot; consider using in lieu of “literary” fiction; “crossover appeal” is another good catchphrase. • Make sure your synopsis is concise; stick to the main plotline and characters. • Know what the core conflict/ turning point of your story is. • Practice your “elevator pitch.” Be able to verbally sum up your novel in less than two minutes. • It takes a long time and a lot of effort to find the right agent because you want to find an agent who shares your vision for your writing career. This is one of the most important relationships of your life. • Many newer/ younger agents are coming into the field with strong editing background and expect to do a lot of editing. • Never mass e-mail agents; take the time to get to know the other authors they represent and if you’re a good fit. • Get some publishing credits however you can before you pitch a novel, this sends a signal to everyone that you are a publishable writer. For everything else you always wanted to know about literary agents but were afraid to ask, go seek the keeper of literary agent wisdom Chuck Sambuchino, editor of Guide to Literary Agents. Keep Writing, Maria Let me know if you have any questions, comments or clarifications and I will attempt to once again decipher my own handwriting.
publishing news and views | the writing life | writing technique
6/26/2008 4:51:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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