Here is What Happened in New York

As my little family of three drew near the city the landscape transformed from one covered with tall trees to one covered with towering buildings.  An absence of foliage, numerous man made structures, constant honking of horns, multiple lanes of bumper to bumper traffic and the throngs of pedestrians communicated to me that I was not in a city but riding along on the back of an unique beast.  Everything about New York City gave me the sense that it was indeed the place where mere dreams go to become a reality.  It is weird how quickly the city claims you.  By day two I was apart of one of the many moving throngs of people on the streets.  Okay, I will push my wide eyed aw for the city aside now.

The Algonkian Writers Conference I attended was held at the Ripley-Grier studios.  I was in Michael Neff’s group.  Day one was reading of the pitches.  All of us (except for J.P. :-) needed to rework them.  The pitch is basically your hook.  Over the next few days we continued to tweak our hooks and met with editors.  One was flat out not interested in my story but a couple seemed intrigued.  I mean they asked a lot of questions about the plot, characters and themes.  One even wrote down my blog url (Hi).  Right now it is a waiting game to see if anything materializes from the conference.  I learned a lot and was reminded that though this is an art form for me it is a business for them.  They want to know if you will make them money.  Right now I and many others are standing before the locked gate hoping someone will deem our work worthy enough for entry.  I have started looking for an agent and have at least begun thinking about book two.  I met some incredible writers at the conference and wish I could attend one every month.  It was such a kick in the ass:!)  Happy reading, writing or whatever.  And be nice about the pictures please.  I was caught up in the whole New York fashion thing…