Laini Giles's Blog, page 9

Tag, you’re it!

Alicia Dean has a purty new website up and we’re celebrating by playing author tag,some of my buds from the Edmonton Writers Group and me.

Hal Friesen
Natasha Deen

You can see what Alicia posted here. The lovely Natasha Deen tagged me, and here are my answers:

What is the working title of your book? I kept calling it Finger Lakes until I could think of an actual title. 

Where did the idea come from for the book? I was sitting at a microfilm reader at the library in Ithaca, New York scanning clippings from 1916, and ran across a story that piqued my interest (discussed in more detail on my website). “What if?” I asked myself. “What if he was never caught?”

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Frank Conley (my hero)- Dennis Farina (ex Law and Order)
Linda (his love interest) – Annie Parisse (ex law and Order)
Russ (Ithaca’s town historian) – David Clennon (he played Miles on thirtysomething years ago)
Libbie – Katie Holmes
Young Olive – Laura Linney
Older Olive – Betty White is a little too happy for this role. I can’t decide!
Tom- Eion Bailey (he played David Webster in Band of Brothers)
Stephen (Jamie Bamber – He’s on Law and Order UK)

I’ll tag Margaret Lesh. You’ve been tagged, darlin!

Surrey Tidbits

Yesterday, I posted my earthshaking thoughts on the conference that changed my life.

Today, I’ll give you a few more funny things I learned this weekend. While not earthshaking, they are entertaining and added to the experience:

Sharan Newman is fabulous to talk to about Bernard of Clairvaux. For art history geeks like me, this was fun. I’ve made a note to myself to speak to her more next year. I love her saying, “Never set a book somewhere you don’t want to visit!”
Sam Sykes has nice dimples, and uses a stuffed walrus for comfort when he gets nervous.
Andy Ross does not like oversimplification, such as pitching something like “Danielle Steel Meets Finnegan’s Wake.” Give him a little more than that.
JJ Lee used to be a Dungeons and Dragons geek. Without him, I would not have known about two-handed swords not being able to take out gelatinous cubes.
Victoria Marini likes Iggy Pop. This was cool, because so do I, and so should you.
Diana Gabaldon has a thing for dachshunds.
You can always recognize KC Dyer by her day’s wacky tights choices– multicolor and stripey Wicked Witch of the East were especially popular.
C.C. Humphreys makes a great morlock.
Susanna Kearsley wants to ensure that we never call ourselves “aspiring” writers ever again. We’re writers. Period.
Michael Slade likes the word outre’.
Don Maas is very passionate about whatever he speaks on, even going to the grocery store and getting annoyed at people like me. Next year, I need to buy that man a drink.
Jack Whyte’s voice really IS as great as they say it is. Imagine the booming bass of a Blaupunkt in that old GTO driving by. Now imagine it’s a Scottish accent. And giggle a little, because he’s quite handy with the ladies.
Nephele Tempest doesn’t like body parts described as foods. This automatically rules out one of my favorite lines that I’ve written. So I won’t be querying Nephele.

Let me reiterate here. This past weekend changed my life. If you are a writer, and you have not been to the Surrey International Writers Conference, you must find a way to go. Beg, borrow, or steal, as they say. But do it.

Surrey, how I adore you…

Room party!

It has taken me two whole days of recuperation to coherently put a blog post together.

All I can say is, if you’re a writer, and you have not yet been to a conference, you MUST GO. And while I heard some nightmare stories about several other cons from various folks who’d gone in either amateur or professional capacities, I heard only good things about Surrey. And now I believe the hype.

Imagine a ton of people, just like you, who hear the voices in their heads, who create strange worlds (or like me, visit the one we’re in 100 or so years ago), and who all come together for three or four days. They listen to those who work in the field, they get advice, and they attempt to break into the big time by putting their foot on the first rung of that ladder (using agent and editor pitch appointments…).

It’s a pretty heady place to be. Especially if you get good feedback on your Blue Pencil appointment or a positive response to your pitch. I had both.

The agent I pitched to was honest with me initially, saying she was having a problem with selling something sort of like mine (that really isn’t, but only Hollywood related), but she also wondered if it might be the other writer’s voice that was the issue. I explained that the one thing everyone comments on after reading mine is that they love the voice. She dug my platform, and wanted to hear about the other books I was working on in a similar vein. When I was done, she requested a full. So I’ve been spending my days cleaning it up, and I also tweaked it to include the bit of feedback that I received from my Blue Pencil writer, Susanna Kearsley. If you haven’t bought any of her books, you must. Especially if you like the old gothics like Mary Stewart, Phyllis Whitney, and Victoria Holt.

I had really been at a bit of a low ebb before I went, wondering if it was worth it, and not knowing if my stuff was any good. It’s one thing to have your betas or your writing group telling you something, but when it’s echoed by someone who has been there, and who is able to lend it a discerning eye and still tell you that you have a great voice and that you can write, that means everything. All it took was that little pat on the back, and I was able to take that confidence to my pitch and not freak the fuck out as I was doing it. Susanna’s keynote address also helped with that. I am not an “aspiring” writer. I’m a writer. I have to force myself to remember that sometimes, but it’s true.

Plus, now I know the importance of the bar networking. My first night or so, I was so new, and didn’t know anyone, so I was kind of staying to myself until the sessions began. But I did end up meeting some great gals in the bar, and much wine was drunk. Next year, I will milk every minute even more than I did this year. I still came home with an amazing new bunch of friends, and a thick stack of business cards. Next year, I’m determined to meet EVERYBODY. Or at least say hello to some of the more prominent folk, some of whom I was a little too intimidated to talk to this year. They’re too nice not to talk to!

For those of you considering it for next year…

www.siwc.ca