After Action Report: 2024 Write Stuff Conference

Another Write Stuff Conference has come and gone all too soon.  Although the convention is three days long, I was only able to attend on Friday and Saturday.

Friday’s full-day session was divided into two sections, both taught by NYT bestseller and five-time Bram Stoker award winner Jonathan Maberry. The morning class was a three-hour crash course on creating a saleable novel while the afternoon was all about creating compelling characters in fiction. Jonathan’s advice was compelling, entertaining, poignant, and direct.

Photo credit: Joan Zachary

It wouldn’t be the Write Stuff without the Friday night social event from 8:30-10PM. In recent years, cosplay has been encouraged with people dressing up as characters from short stories and books. Our first cosplayer who started years before, however, was con-chair Charles Kiernan as Mark Twain seen here with Laurel Wenson as Sister Katherine from Michael Daigle’s series of detective novels starring Frank Nagler.

Photo credit: Christina Dunbar

Saturday was a full day of hour-long presentations by our faculty including Jonathan Maberry, Amy Deardon, Jordan Sonnenblick, Laurel Wenson, and Melissa Koberlein.

Melissa Koberlein presentation on Writing Romantic Comedies

Given the fact that I’ve had a romantic comedy idea bouncing around my head for several months, I attended Melissa Koberlein’s wonderful presentation on writing rom-coms (above) and left with a list of elements that comprise a good rom-com and a few book recommendations.

I remained in the room for Jonathan Maberry’s talk on crafting the perfect pitch. At one point, he asked the audience for a title, character name, and logline for a story. Armed with that info, he instantly created a verbal pitch for the book, summarizing both the plot and the protagonist and naming comparable titles. He did this without stammering, hesitating, or reconsidering a single word of his pitch. Stunning.

At that point, I decided to set up my table for the afternoon book fair and managed to sell a few books before lunch while chatting with fellow writers Laurel Wenson, Michael Daigle and Jon Gibbs.

By the time I made my way to Salons A& B for lunch, the joint was packed. I found a seat in the back corner table with friend, writer, and editor Weldon Burge and his wife, Cindy. I had suggested Weldon as a presenter, having worked with him when he accepted and edited my story for A Plague of Shadows anthology in 2018. Weldon and I have also had stories in three other anthologies over the years. He is an experienced presenter, small press owner, and a good friend.

Over dessert, Jonathan Maberry delivered an encouraging, delightful, and uplifting keynote speech that was part advice and part anecdotes from his writing career.

Phil & Jonathan Maberry Weldon Burge on Writing for Anthologies

After lunch, I attended Weldon’s back-to-back presentations on writing for anthologies (above). After that, it was time for the book fair. My hottest seller was the second edition of my first paranormal mystery novel, Testing the Prisoner, which had won three awards since November, including two just days before the conference. I also sold four anthologies before the end of the day. By 5PM, it was time to call it a day, pack it in, and say goodbye to Weldon, Cindy, Jonathan Maberry, and my fellow members of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group who did an amazing job of organizing the conference yet again.

Weldon & Phil at the Book Fair

To add a little more literary fun to this weekend, two items arrived in the mail, one on Friday and other on Saturday. The first was the pack of award stickers from The BookFest Spring 2024 competition in which Testing the Prisoner took second place in the Horror\Ghosts & Paranormal category.

BookFest Stickers for Testing the Prisoner

The second item was the 12×18 poster for the second edition of my second paranormal mystery novel from 2012, By Your Side. The new edition is available on preorder in ebook format now with the paperback to follow next week.

Posters for Testing the Prisoner and By Your Side