I've still got some post-con grogginess, but I had a good time at MarCon this year. Here were my highlights:
I popped into Cindy Matthews' presentation, The First Five Pages. Matthews talked about how to get your manuscript moving fast, before your potential editor or agent has the chance to get bored.
I attended a fantastic workshop on Writing Law Enforcement, led by Griffin Barber and Alistair Kimble. Barber is a long-serving officer with the San Francisco Police Department, and Kimble is an FBI agent. (In addition, both are published in Eric Flint's 1632 Universe.) They gave us workshop attendees an interesting and informative rundown of the differences between local and federal law enforcement, the human side of their line of work, and some common misconceptions that pop up in TV, books, and movies. Because we were a small group, they took extra time and care to answer my very basic questions. Since I'm tackling my first mystery novel and one of my lead characters is a police officer, I wanted to ensure I got the details right, and Barber and Kimble did a great job filling in my mental blanks. They also handed out awesome swag:
Saturday I attended a workshop on Fairytales and Fantasy, featuring Karen Dollinger and Jillian Kuhlmann. Dollinger later spoke on a panel on the relevance of feminism, which turned out to be a lively but respectful discussion.
Today I attended a reading by Kuhlmann from her debut novel The Hidden Icon. That was followed by a reading of the short story "Good Thoughts" by Chuck Ebert. He has a story coming out soon, the details of which I'll post as soon as I get them.
Plus, I got to exchange brief hellos with Lucy Snyder, Denise Verrico and Gary Wedlund. (As well as other folks, but right now I'm suffering from Con-brain.) I was grateful to reconnect with old friends and learn so much new. See you at next MarCon.
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