Debut of "...A New Century"

Saturday was the Sixth Annual Gulf Coast Writers Conference, held at the Gulf Coast Community College Language Arts building. I've participated in a number of these now, and I believe that this one was the best -- and the audience seemed to agree. My own early morning session was not (only two elderly gentlemen joined Nathan and me for a discussion of "setting") but the rest of the conference was WAY good for the writer in me, and for the writer in everyone else there. Sold a few books, too, met some nice people, talked about LIT-trit-chure, ya know, and shared some chuckles.

Lynn Wallace and I joined forces to talk about the journeys our books took to publication in a session called "A Tale of Two Tomes" and we wrapped up the day with a round-robin on alternative (non-traditional) methods of publishing.

Virginia Dixon, an English teacher at Mosley High School, received the first autographed copy of Welcome to the Dawning of a New Century, and Michael's wife Pam took her picture with me. Viriginia, it turns out, spent a few years teaching at Northview High School, which was the school that replaced Century High when Century and Walnut Hill were closed and combined in 1995-96. Virginia explained how the kids from both schools seemed to integrate with less trouble than the teachers from the two schools; she came there by way of Pensacola, so she had less trouble than some. Her picture will be on the blog soon, along with other conference photos.

The luncheon speaker was Jim Pascoe of Ugly Town Press, a Hollywood publisher of mystery novels and other edgy fiction. I instantly liked Jim, introduced by Michael as "the David Bowie of mystery publishing," who was an impeccable dresser, charismatic speaker, knowledgable, funny, and giving. He flew in from California on the red-eye just for the conference.

Another standout presenter was Cricket Pechstein of the August Agency, a Florida/NYC firm representing lots of different kinds of writers. She gave us plenty to consider and encouraged a few of us directly through one-on-one pitch sessions. The others she encouraged through her group sessions. She is anticipating an outline and samples from me shortly regarding my new project.

We all went to supper at Uncle Ernie's after the conference -- Michael and his family and their friends, me and my family, Cricket, Jim -- and talked books, music, movies, plays -- it was a fabulous evening. I felt alive, energized. Hearing my son carry on conversations like that, trading movie quotes, dissecting musicians, discussing the future -- yeah, that's the life.

Coming up: Photos from the conference. Then, notes from my session on "Setting (or, 'No matter where you go there you are')"