There’s no two ways about it: Writer’s Conferences are made of awesome. Today’s Book Academy at UVU was no exception.

Although smaller and shorter than LDStorymakers, it was nonetheless a wonderful gathering, full of excellent information and incredible, amazing people.

I think I’ve mentioned before, getting together with a bunch of writers is like having a giant family reunion, but where everyone actually gets along. More than any others on the planet, these writers are my people. I have made some amazing friends, and I cherish every chance I have to get together with them.

I always leave conferences like this with such an incredible writer’s high. Sadly, my work with the Census in May pretty much canceled out the motivation I got during Storymakers. I just didn’t have time to write. But I feel like I was given a second chance this year by attending the Book Academy.

I had my camera, but only managed to get a couple of pictures. I will poach photos from those who were better at snapping shots as they become available.

Here I am with Josi Kilpack and Annette Lyon.

And this is me with Sarah Eden and Marion Jensen.

This is Krista Jensen and Melissa Cunningham, both online friends met in person for the first time today.

The trick now is to take this energy and turn it into written words. Hooray for conferences!

The biggest challenge I’m having right now author-wise is balancing the marketing efforts for Bumpy Landings with writing the follow up book (which I might call Into The Wind. Yes? No?) But I’ve had to accept that there’s no point in writing Into the Wind if I can’t do a good job at selling Bumpy Landings.

I think I have a pretty good marketing plan in place, with a big launch party January 8th (you’re all invited), followed by a week of Utah area signings. Then it’s off to Hawaii in February for a week, with a very full plate of workshops, signings, and research. March is Spring Break here, so I’m thinking of taking the fam to California, with promotional stops in Albuquerque, Phoenix, and Vegas along the way.

In addition to physical appearances, there are all of the other promotional efforts: Blog tours, author endorsements, this blog, plus facebook and twitter, and I need to get myself signed up on Goodreads.

And then there’s the book trailer. Holy Moly, what have I gotten myself into with this?

Here’s the light tent I’ve built to shoot the animation. It lets me have nice, consistent lighting. But only after dark. Otherwise the sunlight coming in from outside affects the shot, since the sunlight changes from one minute to the next.

I love what I’ve been able to shoot so far, but it is extremely time consuming. I’ve spent hours shooting these little Lego pieces, and have mere seconds of usable material to show for it.

This scene is a tricky special effects shot, and took about 3 hours and 4 different takes to get right. (Right-click the window to play it.)

But production should move along a bit more quickly now that I have worked my way up the learning curve. And I have to admit, making the trailer is a lot more fun than writing a press release.

However, I’ll be taking a week off of filming to travel to Utah for work. I’ve managed to time this trip to coincide with the UVU Book Academy, which I’m very excited to attend. This weekend is also LDS General Conference, and I have tickets to two of the sessions. I miss my family already, even though I don’t leave until tonight. But it’s going to be a great trip. Maybe I’ll see some of you!

I love that BYU’s Speculative Fiction Symposium pays tribute in its title to the late, great Douglas Adams. I also love that I was able to attend a few hours of this years event. (And I love that next month, I’ll be celebrating the Birthday At The End Of The Universe when I turn 42. More on that in a later post.)

Here is a panel discussing What Editors Do, with Stacy Whitman of Tu, Tristi Pinkston of Valor, Lisa Mangum of Deseret Book, and L. E. Modesitt, who claims he was on this panel as the representative of Editorial Victims Everywhere.

I also enjoyed the Main Address by Brandon Sanderson. Sadly, I was so involved in talking to my friends between panels that the good seats filled up very quickly, as did the bad seats, and I was left in the “awful” section.

At least the sound system worked, since Brandon took several opportunities to make fun of James Dashner.

I had a great lunch with a number of other writers – Tristi, Keith, Kimberly, Heather, Nichole, and others I’m sure I’m forgetting because I didn’t take a picture to help jog my memory.

Immediately after the conference, I went to my nephew’s baptism, and had the privilege of meeting fellow Cedar Fort author Marilyn Bunderson, who’s book The Mark is coming out next month. Marilyn’s son was also baptized that day, so we didn’t really get much of a chance to talk, but she did express an interest in learning what I know about marketing ideas for writers.

I have a lot of great ideas about how to sell books, even though I have never actually done it. This is just like how I had a lot of great ideas about how to be a parent before my kids were ever born. And since one or two of those parenting ideas actually worked out, maybe some of my marketing “knowledge” will bear fruit as well.

So over the next few posts, I will share the nuggets of author marketing wisdom I have gleaned from blog reading and conference attending and book buying. And to all of my readers with real book selling experience, I invite (implore?) you to share your experience as well.

Today marks a momentous day – it’s the halfway point between the 2009 and 2010 LDStorymakers Writers Conferences.

The last conference was six months in the past.

The next conference is six months in the future.

I’m just so ding-dang excited about the conference I can hardly stand it!

Ahem.

While it’s probably true that most information available at writing conferences can be had for free out amongst the internets, I’ve found I learn so much from the conference, because I’m in a writing frame of mind, surrounded by people who share the same affliction I do.

And that’s another big thing that’s available on the internet, but much better in person: writing friends. The opportunity to network and rub shoulders with established authors, aspiring writers, readers, agents, and publishers, is simply unparalleled. And the LDStorymakers conference has these in abundant supply.

Check out some of the awesome people I got to hang with last year!

Jewel Allen

James Dashner

Stephanie Humphreys and Ali Cross

John and Danyelle Ferguson

Melanie Jacobson

Josi Kilpack

Annette Lyon

And, of course, the 2010 LDStorymakers conference co-chairs, Jaime Theler and Tristi Pinkston, with their Magic Wands and the Goblet of Fire.

I actually took this picture, but not with my camera, so I had to go and steal it from the official 2009 LDStorymakers Photo Album.

I recently took a peek at the LDStorymakers web site, and found myself quite impressed with the amount of information already available for next year’s conference: Class and workshop schedule; list of agents and editors; and rules for the First Chapter Contest.

Check out the web site, and clear your calendar for April 23-24, 2010. You’ll be glad you did.

Disclaimer: Nobody put me up to this post. Nobody offered, promised, or gave me anything in return. I just really enjoy the conference, and know that you will, too.

I had my pitch with Kirk Shaw from Covenant at the LDStorymakers conference today. I think it went OK. We talked a little about my book, and he requested the full manuscript, so that’s good. It’s pretty much done, but I want to finish working through this last polish before I send it.

Now the waiting begins – as much as four months. While the book is out on submission, I think I will return to working on Space Corp General. I mentioned it to several people, including Kirk, and they all thought working on something different would be a good idea. And middle grade science fiction seems to be in fairly short supply at the moment.

In other news, I think I am finally coming to grips with the fact that my current work fits solidly in the romance genre. No more “general fiction with romantic tendencies.” I just have to accept it for what it is, and admit that, at the moment, I am a romance writer.

I’ve been working on editing my MS, getting it ready to submit once a full is (hopefully) requested after I pitch this thing on Friday. I’ve also been trying to figure out what 10 pages to bring to the Boot Camp at the writers conference, and I finally made up my mind yesterday.

I chose 10 pages that are somewhat in the middle, and play a very important role in the story. The beginning has been worked to death, but these pages haven’t been put out there much, so I think I can get the most mileage out of sharing them.

I edited these pages last week some time, but with the knowledge that they would be reviewed and scrutinized at Boot Camp, I thought I’d better look at them again, just to be sure.

Wow. It’s amazing what a little extra scrutiny turns up. I printed out the pages and made dozens of changes, and then made dozens more when I printed them out again. And I thought this section was essentially “ready.”

Now I wish I had time to give each chapter that kind of attention. Maybe this is telling me I need to make the time. After all, is what I have really ready?

OK – they’re off. I’ve polished up my synopsis and the first ten pages of my manuscript, and sent them off to the Co-coordinator for the Agent/Editor pitch/review sessions. Yikes. I’m really going to do this!

The hardest part of the exercise was coming up with a title – even just a working title. I like the one I started with 18 months ago, but once I had gotten rid of half of the first hundred pages, it no longer fit. I’ve come up with several dozen since then, and I’ve pretty much hated them all (including the one I used for the first chapter contest – blech.)

Condensing the story to one page for the synopsis was hard, but trying to condense it into a half-dozen words or less is proving impossible.

If this thing ever gets picked up for publication, I’m glad it’s the marketing department that will need to pick a title. Then at least if I hate it (and I hear the odds of that are good), I’ll have someone else to blame.

Two notes on contests today – neither related to the other.

First, I got my other entry into the LDStorymaker’s First Chapter Contest submitted. Now all I have to do is wait for a month and a half. But it’s OK. I can handle that sort of thing. I’m better than I used to be, anyway.

Oh, who am I kidding – the suspense is driving me crazy! Oh, well. Better get used to it.

But the other contest I want to mention is right now! I just did my 500th post over at Fifteen Minutes of Delusion, and to celebrate I’m having a contest. The rules are here and the game itself is here.

Share and enjoy!

I’m shaking just a little right now. My stomach is tight and I feel light headed. I just registered for the LDStorymakers Conference, and ponied up for a manuscript pitch session.

Yikes! What have I done?

Well, OK. I’ve done what I’ve been saying I would do for the last 6 months or so – prepared to pitch my story to an editor at the conference.

I was disappointed that I was only able to select one pitch session, but I see the wisdom there. With only 30 total pitch sessions available, it wouldn’t really be fair for someone to take two. But still – having to decide between Kirk Shaw at Covenant and Lisa Mangum at Deseret Book? Tough choice. And knowing that if 30 other people signed up ahead of me I would be out of luck, I didn’t feel I had the luxury of time to ponder the options.

It was basically a coin toss, and I picked Kirk at Covenant. Of course, that means I’ll need to make sure and talk to Lisa at the conference so she knows who I am, and then submit to her afterwards. Provided Kirk doesn’t sign me on the spot. (Hey – don’t forget: the blog title is delusion.)

But now I’m committed. My money is where my mouth is. I’m going to pitch this book in April, so it had better be ready.

More importantly, I need an actual pitch! Just the other day, someone asked me what my book was about, and I said “It’s, um, about this guy, um, and it’s actually kind of hard to explain.” Groan!

It’s really not all that hard to explain. But I haven’t worked up a good pitch yet. I haven’t really even worked up a bad pitch yet. It’s just, you know, a novel. General fiction. No wizards, space ships, corsets, or vampires. Just people.

OK. Now I know what to do with my writing time while my current draft is out with readers: come up with a pitch.

The schedule for the 2009 LDStorymakers Writer’s Conference is out, and the conference is going to be April 24-25 next year. Since I hope to have a finished, polished manuscript to pitch at the conference, this is good news to me.

Jeff Savage, this year’s Conference King, indicated one reason for moving the conference from March to April is to give the Whitney Awards committee time to finish reading the nominees. As an added bonus, I get an extra month to polish and fine tune my manuscript.

My calendar is marked. Is yours?