Tag: 2012 National RWA Conference

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e-maginings: Changing Times

August 16, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , ,

As some of you know, I still work part-time at Fullerton Public Library as a substitute librarian. My job is to sit at the Information/Reference Desk, now casually labeled the “Ask Here” desk, and answer patrons questions.

The other morning, a patron came in looking for books by an author I’d never heard of. We didn’t have any of her books in print or as downloadable books, but the woman told me she had read the first book in a paranormal romance series read it and was hot to read the next. She’d gotten the first book as a Kindle freebie, so I went to Amazon and discovered that the books were indie published. Apparently, the author in question, H.P. Mallory, had been such a success with her two indie series, she now has a contract with Bantam for more books in the series.

This all reminded me of Stephanie Laurens’s Keynote Speech at the recent RWA conference. She talked about how the publishing industry has changed and is in the process of changing. The writing process is the same; the reading process is the same; but the distribution system has been upended. Authors now have more options than ever before, including going directly to the reader. If you missed the speech, it’s at Laurens’s website.

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says, “May you live in interesting times.” which is sometimes taken more of a curse than a blessing. Whatever you may think of the changes in the publishing industry, you can’t deny that we are living in interesting times.

Linda Mac

Linda McLaughlin 
aka Lyndi Lamont
Twitter: @LyndiLamont

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RWA 2012 RITA Awards VIDEOS including OCC’s own Tessa Dare along with Joanna Bourne and Ann Aguirre by Jina Bacarr

August 11, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Even Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t have gotten a wink of sleep at the RWA 2012 Conference in Anaheim near Disneyland. I didn’t. I was as busy as the Mad Hatter running from workshop to workshop and shooting video. Lots of video. 12 GB worth. That’s 12 billion bytes as in billion.

This week I’m going to spotlight three of my favorite RITA award winners, beginning with OCC’s own TESSA DARE!!  Super congrats, Tessa, well deserved.

Tessa Dare, winner of the RITA for “A Night to Surrender” — her thank you to her hubby is beautiful.

Joanna Bourne’s wonderful tribute to teachers everywhere in her RITA speech for “The Black Hawk”

And here is the video everyone is talking about…

Ann Aguirre’s RITA speech for YA “Enclave” including her now infamous “interpretive dance.”

Now if you’ll excuse me, like Snow White’s dwarf, Sleepy, I’m…going to…take a nap…zzzzzzzzzzz

Best,
Jina

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Short Recap of RWA National 2012

August 6, 2012 by in category Pets, Romance & Lots of Suspense by Linda O. Johnston tagged as , ,

Last month I blogged about how it was almost time for the Romance Writers of America National Conference. This month, at PAW, we’re all going to discuss what we learned there.

Unfortunately, I was too busy with meetings to attend many workshops, so I’ll have to try to listen to the recorded ones on CD that I particularly wanted to hear. My own panel on Writing a Series You’re Passionate About went great!

But of the workshops, the Published Author Network (PAN) retreat programs, and other events I was able to attend, one thing was made abundantly clear: all of us, even major publishers, are accepting the wave of the future. E-books, and e-versions of print books, are only going to get bigger.

I get it. I still like to hold a real book in my hands and be able to turn the pages. But I also have a Kindle and enjoy its convenience and portability, too. I recognize reality, so I’ll try to adapt as much as I need to both in my writing and reading.

How about you–were you there? What were you particularly interested to learn?

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emaginings: Social Networking Baby Steps

July 16, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , , , , , ,

I’ve been avoiding much of the social network sites for a while now, mainly concerned about being so overwhelmed by it all that I won’t get any writing done. But this year, I’ve been taking baby steps to get involved. I have joined Shelfari, Twitter and now Goodreads, though I am still resisting Facebook.

Now seemed like a good time to join, with RWA Nationals coming up next week and featuring workshops like:

  • 360 Degrees of Promotion: Integrating Social Media, Mailing Lists and Websites
  • Hook a Reader in 140 Characters: How to Promote Using Social Media
  • How to Get the Most Out of Goodreads

What I’ve learned so far:

Twitter intimidates me. It’s such a simple idea, but with so many people tweeting all over the world, how do you not get lost in the shuffle? This one is going to take some time and patience, and it will not come before my writing time. It can’t. I can’t let it.

I’m more comfortable with the reader sites, Shelfari and Goodreads and wish I’d joined them sooner. Do you need to join both? No, many people pick one and stick with it. Goodreads is most popular, I believe.

As a consumer, what I like about Shelfari is that it’s owned by Amazon and you can sign in using your Amazon account username and password, which is why I used my real name instead of my pseudonym. Amazon ownership also means it’s very easy to fill up your bookshelf in a matter of minutes with the books you’ve bought from them. I’ve apparently been an Amazon customer since 1997, so I had a full bookshelf in record time. At Goodreads, I will have to add the books one at a time.

As an author, I like the fact that items added to the Shelfari pages, like character descriptions, will also appear on the Amazon pages of your book. I’ve done a little of that already, but there is a lot more to do. I have yet to set up my Author Page at Goodreads, but I will get to that. Then I can make a better comparison between the two sites.

In the meantime, I will be following the #occrwa12 feed on Twitter during the conference. (I’m taking my iPad so I can check anywhere.) I’ve joined the OCC/RWA Virtual Reading Lounge at Goodreads set up by Deanna Cameron, and plan to check out the OCC members pages.

Any tips for effective use of any of these sites would be appreciated. Use the comment section below or tweet me @LyndiLamont. Leave a comment and I will follow/friend you at any of these sites.

Linda McLaughlin / Lyndi Lamont

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/LyndiLamont
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/lindamclaughlin
Twitter: @LyndiLamont

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So What Are You Wearing to the Rita’s? No Really…

May 23, 2012 by in category Archives tagged as , , ,


Until the May meeting, I really hadn’t thought too much about the 2012 National Romance Writers of America Conference. I mean, I had…I registered and paid for it, I looked over the list of editors and agents that would be attending checked out the workshops, made hotel arrangements, okay, Joyce and Julie made hotel arrangements and included me in them, but that counts right? (Have I mentioned to you guys that I’m the Queen of Run On Sentences? No really I am!) But, it was something I was doing later, in the future so it didn’t seem real. Okay, the credit card bill was pretty real, but the event still seemed far away to me.
I wasn’t even going to go. My husband, Paul, the real life hero in the romance story of my life, henceforth referred to as Hunky Hubby (it’s a long story, but that’s his name now in my other blogs, so it might as well be here) was laid off in February, just before registration. He was off for several weeks and I couldn’t justify spending five hundred dollars on registration, two to three hundred on a hotel room, who knows how much on food…and possibly wine, and then whatever else comes up, because it will. I mean I still have to find a dress for the RITA’s!! What is everyone else wearing please help!!
So I wasn’t going to go. But, Hunky Hubby intervened. “This is for your career, you’re not going on a girl’s weekend to Vegas, you needto do this.” (Ha, little does he know!) It took him a couple of weeks to convince me. I’m the one who pays the bills and manages the money and in general I’m pretty frugal. I finally broke down and registered April 9th, yes the very last day of the early registration discount.
But I wasn’t excited, maybe it was the guilt, maybe just life has been so hectic. I didn’t get excited until the last OCC meeting. Everyone was talking about the upcoming conference, previous conferences, sharing tips, talking about writers, editors and agents that would be there, workshops to attend and all of the books!!
Now I’m excited. Not just excited, but motivated and even a little nervous. My writing productivity has greatly increased since the meeting. I’m making lists of things I need to remember to take, I’m looking online at semi-formal dresses for RITA…seriously, what are you guys wearing??
I was told not to take my manuscript that editors and agents won’t take them there, but Hunky Hubby has decided I need to take my manuscript. In fact, he’s convinced I need to take a hundred copies, so he’s putting it on hundreds of little flash drives for me to carry and hand to every editor or agent that I meet, and anyone who looks like they could be an editor or agent. I on the other hand am ordering business cards to distribute instead. Don’t tell Hunky Hubby.
I’m worried that Hunky Hubby and Middle Son (Middle Son is the last son living at home) will starve while I’m gone. I mean, neither cooks, well, they do grill, but they won’t even make themselves a sandwich and they’ll sit at the dining table, Hunky Hubby with a cold beer and Middle Son with a can of soda (he’s 22, but I’m in denial) waiting for me to serve their dinner each evening. Or, Middle Son will pick up pizza or tacos every night, and they’ll have subway for lunch. Okay, I guess they won’t starve.
And then there’s my manuscript. Can I expand my word count enough and have it polished in time? And my pitch, I don’t even want to think about my pitch, but of course, I’m constantly thinking about my pitch. OMG I HAVE TO GIVE A PITCH….MORE THAN ONCE.
So what are you all going to wear to the RITA’s? Can you please tell me so I can relax and quit worrying about the conference? Please?

Tari
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