Celebrating NaNoWriMo at Fan Expo Denver

Hello from Fan Expo Denver!

As we do most years, the Denver region of NaNoWriMo has a community table at the expo, plus two panels about NaNoWriMo: one tomorrow about the Young Writers program, and an intro to NaNoWriMo on Sunday.

It's a great time to reach out to the community.  We get a lot of people walking by who are interested in writing or who have kids who are interested in writing, but have no idea what NaNoWriMo is.  We do also get people coming by who recognize the name or who have participated in NaNoWriMo before.  Occasionally we even see familiar faces, participants we know from our local events.

The table is a lot of sitting around though, because most people trolling the vendor hall are looking for things to buy.  Possibly my favorite (even though it's a little anxiety-inducing) is the panels, because we get to talk about our experiences doing NaNoWriMo.  We usually do a short intro and then just take questions from the audience.  It's fun and we joke around a lot, in between the more serious answers.

I hope if you're in Denver, you'll stop by our community table to say hi or come join us for our panels!

NaNoWriMo at Denver Comic Con!

This past weekend was Denver Comic Con.  I should have posted sooner, but I haven't been very good about maintaining my blogs, and by the time I thought about it Comic Con was underway -- and then I was too busy to post before the end.

My co-ML for the Denver region, who is fantastic and has been an ML for many years, arranged with Comic Con for us to have a table there again, like we did at last year's Comic Con.  And this year, I was on a panel to talk about NaNoWriMo!

NaNoWriMo, Denver Comic Con, and being sick

I lost a lot of last week because I was sick, and then over the long weekend I went to Denver Comic Con, so I've been MIA a lot lately.

My illness hit me two weekends ago, and it really hit me hard.  I canceled a lot of my obligations that weekend and slept for most of it, thinking that would help me to be fully functional once Monday rolled around.  Unfortunately, once I went back to my regular schedule on Monday, I had a major setback, and it wasn't until Thursday or so that I felt well again.  Luckily it cleared up before Comic Con!

Post-con coma

AnomalyCon ended this afternoon.  After a whirlwind weekend of costumes, panels, and other exciting things, I'm usually mentally exhausted afterward, if not physically.  I'm a little less tired than usual, I think partly because I skipped a few things this year instead of trying to do EVERY SINGLE THING, but I'm still pretty beat.  Plus I think I might be getting a cold, so I've taken it easy this evening and I'm now heading to bed with the hopes of getting enough sleep to fight it off.

I will post more on the con tomorrow, including pictures of my outfits, descriptions of my adventures, and an overview of what I learned!

Off to AnomalyCon!

AnomalyCon starts today!  I spent last night packing (I babysat this morning so I knew I wouldn't have another chance until right before I left, and I didn't want to be rushed).  I have costumes planned out, too.  I had been contemplating not dressing up this year, but decided I wanted to after all.  And then I found some great stuff for costumes, so now I'm really excited about dressing up!

Weird week

This week has been weird.  The kid I usually take to preschool in the mornings has been sick, so I've had the last few mornings off.  You would think this would mean I'd get more done, but in actuality I may have gotten less done, and just slept more.  That's not necessarily a bad thing, since I've been getting less sleep since I started that morning job in January, but it has made the week feel surreal.

Also weird is that I have a lot of busyness coming up: AnomalyCon is this weekend, and then Camp NaNoWriMo starts almost immediately afterward.  I feel like I'm not prepared for any of it.

Muse Online Writers Conference canceled for 2014

Yesterday I thought to go looking for information on the 2014 Muse Online Writers Conference.  I participate in this conference nearly ever year, and have since their very first year, so I was disappointed to find in my searching that the 2014 conference has been canceled.  It wasn't a very prominent announcement, I felt, so I thought I would share the news here in case my writerly friends weren't aware of it yet.

International Freelancers Day replays

If you missed the videos available in real-time on International Freelancers Day — Friday, September 24 and Saturday, September 25 — replays are now available!  If you registered, you should have gotten an email today with a website and a password to access the videos.

Even if you didn't register before the event, however, it's not too late!  You can watch three of the videos on this page, and if you like what you see, you can register to get access to the rest!

I haven't had a chance to look at any of the videos yet — I'll probably start going through them this weekend.  The one I'm most interested in is the one about staying motivated and productive when you work from home.

If you've watched any of the sessions, either as replays or during the event, which ones do you recommend?

International Freelancers Day

Kathy Kehrli's wonderful blog, Screw You!, gave me the heads up that tomorrow is International Freelancers Day.  I won't be online much tomorrow, but I dropped by the check it out, and was amazed at what a great list of sessions and presenters they will have.  They also have a full day on Saturday, and all of it is free!

Even if you aren't going to be able to attend on short notice, I think it's worth registering — if you are registered, you'll be able to watch the videos for free at a later date.

I am especially interested in a session called "Workday Nirvana: How to remain inspired and productive when you work alone."  This one runs at 12:45 EST tomorrow, so I won't be able to make it, but I'm hoping to be able to catch it as a rerun.  Sounds like it could offer some advice that will help me with productivity — something I have been struggling with lately.

Also of interest is a presentation on Saturday by the author of the Well-Fed Writer series.  I've read the first book, but I'm interested to see what he has to say in the short video session!

Will you be attending any of the presentations?  If so, I'd love to know what you think, so that when Friday's sessions are available on replay I know which ones I want to watch!

Register for the 2008 Muse Online Writers Conference

Just yesterday, I registered for the 2008 Muse Online Writers Conference. Since there are only a couple of days left to register — registration ends September 1, 2008, according to the website — I wanted to post a reminder for those of you who planned on attending this year.

Last year there were things I really liked about the conference, and things that disappointed me somewhat. I am going to attend again this year, but I think I will probably sign up for fewer chats and workshops, and see if I enjoy it more if I have less to do!

Did you attend the online conference last year, and if so what did you think? Will you be attending again this year?

Update to a post

This evening I updated this post:

Day 3 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

Please skip on over there to check out my update, as I want to make sure no one misunderstood my comments in the original post.

Days 6 and 7 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

Being the weekend, days six and seven of the Muse Online Writers Conference rather blended together.

Saturday morning I had a chat on self-publishing. The chat was at 9am my time; however, I've been slipping out of my earlier schedule lately, so I slept in and signed on 20 or 25 minutes late. The chat was good, but not spectacular, so I don't think I missed much.

I didn't do anything else with conference or work for the rest of the day. Instead, Michael and I did our normal weekend stuff, like walking the dogs and going to the stables.

Yesterday I completely forgot about an afternoon chat I was supposed to attend. I didn't do any work (yes, I did have some I wanted to do) or blog, either. Instead, I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which I had started late Saturday night) every chance I got.

In fact, I finished Book 7 late last night, less than 24 hours from when I had started it. I counted up the actual hours spend reading, and I figure it took me about nine hours total to read the book. It's been a while since I've read a book in one day -- particularly a book as long as Harry Potter -- but it felt very satisfying.

So that was my days six and seven of the conference. How was everyone else's weekends?

Day 5 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

The Muse Online Writers Conference is almost over! Today was day five, with only Saturday and Sunday left to go.

I haven't done much conference-ish stuff today, and it seems I'm not the only one: My workshops in the forum are virtually dead. I think everyone is starting to slow down a bit. For instance, Mariella reported that she resorted to saving the transcripts for her chats, so that she could keep working now and read the transcripts later.

I did have one chat scheduled today: one on writing for pet publications. There was some good information in the chat, but unfortunately I couldn't participate -- I couldn't click, type, or scroll anywhere within the chat window. I tried logging out and back in a couple of times, but that didn't fix it. I probably should have tried rebooting, but I decided not being able to ask questions was better than missing several minutes of the chat altogether.

Other than the chat and a few brief visits to the forum, I spent a lot of my day blogging (obviously!). I have noticed that I tend to go through periods where I don't blog as much, and other periods where I blog several times a day. Lately I've been experiencing one of the latter types.

As it turned out, my workload for this week wasn't as bad as I anticipated. I wrote to one client and was able to reschedule (thank goodness for flexible, loyal clients!). I had only a couple of other, minor things to do, which has been nice.

I'll be sure to let you know how the remaining two days of the conference go. In the meantime, if you haven't already read about my week, be sure to read about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

Day 4 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

The fourth day of the Muse Online Writers Conference was possibly the best day yet — but that's because I won something.

While in the first of my two chats for the day, there was a couple of door prizes. At the time of the first door prize there was some discussion about whether we are supposed to guess one number and stop, or keep guessing numbers until someone gets it. Unfortunately, the moderators have not been stating the rules for the door prizes, and in two of my previous chats someone had said something to indicate you should only guess once.

We cleared that up with Lea, however, and so for the second door prize I was prepared: I started rattling off numbers until the chat threatened to kick me out. (Apparently if you post too much you can get kicked out.) My second guess won the prize: the presenter's book!

The funny thing about this was that I was pretty annoyed, on the forum and in the chat, at how often the presenter was plugging her book. I understand that many of the presenters see this conference as a chance to get the word out about their books, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't do their jobs in presenting. My most hated response to a question, either on the forum or in a chat, is, "The answer to that is in my book," or something similar. To me, that just seems so cheap — after all, they are there to answer questions on their subject!

The presenter from whom I won the book was doing that to a certain extent. In fact, the"handout" was a sample chapter — an introductory chapter, with no information — from the presenter's book. I'm genuinely happy to have won a door prize, especially one that is so useful, but I can't help but admit I find it somewhat satisfying to get it for free after the presenter spent so much effort plugging it to all of us.

I'm staying more or less up-to-date now on the forums, although I still haven't been participating in that Dialogue Workshop — the one fiction workshop or chat I signed up for, I'm afraid. In one of the forums, I submitted an old bio for review, but sadly, the presenter didn't think much of it. As Kathy Kehlri noted, however, at least this will get me to update it!

You can read about my experiences during the first few days of the Muse Online Writers Conference here:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday

Day 3 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

Yesterday, Wednesday, was day 3 of the Muse Online Writers Conference. (You can see my reflections on Monday and Tuesday here.) I had two chats yesterday: Protecting Yourself and Your Work by K.L. Nappier, and Book Marketing for Shy and Frugal Authors by Shel Horowitz.

From the corresponding forum for Protecting Yourself and Your work, I have decided that my knowledge of copyright regulations actually puts me ahead of most of the topics covered in the workshop. The chat wasn't much different, I am afraid. However, perhaps the workshop will provide some newer information as the week progresses.

The book marketing chat was terrific. Horowitz is clearly very knowledgeable on the subject. I intend to check a couple of his books out from my best friend the library. One of his books, which my library doesn't have, I may end up buying.

Also yesterday, I visited almost all of my week-long workshops. Some of them are turning out to be quite good. I am particularly pleased with Wynette Hoffman's How to Publish Your Novel Your Way. It's pretty much the entire rundown on self-publishing — very informative and helpful.

Update 10/20/2007 -- After a note from Kathy Nappier, I feel I may have given the wrong impression regarding her workshop. My complaint was not that the workshop was inadequate -- quite the contrary, actually, as most of the participants really did need the basic information she provided. I think that with my freelancing experience and the research I have already done on copyright information, I was simply the odd one out in that workshop. However, I'm not sorry I signed up, as I enjoyed "meeting" Ms. Nappier and the other participants!

Day 2 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

Tuesday, day 2 of the Muse Online Writers Conference, went noticeably better than Monday. I had one chat: Historical Fiction by Florence Weinberg. I was very relieved to find the chat entertaining and informative — after my first experience, I was afraid all that chats were going to stink.

Also on Tuesday, I started visiting more of the forums where the week-long workshops are held. I think I got through about a third of my workshops on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, my week has turned into a blur, so that's about all I remember about Tuesday.

Day 1 of the Muse Online Writers Conference

Yesterday was the first day of the Muse Online Writers Conference. I already posted about this yesterday, about halfway through the day, but I rather thought my observations needed a little bit more attention.

Admittedly, I didn't do much on the conference yesterday. The main attraction was a chat on how to market your book to keep it selling over time; however, I was extremely disappointed with the chat. The answers to participant questions weren't very helpful, especially because getting us to buy her book (instead of answering our questions) seemed to be the presenter's main goal.

Yesterday I also managed to read a few of the presenters' handouts, and visited a grand total of two of my workshop forums. Unfortunately, work caught up with me at about that point, and thanks to a nice little roadblock I hit on a project, I never did get to go back to the conference forum.

Today, hopefully, will be a little more successful. Although half my day is gone thanks to Panama's first training session, I don't have much else to accomplish today. With any luck, I'll be able to start participating in my week-long workshops today. I also have a real-time chat at 3pm my time.

I'll post later today or tomorrow about Day 2 of the Muse Online Writers Conference.

The Muse Online Writers Conference begins!

For those of you who are signed up, today is the first day of the Muse Online Writers Conference. If you're not signed up, never fear -- there is already one planned for next year.

I had originally thought I would clear my work schedule at least a little for this week-long event, but as it turned out I neglected to do so. In some cases, it was because I didn't want to ask the clients, but for the most part it was because I do, sadly, still need this week's income from my regular jobs. On the bright side, I didn't accept any additional work, but I do expect to be quite busy this week.

The first day of the conference is almost halfway over. This is everything I have done so far:

* Registered for the forums and chat lounge
* Read through a few of the presenters' handouts
* Visited a few of my week-long workshops on the forum
* Attended my first real-time chat

Today and tomorrow are my "light" days this week: I only have one real-time chat scheduled each day. Today, however, I will need to finish reading the handouts and start participating in the week-long workshops. My goal is to finish my work for the day in the next couple of hours, so that I can spend some time on the conference forum.

If you are participating in the online conference, how is (or was) your first day?

Writing conference schedule

If you have signed up for the Muse Online Writing Conference, don't forget that your event choices are due by Tuesday, September 25th. A couple of fellow writers have reminded me by asking what I'm signing up for.

Here is what is on my list at this moment:

Monday:
How to Keep Your Book Alive and Selling for a Long, Long, Long, Long Time

Tuesday:
Historical Fiction (and a long subtitle I'm not going to type)

Wednesday:
Protecting Yourself and Your Work
Book Marketing for Shy and Frugal Authors
Funds for Writers

Thursday:
Improve Your Web Site Performance with Google Analytics
Going Beyond the Book Review: Getting Your Name — and Book — in the Media

Friday:
Niche Writing for Pet Publications
The Shy Writer: Self-Promotion that Hurts Less

Saturday:
The Art and Science of Self-Publishing

Sunday:
Dialogue Workshop

Weeklong Workshops:
Becoming a Writer's Reader: How to Edit Your Own and Other People's Manuscripts
How to Write Your Author Biography and Compose Professional Press Releases
How to Publish a Novel Your Way

Obviously, this is an ambitious workload, and I may still have to cut few of these — particularly on Wednesday! I will probably take the week off of work — or at least work a light load — to help me fit all of this in.

What are you signed up for?

The deadline for the online writers conference is TOMORROW!

Another writer pointed out that the application deadline for the Muse Online Writers Conference is tomorrow!!!

This is a free conference, folks, so don't hesitate -- sign up before its too late!