MIKs* And Other Stuff...

Sorry; I've been away, leaving this stale and sad reminder of a bad year. It's been a nasty rotation around the sun for a lot of people and I'm blessed with all the good things that have happened in my life. I apologize for my public wallowing in the pity pool. Too much all at once. I should not have dumped on you, constant reader.

I attended the annual Utah Romance Writers of America conference this past weekend. Our keynote speaker was New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan,

along with noted authors Jessica Day George, Bree Despain, and Victoria Dahl. Along for the ride, and to scout out new talent, were literary agents Laurie McClain (Larsen/Pomada Agency, San Francisco, CA) Heather Osborn (Tor) Amy Moore-Benson (AMB Literary Agency) and Borders Books romance buyer Sue Grimshaw. Tagging along with Christine Feehan was her agent Stephen Axelrod, who is not looking for new clients, (and with a stable of folks like Jayne Ann Krentz, Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and Julia Quinn he's already pretty busy) but he did sit in on an author agent panel and gave his valuable input into the agent/author relationship.


The atmosphere was both festive and emotionally charged. After all, get a group of mostly women (with the exception of three male writers and a couple of tag-along husbands) and the estrogen levels expand like an erupting volcano. Add in a lot of ambition and a dash of desperation and you have a mix of people driven to succeed.
Plus we had these two guys wearing kilts serenading us during dinner and the book signing.

And these two guys hung around all weekend, until Annie and Laurie won them as a door prize.








Anyway, I should get back to writing my regularly scheduled blog next week. I have a synopsis to make ready and twenty pages to submit and I've been working like crazy to tweak it.


* Men In Kilts.