HAVE YOU HEARD THE NEWS?

We are proud to announce that we have +heather graham at the #MDC3Con this year.

We are also proud to announce that we have +Karla Brady and +Andy Straka at the conference this year as well.

Now, did you know that authors need to update their profiles every year. Just like our students who get their pictures taken every year; so do authors.

This year we will once again have E.Harcus Photography doing head shots for authors who would like one. This is not a FREE event but for a minimum cost, paid directly to the photographer; you can have your head shots done.

Now isn't that a really good reason to come to Hunt Valley Conference Center this year and take part in the Creatures Crimes and Creativity Con?

Go here and register today. MDC3Con

If you want to be a +volunteer at this year's conference, go here: Volunteer at MDC3Con

We hope to see you there!

COME HAVE DINNER WITH SOME GREAT AUTHORS

We are preparing a great time for you at this years, MD C3 Con

Have you ever wondered what Heather Graham does on her days off? Well you can find out at the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity Con, or as we like to call it, the MD C3 Con.

You can sit and have dinner with her before she gives the keynote at Saturdays dinner.

Have you picked up her latest novel, The Dead Play On yet? If you have, why not bring it with you to the conference and you can ask her to sign it for you.

We are also happy that just before our conference, she will release another novel; The Silence and you can also have that one signed as well.

As you an see, we are bringing you some of the best authors around. So why not join us for the MD C3 Con in September. Its a bargain at $245 until March 31. 

You will get three days of conference, 5 full meals, two great keynote speakers, two local guests (yep from the DC Area) and you also get to sit in on master classes taught by +Heather Graham and +F.Paul Wilson

Beginning on April 1; the price increases by $30 to $275 but you still get all of the great stuff listed above. Oh, did we mention you get a goodie bag filled with books, coupons and you may even win a Kindle Fire.

So sign up today; we hope to see you there!

READY FOR NEXT YEAR

Top Row: Cindy, Austin, Sandra, Larry
Bottom  Row: Denise, Juli, Ann
not pictured Dee Lawrence

This year was such a blast that we can't wait to do it again, next year!

The committee ended up a great weekend by celebrating with a few days of rest before getting ready for next year.

We want to thank +Dee Lawrence +Larry Matthews +Ann Arbaugh +Juli Monroe +B Swangin Webster +Austin Camacho +Denise Camacho +Cynthia Lauth for all of the hard work they put into the conference.

Without all of you the conference would not have run smooth. The picture says it all and we enjoyed every minute of sharing stories with the authors, sharing tips with the presenters and sharing laughs over meals.

If you want to be at the convention next year, all you have to do is go to this link http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com

We already have some great special guests lined up.

+Heather Graham and +F Paul Wilson will also be there!

Right now you can register for the discounted price of $245. Come on, we'd love to have you there.

REASONS YOU SHOULD WANT TO ATTEND THE C3 CONVENTION

This blog is submitted by: Sandra Bowman (marketing director of Intrigue Publishing)

In the coming weeks you will see a list of 20 reasons on why you should attend the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity Convention.

Well for the fans of mystery, Sci-Fi, paranormal, horror, thrillers, fantasy and suspense; you want to attend because you will get to hang out with some very cool people.

Sadly there will be no costumes but there will be plenty of laughs to go around and the atmosphere will be friendly, inviting and most of all informative.

If you want to be an author, you need to be at this convention. It is geared so that you will share all of your meals with NY Times best selling authors. You will share your breaks listening to the process that some writers go through when they have deadlines. You will get the skinny on what is going on in social media today and you will also get first hand knowledge on how a publishing company works.

So if you check out @intrigupub on +Twitter you will find all 20 reasons on why you should attend the convention. Not to mention you will also see +BradParks  +CJEllison +RebeccaYork and +JohnGilstrap

But the main reason you should attend is reason number 21!

You get to see the +Fabulous shoes +BSwanginWebster will be wearing! That alone is worth it!

We hope to see you there.

A PINCH OF THIS...A DASH OF THAT!

Guest blog by Kathryn Johnson (aka Mary Hart Perry)

       Perhaps it’s because I love to cook—buttery popovers, succulent roast chicken, sweet and moistly rich red-velvet cupcakes with cream cheese icing (really, whatever suits my mood)—that I often think of novel writing in the same way. I start with a hunger for a particular mix of story elements, grab my ingredients, and get to work. The desire to experiment and create is something we all share—whether that means baking, writing, or tinkering with car engines. If, like me, your reading tastes are eclectic—and you also enjoy writing fiction—you, too, might consider mixing genres not only in your to-be-read pile but also in your to-be-written file.

         Here’s where it starts for many of us. . . One lazy Saturday you’re in the mood for an edge-of-the-chair thriller. Another evening you long to mellow out with a moving love story. Still another day your brain cells call out for challenging mystery or a mind-blowing adventure set in an exotic locale. There certainly are a great many exciting thrillers, romances, and adventure stories being written by talented authors today. But I guess I’m a little greedy. I want it all. All in one book, that is.

And that—pure selfishness—is the raison d’être for the series I’ve been working on for the past few years. If I were to apply a label to these novels—three published, so far—I’d call them romantic Victorian thrillers. The ingredients are drawn from my favorite genres: mystery, romance, and historical fiction. And the recipe is this: Each novel, so far, is based on real events surrounding Queen Victoria’s family and features one of the little queen’s three daughters as the protagonist. Based in fact and the Victorian era, I’m able to satisfy my love of history. But then the creative writer takes over—after all, I’m not penning a biography or history text—and I develop an interesting mystery with quickly paced thriller element to challenge my royal protagonist. Only then, when the first two elements are locked down, do I allow myself to give my hero and heroine a romance. Because, after all, what is life without a little love?

I’ve had such fun with these stories. If you get a chance to read any of my Mary Hart Perry novels, I hope you’ll let me know what you think of the mix. What genres or elements of fiction would you include in your own creative story blend?

Meanwhile, here’s just a tiny bit about each of the Mary Hart Perry novels. . .The Wild Princess: Princess Louise, considered the wild-child of the royal family because she wishes to become—Gasp!—an artist, struggles to protect the queen from an assassination attempt by Irish separatists who are bombing London. When a mysterious American borrowed by the Queen’s Secret Service steps in to chase down the culprits, he sets his heart on capturing more than the dynamiteers.

           Seducing the Princess: Beatrice, youngest child of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, is expected to shun all men and devote herself entirely to her widowed mother, “unto the grave”. But when the Bea finally falls in love, the Queen is horrified to find her daughter has not one but two suitors. Will they sort out which one truly loves her, and which one is a spy secretly planted at the palace by the ruthless heir to Germany’s throne?

              The Shadow Princess: The year 1888 brings tragedy to Crown Princess Vicky, Queen Victoria’s eldest child. Empress of Germany for just 3 months before her husband died, Vicky is now without a “job”, since her adopted country’s throne has gone to Willy, her mad son. When news of Jack-the-Ripper’s shocking murders in London reaches her—and she learns that nephew Eddie is at the top of the list of suspects, she must rush home to clear the family name. It’s there that Vicky tangles with an intriguing Whitechapel detective, who is as intent on catching the Ripper as he is on avoiding romantic entanglements with a lovely royal.

You can find out more about these books, sign up for a newsletter, or contact me, through these links. Happy reading and writing! Kathryn Johnson (aka Mary Hart Perry)

www.WriteByYou.com

www.MaryHartPerry.com

Facebook:  on.fb.me/Kj7hzU

Twitter: @Mary_Hart_Perry

www.Goodreads.com/Mary_Hart_Perry

Email: Kathryn@WriteByYou.com

WHY I ATTENDED THE C3 CONFERENCE

Today this blog will feature two submissions. The first by Anne Alexander and the second by Juli Monroe.

Submitted by: Anne Alexander

I thoroughly enjoyed the C3 Conference because everyone was friendly, and down to earth.



Austin Camacho interviewing author John Gilstrap at the Saturday breakfast

The panels were informative, and the food was delicious.  I liked the way the book store was set up. It was easy to find the books by the author's names.

I loved the way the big name authors were treated the same as the first time authors in every respect, from the panel selections, to the book signings, to the seating arrangements at dinner. 

I think this is one of the best conferences I have ever attended. I look forward to being there again next year. I brought two guests with me to the conference and they had so much fun they want to come again next year.

Annie Rose Alexander

Author of Evil In High Places

Submitted by: Juli Monroe



Jeffery Deaver keynote

You may have noticed that I haven’t been around much for the last few days. I was getting ready for and then attending the Creatures, Crime and Creativity Conference that was held last weekend in Baltimore.

While I’ve attended numerous conferences, this was my first writer’s conference, and I admit I’m...

To read the rest of this article, please visit--> Tele Read






 

LET THE COUNTDOWN BEGIN!

The countdown has officially began.

Well, it didn't just start, it started 13 months ago when the brain child of this conference twisted the arm of a webmaster and got the website up and running. The countdown clock was the brainchild of our webmaster, James.

Every week I would look at that clock and say, "wow, that's seems like a long way off" and then I looked at the clock today and said, "oh my gosh! it's here already".

I have been fortunate enough to work with some great people on this conference and have learned a lot about them and about myself in the process.

I learned that I love to have fun in everything that I do. Our monthly meetings started off with organization and an agenda and quickly erupted into a free for all of conversations, jokes, laughs and plenty of coffee. In the end we all have worked like a well oiled machine. We have come together for a common goal and that is to bring you the best damn conference possible.

If you are coming to the conference, I can't wait to meet you and if you aren't...shame shame, you are going to miss the best damn party, EVER!

See you in four days, 20 hours and 15, 14, 13, 12....well you get the picture....

I'm as giddy as a two year old waiting for Santa!

Submitted: B. Swangin Webster

THE THINGS YOU CAN LEARN FROM TELEVISION

What I Learned About Writing From Watching Supernatural

I've been a pretty good dialogue writer for a while, but I've been weaker on description. Not static description, like for a room, but descriptions of character body language and all the non-verbals that go into good dialogue and character interaction.

It's curious that I haven't been good at it. In my day job, I'm a life and business coach. Watching body language is part of my training, but I finally figured out why that didn't translate to good writing. When I'm coaching, I'm using more of my intuition. I'm not stopping to break down body language with an eye toward describing it in my writing.

Which is when I discovered Supernatural. If you've never watched it, you can probably guess the idea from the title. A couple of young guys ride around the country, dealing with supernatural menace. The early seasons follow a "monster of the week" format, while later seasons get more into long story arcs.

Yes, it's genre fiction. But it's genre fiction with some actors who know how to use their body and faces to communicate a lot of sub-text.

Check out this gif. http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m87igg54Uu1qjxl1no4_r1_250.gif

Heck, you don't even need to know what's going on. You could make up an entire story, just from that short clip. From the turn, to the facial expression to the hand motion. Lots there to work with.

Or this scene. Three actors doing a lot with their facial expressions (and one of my favorite scenes in the show).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub94sbKxjPw

What made me sit up and take notice was realizing I could watch scenes and dissect them. That's why I like all the animated .gifs I can find on Tumblr. Sometimes not having dialogue helps. I can watch facial expressions and hand movements and decide how I'd describe them. I've learned things about eye contact that completely altered a scene. I knew a character was nervous, and in the original draft, I talked about how she was nervous. In the rewrite, I showed it by describing how she avoided eye contact and casual touching. When she finally met another character's eyes, you knew it meant something.

I do all my writing on my iPad, and I've actually downloaded some Supernatural clips from YouTube. When I get stuck on writing a scene, I load one of the clips and watch the actors do their job. Which inspires me to do mine even better.

What do you use for descriptive inspiration?

Thank you Juli and we can't wait to see you at the confernece; Check out her website here: http://1to1discovery.com/books/

Meet and Greet

Today we would like to introduce you to one of the authors that will attend the conference this year.

She signed up recently and we decided to put her on the spot and have a short meet and greet with her.

Her name is D.A. Spruzen and we would like to tell you a little about her.

Hello everyone, my name is Dorothy Spruzen Hassan, but my pen name (maiden name) is D. A. Spruzen.

I am President of the Northern Virginia Writers Club and delight in communing with my fellow writers. I attend writing conferences and workshops whenever my schedule allows, and am looking forward to the C3 Conference where I will meet writers closer to home than is the norm. There is always something to learn, always that golden nugget of information ready to drop into my lap if I remember to stop and listen.

I’m a writer of fiction and poetry and have lived in Northern Virginia since 1971, except for a two-year hiatus in the Middle East. I grew up near London, U.K., earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University of Charlotte, and teach writing for Fairfax County Schools Adult and Community Education program and the McLean Community Center.  I also run private critique workshops in my home.

In another life I was Manager of Publications for a defense contractor. My undergraduate degree was in dance education and I served on the faculty of a London Theater school before coming to the U.S.A. My short stories and poems have appeared in many publications, and I am seeking representation for my novel The Blitz Business, set in WWII England.  The first two novels in my Flower Ladies Trilogy, Not One of Us and Lily Takes the Field, are available on Kindle and in other e-book formats, as well in paperback.  My first poetry chapbook, Long in the Tooth, will be published by Finishing Line Press in June 2013.

My husband and I live in McLean, Virginia with a Jack Russell terrier who doesn’t know he’s old and doesn’t know he’s small. If you want to look me up, all you have to do is click on one of the links below.

I hope to see you in Septemeber!

www.daspruzen.com

Not One of Us

http://tinyurl.com/93c3p5s    

Lily Takes the Field

http://tinyurl.com/8dskcv5    

Crossroads

http://tinyurl.com/9jvowq8    

Long in the Tooth

www.Finishinglinepress.com

Posted by: Author D.A. Spruzen

What's the appeal?

What is it that makes Cons so appealing? First of all what kind Con are we speaking of? Is it a scifi convention or writing conference? And are you going as a fan or an author or both?

I am Amy McCorkle and my first Con as a professional was the 2011 Fandom Fest/Fright Night Film Festival.  I went as a way to promote my work and to get my name out there. As someone who writes under a pen name as well as my given name it was a great way to get my feet wet. I had a table with hardly anything on it, some bookmarks and trading cards and I sat next to a generous individual, Bertena Varney  who showed me the ropes.

I learned valuable things on how to network and even found a publisher there. (My second one) Hydra specializes in speculative fiction.

Scifi Conventions are great events where everyone is a fan, even the authors, and everyone helps each other out. It’s a very inclusive atmosphere and the friends you make at one Con are very likely the people you’ll see at another and it’s a great way to network professionally and personally.

Writers Conferences on the other hand are places where there is a more business-like attitude. People are often there to learn how to get published. There are the exceptions like Romfest and RomCon which are reader oriented romance versions of the sci-fi cons, but when you go to a writers conference you are going somewhere to either learn something, learn how to sell your work, or promote your work.

I like both aspects of the conventions and conferences but often conventions are cheaper than conferences.

Whereas the membership fee for a sci-fi con is 30-50 bucks a straight conference can be 200-300 dollars at best for registration alone. And for those of us on a budget that can be intimidating. Especially when trying to bust through the slush pile.

A nice thing about sci-fi cons is that sometimes speculative fiction small presses are there to pitch too. The bigger conferences are nice to pitch to the agents. I haven’t been to any mystery conferences. Until this year. This year I have two or three of the more expensive conferences to attend.

I’m attending Romfest, Killer Nashville, and Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity. All of which are more expensive than Fandom Fest which I will be comped for. But these conferences could advance my career. I am looking forward to them as the camaraderie that one feels at these things is wonderful. And that is ultimately why I love the Cons and Conferences most of all.

A Conference kind of weekend.

This weekend +Austin Camacho and +B Swangin Webster attended the +Bay to Ocean Writers Conference.

Every year this conference is held in Queenstown Maryland at the Cheaspeake College. Their mission is to inform, encourage and inspire writers of all levels. They strive to share helpful knowledge and experiences among the writers in attendence.

The day is filled with panel discussions that hit on every topic from marketing, to blogging, to poetry.

Intrigue Publishing is always in attendence as Austin Camacho is one of their dedicated speakers.
This year was no different. His class on developing a plot was well attended and the questions that were asked went from how to not get writers block (that would be by making an outline) to writing in a spiral vs straight ahead.

Even best selling authors had a question or two.

This year, Intrigue Publishing hopes to bring some of those authors and aspiring authors to our conference by offering different panels and hosting some great NY Times best selling authors such as +John Gilstrap and @Jeffrey Deaver as well as +Christopher Golden and +Trice Hickman

Wilson Wyatt and his team of dedicated volunteers put on a great one day conference and if you have never been, you really need to think about going.

If you missed this conference, it is not to late to register for C3.

Our conference is in September 13-15, 2013 in Hunt Valley, Maryland.

After all, you are never to accomplished to learn something new.

Best Way to Improve Sales: Give Readers a Free Sample!

Have you ever heard of Mrs. Fields. She’s the lady that makes those great homemade chocolate chip cookies. Do you know how she became Mrs. Fields? Besides marrying Mr. Fields.

Answer: She gave out free samples.

Mrs. Fields made up a platter of her cookies and walked up and down the street handing out free cookies. Yep! She gave them away! Then, once customers became hooked, they started buying those cookies by the bag-full and Mrs. Fields became the Queen of Cookies!

So, when my publishing company Acorn Book Services signed on to sponsor the C3 Conference, I asked myself how best to promote not just myself as an author, but those authors who I work with. Then, my thought turned to those new authors who may be nervously attending the C3 conference for the first time as an author.

How does a new author, who is promoting his or her very first book, convince readers that they are good? That they are worthy of spending a few bucks on their first book?

Answer: Give out free samples!

That is the purpose of the C3 (Creatures, Crimes, and Creativity) Anthology.  Acorn Book Services will publish and give a copy of our anthology to each attendee at the conference.

Picture this! You are a new author on your first panel. The readers are sitting in the audience thinking, “Well, he seems like a nice guy, but I can’t afford to buy a copy of all of these authors’ books. How do I decide?”

You answer their hesitation by holding up the anthology. “And you can read a copy of my short story in the anthology that you received in your welcome pack. It starts on page 42.”

The readers will read your story. Fall in love and you’ll have a fan, or two, or three, or a hundred!

Please pay close attention to their submission guidelines below:

Word Count: Maximum 7,500 words.

Limit: One short story per author, who must be registered and attending the C3 conference.

Limited to twenty-five stories accepted for publication so be sure and get registered today so your story can be part of the anthology! Space in the anthology is limited. I wish we could afford to publish a hundred stories, but we can’t.

Please include author photo, bio, website, and other information to accompany short story in the anthology.

Short stories accepted for the anthology must be edited, and will be edited and proofed by Acorn Book Services. By submitting a short story, the author agrees to giving Acorn Book Services rights of usage of the short story in the Anthology to be published in print and e-book form (at the cost of Acorn Book Services). The printed format will be given to attendees of the C3 conference. This anthology will serve as a promotional tool for the authors, who will retain all ownership rights to their story.

After the conference, Acorn Book Services will then release the anthology in e-book form on Amazon. In this e-book format, in exchange for use of their short story, the author will receive further promotion as the e-book will also include the author’s bio and links to their website and places where their books can be purchased.

All of this is at no cost to the author, other than the cost of attending the C3 conference. All proceeds from the sale of the e-book version will be retained by Acorn Book Services to help offset production cost of the anthology.

Deadline to submit: March 1, 2013.

For more information or to submit your story contact Acorn Book Services at writerlaurencarr@gmail.com

 

The Dream Book Event for an Independent Author

By Lauren Carr

Back in the days of the “giant lizard” (aka dinosaurs), after my first book, A Small Case of Murder was published; I was told in no uncertain terms, “You need to go to conferences. That is where you meet and make fans and they get to know you.”

So I started going to conferences, where I met some fans, as well as authors who showed me a few ropes that I would not have learned otherwise. As with everything, there were a few problems in fulfilling this conference attending requirement.

Problem Number One: Conferences Are Expensive—especially if they’re out of town, which is usually the case. Between the registration fee, meals, and hotel, especially in today’s economy, the cost can be prohibitive. If you are mid-list or below, most likely you aren’t going to make enough money in book sales at the conference to cover the cost. Argument can be made that the benefit of going to the conference comes from meeting fans who will buy your books at the event and hopefully continue purchasing your books in the future.

 Problem Number Two: Lack of Exposure for Independent (self-published) Authors—which, in conjunction with Problem Number One, can drive most authors to stay home.

With the vast changes in technology opening doors for independent authors, I began independently publishing my own books when I released It’s Murder, My Son.  (That’s another story.) At the same time, some conferences made the decision that self-published authors would not be assigned to author panels. This means lack of exposure to authors who have the confidence to invest in their own books. Fans don’t meet or see them, which renders attending these conferences useless.

In spite of this, It’s Murder, My Son, and my other independently published books (Old Loves Die Hard, Shades of Murder, Dead on Ice) have been receiving great reviews and great sales.

When other authors, seeing my success asked for my help, I ended up becoming a publisher: Acorn Book Services.  In working with my authors, I have struggled with ideas in how to personally introduce them to readers at great events like a conference, where they can experience the pride they have earned as authors.

I was playing with the idea of establishing my own conference when I got an e-mail from Sandra Bowman of Intrigue Publishing announcing the dates of Creatures, Crime, and Creativity Conference to take place in Baltimore. Immediately, I hit the reply button and asked, “Is this conference friendly toward independent authors?”

Moments later (seconds really!) came Sandra’s reply, “Certainly.” We set up a dinner meeting with her and Austin S Camacho (author and publisher). I was so excited that I barely ate. This was the type of conference I was looking for not just for myself, but my authors.

Days later, Acorn Book Services was a sponsor for the Creatures, Crime, and Creativity Conference (C3), to take place in Baltimore on September 13, 14, and 15, 2013.

Not only is the C3 conference friendly toward independent authors, but it is affordable. This is the first conference I have seen where the meals are included in the event for the whole weekend!

C3’s goal is to introduce fans to new authors, no matter how they are published. None of that matters. Yes, fans will be drawn by the big names who are attending (Jeffrey Deaver and Trice Hickman, to name two), but during the weekend, through author panels and other events (including a scavenger hunt), there is no way they can leave without meeting new names in mystery, suspense, paranormal, crime, and fantasy writing.

If you’re an author, you will be one of those authors that fans are going to meet!

Fans will also be meeting new authors through the C3 Anthology, which Acorn Book Services is going to publish exclusively for this event. Every fan, author, and agent attending this event will get a free copy of the C3 anthology. After the conference, Acorn Book Services will be publishing the anthology in e-book form, which means the marketing benefit will be continuing after the weekend for those authors published in the C3 Anthology. Space in the book is limited only to authors registered for the C3 event.

My next post will be more details about the anthology. To learn more right now, go to the anthology page on the C3 website and register for the conference today. This is your chance to meet and make new fans! 

What is genre?

I’ll soon see the release of the fourth book in my Stark & O’Brien series . 

When I wrote the first book I knew it was action/adventure.  That’s what they were calling other similar novels at the time.  Then at some point I was told that what I write are really international thrillers.  Okay, people seemed to understand that meant lots of action and suspense, although before that I had thought thrillers were scary.

Then the other day I was describing my novels to someone who doesn’t read thrillers.  When I mentioned that my two protagonists happen to have a psychic link that warns one when the other is in danger her eyes lit up.  “Oh!  So you really write UF or PNR!”

I nodded and smiled but when I got home I had to Google it.  UF turns out to be short for Urban Fantasy.  These books aren’t urban in the sense of books about drug lords and hookers.  In this case urban is NOT a euphemism for African American or gangbanger style.  UF literally means fantasy fiction – ghosts, goblins and demons – set in a city.  Jim Butcher seems to be the leader of this pack, although C3 conference keynote speaker Christopher Golden is also a leading figure.  A lot of this material is what I would have called horror.  Much of what Bram Stoker and Stephen King have written would qualify as Urban Fantasy.

Then there’s PNR – ParaNormal Romance.  This label seems to separate the vampires and werewolves (and other shape shifters) from the UF books.  Of course, as the name implies there has to be a romance element, but vampires and werewolves still sound like horror to me.  Except that a lot of these books (like Laurell K. Hamilton’s  work) are about vampire hunters or demon hunters, and they read like action/adventure to me… or maybe I mean thrillers.

When we set up the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity conference we tried to take in all the fictional genres that seemed to fit together: mystery, suspense, thriller, horror, science fiction, fantasy and even the newcomer steampunk (a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid that would have described Jules Verne’s and HG Wells’ work.)  But we didn’t account for the rush of new sub-genres.  So it’s startling when someone writes, “I see you don’t take romance, and that’s what I write but my books have shape-shifters and elves.  Will I fit in at your conference?”  To me that’s fantasy, or horror, or SOMEWHERE in that space.

My point, (and I do have one)  is that if you think the books you love to read might edge their way into one of the categories we’re touting for the C3 Conference, then you can be sure you’ll meet others who read them, and maybe someone who writes them.  So bring your love of genre fiction in almost all its forms to the C3 Conference in September.

And let me know what other sub-genre we should call out to.

What's all the fuss about?

I'm sure you are asking yourself that very question, right about now.

No...you're not. Well why aren't you?

The noise that you hear are the gears grinding together of the collective minds of Denise Camacho, Austin Camacho and Sandra Bowman.

We have been hard at work planning the C3Conference next year.
The Creatures, Crimes and Creativity Conference; get it, C3; is coming up in September 13-15, 2012.

We have secured four great guests. Jeffery Deaver, John Gilstrap, Chris Golden and Trice Hickman.

We have nailed down a venue. The Hunt Valley Inn near Baltimore.

We have pinned down a team of dedicated volunteers. Ok, well we didn't have to pin them down, but we did have to chase them for a little while, but Ann Arbaugh, Deliah Lawrence, Juli Monroe and Cyndi Lauth graciously agreed to help us.

They have even secured a couple of sponsors, Frugal Bliss organic bath products and Acorn Book Services. Don't fret, it's not to late if you would like to sponsor something or donate something to the hospitality suite.

Yes, that noise that you hear is us hard at work putting together the best conference that $275 can buy.

Where else will you find Steam punk, Thrillers, Mysteries, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror and Suspense in one place?

We have planned a few surprises, like...wait, if I told you then you wouldn't attend, now would you?

So what's all the fuss about?
Why not click this link, www.creaturescrimesandcreativity.com and find out.

You are in for a surprise!

Welcome to the first entry on the official blog for the Creatures, Crimes & Creativity conference.This con will be the annual gathering place for writers and fans of genre fiction in the Mid-Atlantic area, something that we think has been missing for a long time.

Well, maybe not all genre fiction.We don’t expect a lot of romance writers to show up, but if you love to read or write stories of mystery or suspense, if you love a good thriller or horror tale, if science fiction or fantasy is your bag, or if you’re getting into the steampunk style, this will be the con for you.

We have a website – www.creaturescrimesandcreativity.com – we have a contact email - dbcamacho@hotmail.com – and, 346 days out, we have a spectacular slate of key note speakers and special guests.So why do we need a blog?

Well, I can think of three reasons.First, there will be too much going on at this conference for us to put all the details on our web site.We plan a scavenger hunt for attendees.There will be a beer tasting and a wine tasting.A video crew will be on hand to shoot author interviews.And the registration packet will include an original anthology featuring some of the attending authors.You’ll want the details of these and other specials planned and in the blog we’ll have the space to give you those details.

And that’s just what we know now.We expect things to grow and change over the next eleven months and we can keep you up to date here.It’s also the ideal place to call your attention to deadlines for things like early bird pricing, anthology submissions and author bios for the program.

Finally, this blog will be a chance for attending authors and con sponsors to talk directly to you about what they’re up to and what they plan to do at the C3 Con.This will help you know who you want to find and get to know better when you arrive in Baltimore next year.

Our greatest objective at the C3 Con is to provide a venue for readers to get up close and personal with writers, and for authors to be able to communicate directly with their fans.This blog is just an extension of that goal.

So check back here every week for the latest on the C3 conference.