Meet the volunteers

Today we want to introduce you to the group of ladies that are helping us put on the C3 Conference.

These ladies jumped; well maybe jumped isn't the right word but they walked; very slowly, towards being volunteers to help put this confernce together.

With all of their knowledge and expertise, they have brought great ideas to the meetings and have also taken on responsiblities that most people would have run away from.

Deliah Lawrence is not only an author but she is our Master Scheduler and Author Liason. She will work with the authors and the on-site book store to make sure that the titles that the attending authors want to sign will be there when they arrive. She is also working on putting together the schedule of sessions/panels that the authors will sit on. This is a huge undertaking and we want to salute her for taking on this huge role.

Cynthia Lauth is our registration coordianator. She tirelessly works the registration part of our website. She contacts the authors when they have forgotten to make their meal choice or have forgotten to press the submit button to enter their choice of payment.

Juli Monroe is our Intrigue Pub twitter guru. She is on Twitter everyday putting the word out and making sure that @IntriguePub is being seen by the people that need information about our conference.

Ann Arbaugh is our volunteer coordinator. She will be working with our volunteers and recruiting volunteers. She will be one of the people you will see running around during the conference making sure that our guests are being taken care of properly.

We have all gotten so excited about this conference that we meet regularly to talk about the new things that are happening or that we want to happen.

This group of dedicated workers will be there to meet and greet you on Friday and they will be easy to spot. They will all have one their C3 shirts.

See you in September!

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

Sit down...Let's have a chat

Oh hello, how are you, I wasn't expecting you for another few minutes, but please come in and sit down, let's have a chat. So you wanted to ask me a few questions about the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity conference.

What's your first question?

How did I find out about the C3 Conference? I am a member of Sister's In Crime and as I was perusing their list of conferences, I came across the listing for the C3 conference and when I continued reading the description, it sounded like a perfect opportunity for me to meet other authors, as well as readers. Oh and let's not forget that the price fit right into my budget.

What appealed to me about the conference is the unique angle of bringing authors together with their fans, along with getting the opportunity to pitch my story to an agent. I love the list of guest speakers that are attendidng because it will allow me to rub elbows with a few bestselling authors, which is never a bad thing, right?

Another great aspect of the conferences is the opportunity I had to contribute to their C3 anthology. I got the chance to write a short story of about 7,500 words and Acorn Book Services is going to add it, and other author's stories, to create an e-book. When the conference is over, they will release it to Amazon and my promotional information will be included. What a great way to get my name out ot the masses.

Was I aware of the discussion panels? Oh yes, this is another great opportunity to be a part of a group of authors to share ideas, experiences and learning curves. I don't doubt I will learn something from the other writers. We all have something to share.

Sure, I'd love to tell you about the stories I've written. I have two published in my paranormal mystery series. The first is Sullivan's Secret, and the second is Secret of the Big Easy. I like to tell people that my stores are a Psychic Detectives meets Ghost Hunter's mystery. My third book in the series, Federal City's Secret is due for release this summer.

Yes, I have an author platform and you can find me at www.robinmurphyauthor.com and I'd love for you to follow me on my social media sites on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/robin-Murphy/161123980616276 and on Twitter: @murfett and LinkedIn: http://www.LinkedIn.com/pub/robin-murphy/38/213/338

Now tell me, after hearing all of the great information about the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity conference, will I see you there? Great, I'm glad to hear it and who knows, maybe you'll become one of my new fans.

Thank you, I enjoyed meeting you as well.  See you in September.

Post Written by: Author Robin Murphy

Early to rise!

The sun is shining a little longer each evening.

She isn't a morning person, that could not be mistaken, ever! But on this day, the sun awakened her with it's bright ray and she stretched, yawned and padded to the bathroom. She climbed into the steamy shower, letting the day begin as she formed the thoughts of what would be her adventures. She toweled off, brushed her teeth and pulled her hair into a ponytail. Ready to meet the world head on.

She decended the stairs into her open kitchen and wondered what to have for breakfast. She then decided to get the paper but it wasn't there. Those darn newspaper thieves! No problem...she started to scramble an egg, got her coffee and turned on the morning news. Imagine that...no news..hmm, she switched channels and again no news...What is this...a slow day or maybe it was later than she thought.

She turned her head as her cat wandered in and gave her a look. "Don't give me that look missy. I already have your food out." she said as she focused her eyes on the microwave.

She jumped up and went closer. It couldn't be.

"Good Lord! It's only 6:16 in the morning!"

Yes. It was early...and she is not a morning person..she actually shouted that to no one but the cat.

To early to be up on a Saturday but what was she to do? Well, she decided the only thing possible. She pulled out her laptop and checked out the Creatures,Crimes and Creativity Blog and so here she sits...reading and wondering...how many more days until the conference?

If you want to know how many days there are left for the best conference in Maryland this year...check out http://creaturescrimesandcreativity.com and the countdown clock will tell you.

Posted by B.Swangin Webster

Agent Pitch Sessions at Creatures, Crimes and Creativity

C3 has been lucky enough to get two local agents that are currently looking for great new authors. I have listed a little about what each is looking for below.

Emily Gref – Lowenstein Associates – Based in New York, Emily says she is looking for speculative fiction, science fiction, and fantasy for middle grade, young adult, and adult. She has a special weakness for historical fantasy, steampunk, and unique fairy tale retellings. In any novel she is hoping to find a strong voice, stellar world-building, surprising twists, and main characters that represent diverse experiences.

Berta Treitl – Grosvenor Agency – Based in Washington, DC, Berta is looking for historical and high-quality mysteries. Berta focuses on projects that present a counterintuitive or fresh viewpoint and that feature unusual communities, travel and foreign locales, and female main characters.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to meet one-on-one with a literary agent looking for the next big name.

Pitch sessions are for registered conference attendees only.

Be prepared!  There are some key elements that you need to know before pitching your novel to a literary agent.

1.       Be confident about your story. If you come off as not being confident you are devaluing yourself in their eyes.

2.       Do your homework. Each agent specializes in specific genre. Don’t pitch your science fiction novel to a historical fiction agent. Not only will they look at you like you’re crazy but they’ll talk about you to their agent friends about how unprepared you were.

3.       Give them a BRIEF one liner on the story.

Editor Laura Backes shared a technique for creating a story line that works perfectly for condensing the essence of your book into one sentence.

Fill in the blanks:              

My story is about ___ (character)_________that wants more than anything to _____(goal)_________ but can’t because ____(conflict)_______.

Here is an example using the Wizard of Oz:

This story is about a teenage girl from Kansas named Dorothy who wants more than anything to go home, but can’t because she is stuck in a strange land.

Notice there is no mention of a tornado, munchkins, witches or a cowardly lion. That information can come later, but this is the basic premise of the novel in just one sentence.

If If you give the agent more than they want you will bore them and they won’t care what the book is about by the time you are done.

4.       Practice your pitch. If you need to you can even have a small note care with key words on it so you will remember, but be sure to practice so you have it down.

5.       Professionalism counts. Don’t think for an instant that you can just come to a pitch session wearing day old, wrinkled clothes or don’t need to take a bath or brush your teeth in advance. These are professionals in the industry so show them the courtesy of presenting a professional appearance to them.

6.       Relax during your pitch. You’re just telling your story to someone so don’t let your nerves get away from you. Once you have seated yourself in front of the agent be cordial and calm. They are people too and are just looking for someone to tell them a good story. If you have practiced your pitch and have a good story to tell they will get it.

7.       Don’t get upset if they don’t ask you to send them your manuscript. Your story may not be the one they are looking for but don’t burn your bridges. Just because it isn’t right for them doesn’t mean it won’t be right for another down the road.

8.       Send a thank you. The thank you card to follow up after your pitch session is important. Keep your lines of communication open. You might run across them later one and you want them to remember you as being gracious and open.

So are you ready to pitch? Then what are you waiting for? Sign up for the Creatures, Crimes and Creativity conference and don’t forget to sign up to pitch your story to one of the agents listed above.

Good luck!

What are you doing now?

Yes, right now?

Well, me; I'm trying to decide what to do next. Do I start editing or do I start promoting my yet to be released latest novel or do I look at the conference's I've been to and figure out if I have done half of the things they suggested.

+Austin Camacho will be attending Thrillerfest and of course our conference, C3. I know for a fact that he always plans his confernences in advance to make sure that he doesn't over book himself.

+Dee Lawrence attended a conference for the first time last year and she attended it again this year. +Bay to Ocean Writers Conference is where I asked her to come out, sight unseen and she gave it a try and she liked it enough to come out again this year.

+Lauren Carr has invested a lot of time and energy into help with the C3 conference and we are so grateful to have her on board.

+Penny Clover Petersen is another author who will give Malice Domestic a look to see if her cozy mystery will do well there.

+Christine Verstraete will look into conferences that will fit her new zombie book coming out in July.

DB Corey will also look into attending the malice domestic conference and hopefully we get a lot of good information from it.

So I will ask you again...what are you doing right now?

Authors Meeting Readers: Nightmare or Dream?

By Lauren Carr

Imagine this: Writers Conference. You are a published author with your first, second, third, or whatever book, traveling for hours to spend a whole weekend at a hotel promoting your book(s).

Your job, should you chose to accept it, is to convince the readers, fellow authors, and, if you are lucky to get the opportunity, literary agents and publishers, to like, if not love, your book enough for them to invest in buying it.

Why would any author not take on this opportunity? Well, there can be many reasons that some authors would be hesitant. For one, how many of us have the money to invest in registration and hotel for a conference that would be a sure thing.

Suppose you fail? Suppose you don’t sell anything? Suppose you sit up in front of everyone at your panel discussion only to learn afterwards that you had a big hunk of lettuce stuck to your teeth the whole time and no one told you?

Then, you would have invested the money into registration and a hotel and end up financially in the hole. Not to mention the deep wound in your pride as you sit at your table at your book signing hour with Nora Roberts next to you with her line of admirers spilling out the door while you’re sitting there playing with your pen. (Been there, done that.)

At one mystery conference, after my second mystery came out in a big expensive hardback ($26), I was seated next to an author with a six-dollar mass paperback. She and other authors, who also had mass paperbacks, had lines around the tables while I sold one book. I came away from that conference feeling like a failure.

No, this post is not to tell you not to go to C3, I’m telling you to go!

Today, social media is the thing for book promotion. Basically, it’s free, which means your only investment is your time. Believe me. I know. I rarely do in-person book events anymore. It’s either a sure thing or for a good cause. I get more out of Twitter, Facebook, and the other sites. Plus, I can do it naked while having a bad hair day.

However, you can’t let that be your whole book promotion package. There are readers who love to meet writers and this is an opportunity to shine. In person, you can let your personality sparkle. Readers will see how fast you are at delivering a witty line on the panel. They can see how bright your smile is.

Your enthusiasm for your book will really come through in a way that it can’t across the Internet. Once, at a book event, a reader told me that she was buying all of my books because I loved them so much that she knew she would, too. As she sat reading my books, she could pick up my enthusiasm which would not have happened on Facebook.

When readers meet authors at a book event, not only will they have a face, they will have a person—a real-live friend—not just an avatar—to associate with your books. It’s a personal connection that can’t be made across the Internet.

So, here is another way to think about traveling to the C3 conference:

Suppose you succeed? Suppose you sell everything? Suppose you walk into the conference room for your panel and floor everyone with your sparkling personality and walk out of that room with a roomful of new fans.

So sign up for C3. Submit a short story to the C3 anthology (there is still time and openings). Get dressed, and comb your hair, and come to Baltimore to meet your fans and make new ones. Don’t forget to brush your teeth and use deodorant.

I’ll get dressed … I promise.