It began with a pre-conference workshop. I gave a presentation on the Importance of Setting. Mike Black talked about other aspects of writing and Mar Preston had some other great insights. However, right away, Mike--the promotion chair and retired detective--had a problem to solve. One of the attendees had her wallet stolen before she checked into the hotel--but didn't discover it until after lunch. Mike spent a lot of time with her at security etc.--one credit card was used--but the next day the wallet was found. Good thing because, she'd flown to the conference--though all of us learned that if a police report is made, that will get you on an airplane.
Though the conference always has panels on writing, there are many on things like: Weapons, Fights, and Consequences, Wounds, Pure and Not so Simple, Team Building, Special Ops and Sting Operations, Investigations 101, Gunplay, Properly Portraying the Essentials of a Shooting.
The panelist were all experts: law enforcement etc. The last panel had an actual replay of a 911 call, the dispatcher and the officer who responded to the call--a man with a gun. The officer was there and explained everything, he did a magnificent job.
Besides all that we had three featured speakers:
Ron Corbin who discussed Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design/
Jory Rosen who stepped in for his mother, Marcia Rosen, on the topic Marketing your Books--and everyone received a workbook.
Mar Preston spoke about Writing and Editing your Mystery.
Jory Rosen returned to give an amazing presentation on Pitching Your Book to Hollywood. A totally different approach from any I've heard before.
This is a small conference, only one track, and there is ample opportunity to get acquainted with the attendees.
This is my absolutely favorite conference and far more affordable then most.
Marilyn
While I was there, good friend Barbara Hodges took this photo of me and as you can see, I'm not longer dying my hair.
3 comments:
Sounds like a great conference!
If I was living anywhere near this, I would've gone. I remember having a gun expert speak to our Sisters in Crime group in the Nashville area sometime in 2010. I was peddling my first book at the time and someone in one of my critque groups had questioned how I'd know the gun type without a gun having been found. I asked the gun specialist speaking for the SinC group and he said the gun I'd chosen could not be identified unless left at the scene and explained why that was. He told me what gun type would work even if the gun was missing and I changed the murder weapon type throughout my book. I also added bullet shells at the scene to identify my gun type. This sort of information is invaluable to a writer.
Always helpful to be able to speak to experts. And Linda, we have people who come from as far as New York and DC. Flying to Vegas is far cheaper than flying to lots of other places. And you can stay on at the hotel for the lower rates too.
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