by Linda Thorne
Me at Killer Nashville last month at the Embassy Suites in Franklin (a suburb of Nashville)
I feel so privileged to live in a city with its own annual writers' conference. I started going in 2009 as soon as I realized there was such an event in the city where my husband and I had moved.
In the early years I attended the sessions to learn the basics on how to write, taking dubious notes and asking questions. Then came workshops on writing query letters and finding a publisher. When I had a book contract for my debut novel, Just Another Termination, I showed up at other sessions taking notes and asking questions about marketing and promotion. I even went to a very early Sunday morning one about the "swag" authors need (book marks, cards, pens, gimmicks).
Killer Nashville has everything needed for any wannabe author.
I've been on at least one panel for the past three years. This year I had a fun panel (below) on Saturday August 26. It's name:
A Cat, A Recipe, and an Old Curiosity Shoppe: How to Write Cozy Mysteries.
When you are a Killer Nashville panelist, Parnassus Books orders your books to sell in its makeshift conference bookstore.
The schedule is totally different every year at Killer Nashville, so lots to see and learn. I'm already looking forward to the August 2018 conference.
Tom Wood stopped by to talk to me and Phyllis Gobbell prior to our panel.
5 comments:
Nice article! I liked hearing your progression from attending craft panels, to publishing panels, to being a panelist. KN is a nice conference.
I've heard only good things about this conference, so I'm hoping to attend in the coming years.
Sounds like a lot of fun and how great that it's right where you live! Conferences can be expensive, so not having to deal with all the hotel and airfare cost is a major plus! Hope you didn't rush home after, I always learned the most by sitting at the hotel bar afterward for a cocktail. That's where you learn so much from other authors when you start comparing notes.
You are truly fortunate to have easy access to such a great conference!
Thanks for sharing.
Killer Nashville has a lot of history of wannabes who become published. I usually do stick around for the bar hour and meet interesting people and learn more, but this year I had just started a new job no days off to recover from going on this weekend. I'll go to everything again starting next year and take a few days of vacation afterward to have time off. Thanks for the comments.
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