Today I moderated a panel on Pitching One-Liners to Sell Your Novel with several really good authors and publishers:
Jonathon Mayberry
David J. Williams
Nancy O. Green
Neal Levin (Small Press Publisher)
The panel drew a fairly large audience, many of whom appeared to be seeking representation. The panel was easy to moderate with such good members and thoughtful questions.
It epitomized what I love about intimate cons like Balticon: the speakers provided excellent information during the panel and then offered to provide additional info via email for anyone who was interested.
(And Jonathon came up with a really good pitch for a book I’d love to read: “Curious George Meets Hannibal Lecter”)
I was also on the What is Social Media? panel. The other panelists were clearly friends and had worked or hung out together a lot: always an awkward situation for the odd-man-out. My experience stemmed more from my day job than from a fiction perspective, but I think overall it was well received. Many thanks to the moderator, Tee Morris, for keeping me involved in the discussion. (Tee is the author of Podcasting for Dummies and other technical and fictional things…)
Finally, I and several members of Broad Universe, read from our writing. The room was small, but packed. Readers included Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Trish Wooldridge, Gail Z. Martin, and Jean Marie Ward, who, like me, read from a dragon tale.
Later in the evening I got to attend a panel on Start Up Rituals for Writers. I thought it would be a lot of fun to discuss the various quirks of famous writers, but the panel quickly devolved into a talk about ‘what to do for writers block.’ There was also a lot of discussion about finding inspiration in a hotel bar.
The best part of the panel was meeting Brian Koscienski and Chris Pisano who produce the “Trail of Indiscretion” Magazine and run Fortress Publishing, Inc. Brian’s title is “CEO, CFO, President, Editor-in-Chief, Writer, Megalomaniacal Genius.” Chris’s title is COO, CCO, Vice-President, Writer, Spiritual Philanthropist.” (This means he gives hugs.) So…judging from their titles, you can guess that these guys were a lot of FUN. They really livened up the panel. (Chris and Brian will write you a haiku for a nickle if you buy a copy of one of their books,” but I handed Brian a quarter and bribed him to write me one based on “Curious George Meets Hannibal Lecter.” Here it is:
(I did buy the latest copy of “Trail of Indiscretion”…great short stories and some awesome comics. It’s well worth $5.)
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