June 2007 Newsletter

June 1-3, I attended the WisRWA (WISCONSIN Romance Writers of America) Writers Conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It turned out to be one of the best I’ve taken part in and was well worth the six-hour drive (that’s starting from Sturgeon Lake). And my dear friend, Terri Schultz, picked me up in Minneapolis and stayed behind the wheel all the way (what a friend). We met Kelly Kirch, the third member of our critique group, in Green Bay. (The photo shows Terri, Kelly, & Jannifer at the WisRWA conference.)

I met and visited a fantastic assembly of editors, agents, and writers. Conferences are an excellent place to meet publishing contacts. So now I have some new leads that I’ve already followed up on.

The highlights of the trip besides reuniting with wonderful friends were:

• A talk on copywriting by lawyer and agent, Elaine English.

• Learning about “Your Funky Bird” by Lani Diane Rich, screwball comic writer (and screwball fun speaker). Your Funky Bird is the “thing” in your work that stands out and sets you apart from other writers.

• A talk on rewriting by Anna DeStefano, Romantic Times award winning author.

• Also, fun and informative were two agents reading submitted first pages, of actual novels. We all three submitted first pages. They talked about what worked and what didn’t work. It didn’t take us long to pick up on what they liked!

Overall, it was a fun and worthwhile trip!

Cheers,

Jannifer