I attended the Kauai Writers Conference a few weeks ago and what a fantastic experience it was! Living in such a rural area of the Big Island means I don’t get to meet a lot of people, let alone writers with the same interests as me. It can get a bit lonely.
That’s why I went to this conference; to meet other writers, put faces to names I knew through the Hawaii Writers Guild, and pick up some tips from the workshops. And, as my daughter said, have a bougie vacation. It was expensive and I’m not sure when I can go next, but I hope to go again eventually.
Another reason I went was to pitch my middle grade fantasy Dragon Dreams to some agents. I did that. At first, I’d heard that the agent wasn’t taking on new clients and felt disappointed. But, I figured, it nothing else, the experience would be good practice. So I polished the pitch, sat in front of the lovely agent and pitched into my pitch.
A wonderful thing happened. We connected. Ms R asked about the book, what other writing experience I had, and how I liked living in Hawaii. When she started talking about future projects, I got a strange feeling; did she like my pitch enough to want to read the book? She did. She asked for fifty pages. My feet didn’t touch the ground for the rest of the day.
Now I wait. Meanwhile I just sent my query to three recommended agents. Wish me luck.