A Man, a Plan, a Con

 In 1992, everything changed for me as a writer.

 

I was in charge of a "Young Authors Conference" where I taught, Gateway Regional High in South Jersey. While trying to figure out how to put a conference together, I got an invitation to the Penn Writers Conference, organized by Gregory Frost. After some correspondence, I decided to attend the    conference, which featured the opportunity to have a professional critique of my ms. by Greg, with a 15-minute personal discussion. I sent him my first Gwynna Lionshadow novel and sent in my registration.

The conference was an eye-opener: everything from story structure and characterization to the business end of submissions and networking. It was almost overwhelming how stupid I had been about so many aspects of writing. 4:00 came for my critique session, and when I got there, Greg said, "Can you hang out another hour?" Absolutely. It gave me the chance to attend another workshop.

At 5, I showed up at Greg's door. He packed up all his things and said, "Come with me. Let's talk." The Penn campus in Philly features a little Rattskeller, and he was to meet his wife Barb there at 5. So there I was with Gregory Frost and his wife Barb for drinks at my first writers conference.

Greg refuses to accept the credit I give him for my writing career (such as it is) but that man spent the next hour and a half talking to me about my writing, my novel, my strengths and my weaknesses, how to use the former to fix the latter, and my plans for more novels. I followed through by buying every one of his books I could find, and analyzing them for everything he had said as I read. 

Greg then followed up with me by sending lists of agents and publishers, and advising me to attend Readercon and Philcon, two genre writing conferences. Readercon was out of the question at the time, since I had two pre-teens at home, but Philcon was right across the bridge in Philly.

Meanwhile, I was following his advice to write short stories to improve my craft and to get my name out there to magazine editors. At the same time, along came AOL, and message boards and chat rooms where I met Patricia Wrede, Jane Yolen, CJ Cherryh, Tamora Pierce, and other genre writers, as well as a young new author named Harlan Coben who had just sold his first book. Both Patricia and CJ recommended my novel to agents and editors. Advice and critiques came from professionals I never dreamed would know my name. (Check out Pat Wrede's The 13th Child.)

The internet also opened up to groups on Yahoo, where I joined Reading for the Future, making lesson plans for school teachers to use genre writing in the classroom.

By the mid-'90s, online magazines abounded, and after following Greg's advice about short stories, I had a few of them published in no-pay ezines. Those publications got me spots on panels at Philcon, where I was now rubbing elbows and hoisting drinks with the likes of Gardner Dozois, Michael Swanwick, and Chip Delaney.

All this set me up to be featured on panels at the 2001 World Con, which is the huge traveling con of all cons, in Philly that year (The Millenium Philcon - can't beat that title!). There I was on panels with Daniel Grotta, George RR Martin, Greg Bear, Esther Friesner, Nancy Springer, David Brin, David Hartwell, Gregory Benford... So many incredibly great authors, most of whom I had read and greatly admired. In the Green Room, I chatted with a charming man who talked to me about writing and our love of storytelling. As he rose to leave for his next panel I saw his name tag: the legendary Larry Niven.

I met editors who asked me to submit to them. I met authors who asked me to send them some of my stuff to read. Can you believe it? I couldn't. Neither could Jack, who loved to attend cons with me to meet his favorite authors and be dazzled by them, and by the fact that I was up there on the dais with them. 

Soon after, Greg arranged for me to be part of a writers workshop; that is, a group of professional level writers who submit their works-in-progress for critique and discussion. Judith Berman, Sally Grotta, Lawrence Schoen, John Schoffstall, Vickie McManus, Ann Tonsor Zeddies, Stephen Berman, Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier, along with Greg Frost. Every single session was like a miniature semester in writing. And the more we discussed writing, the more I wrote.

The bottom line of it all was that I grew as a writer. I can't tell you the number of rejection letters I got over the course of the years. They never discouraged me from moving on to the next story because I knew I was good. I just had to find my niche.

In 2003, at a Philcon, I heard Gordon Van Gelder, editor of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, say, "We need more comedy. And original takes on zombie stories are always appreciated." I sat down the next day and began Czesko: "When a guy like Czesko says he wants to get baptized, you know it's gonna be a weird night." I sent it off to Gordon and mentioned his comment directly. It was immediately accepted. On February 14, 2004, I made my first professional sale. 

It wasn't a very professional response, but I screamed so loudly my neighbors came running.

My first professional goal, made back when I was just a little girl sitting in the town library, had been met.

Things sort of crashed after that, but that's another blog.