2006 ACFW Conference, part 1

Captain’s Log, Supplemental

Blog book giveaway:
My Monday book giveaway is Dark Hour by Ginger Garrett.
You can still enter. Just post a comment on the blog post above. On Thursday, I'll post the title for another book I'm giving away.

Part one of four:

It was a whirlwind conference for me this time, because I had people I wanted to spend time with (agent and editor) and responsibilities (Genesis contest and the awards ceremony). I felt like I was always running somewhere. As a result, I don’t really remember much about the conference, but here are some predominant memories.

I roomed with Meredith Efken again. She’s not only a brilliant writer, she’s a night owl and we never had to worry about waking each other up when going to bed.

I saw brief flashes of my friend Randy Ingermanson, and I only wish I had more time to talk to him.

Chip MacGregor, who had been Associate Publisher at FaithWords (Time Warner/Hachette Book Group, USA), announced that he is now starting his own literary agency, MacGregor Literary. I got a chance to chat briefly with him. He’s so much fun to talk to. I’m really glad he’s now back to agenting. He’ll be fabulous.

Speaking of agents, I also spent some time with Steve Laube. He’d done a few paid critiques at the conference, and I was fascinated by the fact that he used the guidelines and standards used for the prestigious Christy Awards. He went out on a limb and actually scored each manuscript so that each person would be able to see where he thought they fell on the scale.

The Christy guidelines are very explicit about aspects of craft and theme. I can imagine some of the people he critiqued might have thought his scoring a bit harsh, but the guidelines are so exact that I think it would be very helpful regardless of the bluntness of the critique.

I met a new Zondervan editor, Andy Meisenheimer. Andy’s terrific—I started insulting and teasing him as if we’d been friends for years.

I got to meet with my Senior Editor, Sue Brower, as well as my agent Wendy Lawton and Janet Kobobel Grant (Books and Such Literary Agency). We had a great time discussing marketing ideas for the book.

Next: Teaching and quiet moments.

TMI:

Writing: I posted another "Health and the Writer" post at WriterQuotes, a “Write Time” post for busy writers at WordPraize, and an agent post at my Story Sensei blog.

And in case you missed it, my review of The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck is posted at the Fab Four Book Picks blog.

There’s also a book giveaway and chapter excerpt from Dark Hour by Ginger Garrett below. I’ll be posting a book review on Wednesday.

I’m working on my revisions right now. Revisions are not as clean and organized as a plotting chart—my anal side is showing, isn’t it? Please pray I can get it done on time. I want to please my editor Rachelle (who’s a great editor because she reads my blog :) ).

Diet: Don’t even ask. My parents came for a few days, which is all I need to say.