GCLS - the conference review
Aug. 4th, 2008 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
catherineldfGot in early on Thursday (yay, Frontier Airlines) and cooled my heels at the airport awaiting pickup. After a bit, mystery writer Ellen Hart showed up and we chatted for a bit until the van got there, then went off for a very nice lunch and more chatting when we got to the very gorgeous hotel. After lunch she went off to go prep for her first panel and I went to a very amusing coffee chat conducted by authors Joan Opyr and Jane Fletcher.
The chats are a new GCLS tradition where they get 2 authors from different genres together to talk about their process, new works and such.
Post chat I was swept up by more Twin Citians, including Ruta and Joanne, the new owners of Amazon Bookstore (soon to be True Colors Books) for dinner. The company was excellent and the boat ride there was lovely but the casino was pretty smoky so I spent time dashing around, holding my breath (smoke allergies, among other things).
I'll gloss over the hot bath and sleeping parts, though those were quite pleasant as well.
Friday morning, I participated in a coffee chat with romance/suspense author Lynn Ames. It was fast paced and fun though not particularly depthy. The audience said they had a swell time, which is really all you can ask for 8:30 AM.
I hung out to listen to Ellen Hart and Fay Jacobs afterward and enjoyed the lively exchange quite a bit. Fay is hilarious and Ellen is very interesting so it was a worthwhile conversation to get to sit through. From there, it was off to the reading group Tough Girls, Bitchfights and Girls Gone Bad. Just missedmoondancerdrake's reading, unfortunately, as well as at least one other author. The readings I did catch were fun and I got a water pistol out of it though. :-)
Attended a few other bits and pieces of things, then moderated the Anthology Editing 101 panel. This was lower energy than I would have liked but I think the panelists said some interesting things.
From there, I was off to hear Lee Lynch and Jess Wells do yet another coffee chat. This was one of the best events of the whole conference as far as I was concerned. They come from very different traditions of queer writing and lifestyles - Lee comes from more of the bar butch tradition while Jess comes from a background of feminist organizing. It was amazing to get to hear the two of them talk about some of the things they'd done and how it impacted their writing.I can honestly say I was riveted, which is not my norm.
Jess was one of my editors way back in the day when I first started writing but we'd never met before so I trotted up after they were done, introduced myself and we went off to dinner. We then spent the rest of the evening between dinner and the Bold Strokes Press party comparing life and writing notes and discussing book publicity.
Saturday morning, there were various events such as the end of the silent auction (I acquired 2 signed Ellen Hart novels) and Katherine Forrest's keynote. She gave a charming, anecdote-filled speech that was quite enjoyable to listen to and ended just in time for me to grab lunch with author Nell Stark before going to my reading as part of Caliente! Spicy Hot Erotica and Romance. Nell Stark, Moondancer Drake, Anne Laughlin and I all did short readings and chatted a bit under the able guidance of Georgia Beers. The audience was medium-sized but enthusiastic (and I apparently sold a book or two :-).
I then caught part of a panel on screenplays and stage plays before heading off to eat and crash before the awards.
The Awards themselves were a blast. A dancer (Cree) and drummer (Pima) from the surrounding Native American community came in to start things off. They were a bit late but were phenomenal and did a great job getting people energized.After that, I did some award presenting (Catherine Friend for The Spanish Pearl in the category of Lesbian Dramatic Fiction. Recommended read, BTW.), then sat there gnawing my fingertips until my name got called. I got up amid a lot of enthusiastic encouragement and a mild clothing mishap, chirped huge thanks to Steve B. of Lethe (who asked for the book in the first place, thereby making it all possible), my partner, the judges, the audience, possibly the bartender - I was pretty psyched.:-D
I then cheered a bunch for other folks,chatted with a lot of people and danced my butt off at the victory party. :-D
And am so going back next year.
The chats are a new GCLS tradition where they get 2 authors from different genres together to talk about their process, new works and such.
Post chat I was swept up by more Twin Citians, including Ruta and Joanne, the new owners of Amazon Bookstore (soon to be True Colors Books) for dinner. The company was excellent and the boat ride there was lovely but the casino was pretty smoky so I spent time dashing around, holding my breath (smoke allergies, among other things).
I'll gloss over the hot bath and sleeping parts, though those were quite pleasant as well.
Friday morning, I participated in a coffee chat with romance/suspense author Lynn Ames. It was fast paced and fun though not particularly depthy. The audience said they had a swell time, which is really all you can ask for 8:30 AM.
I hung out to listen to Ellen Hart and Fay Jacobs afterward and enjoyed the lively exchange quite a bit. Fay is hilarious and Ellen is very interesting so it was a worthwhile conversation to get to sit through. From there, it was off to the reading group Tough Girls, Bitchfights and Girls Gone Bad. Just missed
moondancerdrake's reading, unfortunately, as well as at least one other author. The readings I did catch were fun and I got a water pistol out of it though. :-)Attended a few other bits and pieces of things, then moderated the Anthology Editing 101 panel. This was lower energy than I would have liked but I think the panelists said some interesting things.
From there, I was off to hear Lee Lynch and Jess Wells do yet another coffee chat. This was one of the best events of the whole conference as far as I was concerned. They come from very different traditions of queer writing and lifestyles - Lee comes from more of the bar butch tradition while Jess comes from a background of feminist organizing. It was amazing to get to hear the two of them talk about some of the things they'd done and how it impacted their writing.I can honestly say I was riveted, which is not my norm.
Jess was one of my editors way back in the day when I first started writing but we'd never met before so I trotted up after they were done, introduced myself and we went off to dinner. We then spent the rest of the evening between dinner and the Bold Strokes Press party comparing life and writing notes and discussing book publicity.
Saturday morning, there were various events such as the end of the silent auction (I acquired 2 signed Ellen Hart novels) and Katherine Forrest's keynote. She gave a charming, anecdote-filled speech that was quite enjoyable to listen to and ended just in time for me to grab lunch with author Nell Stark before going to my reading as part of Caliente! Spicy Hot Erotica and Romance. Nell Stark, Moondancer Drake, Anne Laughlin and I all did short readings and chatted a bit under the able guidance of Georgia Beers. The audience was medium-sized but enthusiastic (and I apparently sold a book or two :-).
I then caught part of a panel on screenplays and stage plays before heading off to eat and crash before the awards.
The Awards themselves were a blast. A dancer (Cree) and drummer (Pima) from the surrounding Native American community came in to start things off. They were a bit late but were phenomenal and did a great job getting people energized.After that, I did some award presenting (Catherine Friend for The Spanish Pearl in the category of Lesbian Dramatic Fiction. Recommended read, BTW.), then sat there gnawing my fingertips until my name got called. I got up amid a lot of enthusiastic encouragement and a mild clothing mishap, chirped huge thanks to Steve B. of Lethe (who asked for the book in the first place, thereby making it all possible), my partner, the judges, the audience, possibly the bartender - I was pretty psyched.:-D
I then cheered a bunch for other folks,chatted with a lot of people and danced my butt off at the victory party. :-D
And am so going back next year.
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-07 12:55 am (UTC)Sorry your Cuba trip didn't work out, BTW. I hope another cool opportunity comes your way soon!
no subject
no subject
Date: 2008-08-07 12:59 am (UTC):-D
no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 02:58 pm (UTC)Take it easy. :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-08-07 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-08-05 05:49 pm (UTC)occasion demands)!
HUGE CONGRATULATIONS!
leave space next to it on the mantle for the next one....
no subject
Date: 2008-08-07 12:54 am (UTC)GCLS
Date: 2008-08-05 07:57 pm (UTC)Lee Lynch
Re: GCLS
Date: 2008-08-07 01:01 am (UTC)(not to mention catching more author chats!). Please keep me apprised of your new works and let me know when you're planning on coming to town. We'd love to take you two out to dinner or something (Elaine's got my email and my card). :-)