Reflecting on the PNWA 2014 Conference

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the

Pacific Northwest Writers Association’s 59th Summer Writing Conference. While it would be impossible for me to describe everything that happened over the course of the intensive, four-day event, I did want to take a little time to describe some of my personal highlights from the experience.

Thursday began with several workshops on the craft of writing and reconnecting with old writing friends. Since I've been coming to this conference for several years now, I find that I have so many friends to catch up with that sometimes I don’t get the chance to meet very many new people. One writer I was happy to meet was a young man named Derek who was attending the conference for the first time with his mother Susan. Susan had attended one of my workshops last fall, and along with my good friend Bob Manion we enjoyed a pleasant dinner together before returning to the conference to hear keynote speaker and thriller author James Rollins. If you've never heard Rollins speak before, I’ll just say that he managed to be equal parts hilarious and inspirational, and a good time was had by all.

Friday was filled with panels and workshops, including one on being a hybrid author presented by Gordon Warnock. This workshop was of particular interest to me, as I have decided to pursue both a traditional publishing route as well as independently publishing some of my fantasy and steampunk series. Speaking of which, Friday night was the PNWA autograph party, and I was honored to participate along with more than 60 other award-winning and New York Times best-selling authors. It was a heady experience to sign copies of my books and connect with some of the fans of my stories directly. (Big thanks to good friend and fellow fantasy author Connie J. Jasperson for sending me a picture of the event!)

Saturday was probably the most exhausting day of the conference. 

After attending a terrific workshop on character development given by my friend Terry Persun, I then gave my own workshop on unlocking character motivation to a nearly packed room. (Thanks to Lynn Bahrych for her covert photography of the workshop.) I had a ton of fun presenting, and was gratified to hear that I had helped a lot of my fellow writers to solve problems that they had been struggling with. I then went to a pitch session where I had several great conversations with agents about the possibility of representing a future steampunk project that I currently have in the works. That night I attended the Literary Contest dinner, helped hand out prizes, and went to an after-dinner party with all the attending agents, editors, and contest winners.

Sunday was much more subdued, with a casual morning of listening to contest winners and finalists reading their stories, followed by an awesome presentation given by best-selling author Robert Dugoni. After the conference, several writer friends and I went to a nearby restaurant and relaxed together while chatting about all that we had experienced and learned. It was a pleasant, comfortable way to end the conference, and I look forward to keeping in touch with all my writing buddies until we do it all over again in 2015.