Over Queen’s birthday weekend (first weekend in June), I attended Geysercon: the national conference for fantasy fans and authors. It was two-and-a-half days of really interesting presentations, panel discussions–mostly for authors, but stuff for the fans, too: discussions on what’s trending in High Fantasy, tropes, Star Wars vs Star Trek, how to write fight scenes, how to market your book, killer covers, back-cover blurbs, how to write a novel in a month, from script to screen, Weta Digital, interviews with the Guests of Honour, etc, etc. A bit of cosplay and a bookstall (I sold 2 books!). I was invited to speak on the panel for YA Fantasy Fiction.
Needless to say, I had a lot of fun, learnt heaps and got to meet some fellow authors–best of all Grace Bridges, who edited both my books!
Two things I’m going to apply going forward are to use the Snowflake Method for writing a book, and creating Magnets (some free samples of work that draw people into my website and mailing list…which I don’t have yet!). So much to do, yet so little time to do it.
