Wordfest Conference in McPherson, Kansas

Lessons learned from MacWriter's Wordfest Conference in McPherson, KS.

     I went to the MacWriter's conference in MacPherson last Fri and Sat. Afterwords, I stayed with my friends David and Lori Yoder and went to the Dueling Pianos fundraising event to restore the old Fox Theatre in Newton.  The event was a blast. And I slept well after a full day.
     I reccomend the MacWriter conference for fellow newbie writers. Three was a lot of basic info. Glenn Sixbury, author of High Plains Moon - a vampire tale of the old west set in Hays, Kansas, gave a talk about "secrets" tips from editors and publishers of traditional publishing, what they are looking for in a novel. One thing I've noticed: authors like Sixbury who have been traditionally published pan epublishing. And epublished authors like Gordon Kessler pan traditional publishing.
     That evening there was on "open mic" for reading, only there was no mic. Diane Wahto read one of her poems. I chickened out on reading from "Dust and Roses." I need to get over that. Grrrrr. The next there morning had a panel of writers including Diane Wahto and Bonnie Tharp talking about the writer's life. It was fun. The lunch's keynote speaker was a fantasy writer from Dallas, Texas. Her name was Julia Mandala, a writer of humorous fantasy. She is a self-professed Catholic girl obsessed with hell. There ya go. Diane Wahto had a poetry workshop downstairs. I stayed upstairs to hear Patsy Terrell's talk on blogging. She strongly suggested all writers get a website of their name dot com and dot net. And, yes, she does offer website design services to writers. Check her out at Patsyterrell.com. Where else?
     I spent the last two sessions with Gordon Kessler and his topic of ebooks and epublishing. Gordon will be having an epublishing workshop on June 22 at  the downtown Wichita Library on Main Street. Yep, I'm going. I'm kinda digging going to writer's conferences
     The  High Plains Moon kindle book is now available. In fact, it looks like there is a second volume.

The Covor of "Dust and Roses" is a reality. I hope to have Dust and Roses out in ebook by Christmas. A designer from Florida, Tracy Jette made it.  I'm really quite happy with it. I decided to go the inndie route. At least this time. This first novel has been such a learning experience. As far a marketing is concerned, I'm going to write a piece called the "The Great Depression in Kansas." Put it out in ebook at a throwaway price. The main point is to use this article/book as a bonus for anyone emailing me or giving me feedback, including their e mail address. An of course, a newsletter about Kansas history, Great Deprssion, writing, WIPs and whatnot. Another lesson learned from Wordfest - get email addresses.    And learn to Twitter, or as Gordon says, "Tweeter." I thought that was a high sound speaker. Huh. 
     The url of this blog has kspoorhouse in it. I want to put together a listings of the locations and essential info of all the historical poor farms in Kansas plus any cemetary location information. Another WIP. I hope I live long enough.