Surrey International Writers' Con schedule

So in my last post I mentioned I’d be at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference in Surrey, BC, Canada later this month. It is, arguable, the best writers’ con in north America and I’m honored to be a guest there for the second year running. More about the con can be found at the above link, and if you can’t make it this year I highly encourage you to try next year. It’s useful for writers of all levels - I’ve already picked out the workshops I’d like to attend - and the camraderie between panelists and attending authors can’t be beat.

Here’s my tentative schedule (though I have blue pencil sessions every day as well, and I read some amazing pages there last year!):

Friday, October 24th, 3:30-5:00 pm: Panel -THE SCIENCE OF INSPIRATION. 

I am totally qualified to teach this as I learned to French braid my hair in high school chemistry. Trust me. Oh, wait. Here’s the official description:

A peek into the secrets behind best-selling speculative fiction from the weavers of alternate reality - and one guy who really buys into it. 

Saturday, October 25th, 1:30-3:00 pm: GET OVER YOURSELF - AND GET WRITING. 

How do you keep out of your own way long enough to sustain an idea and write that idea into a finished book? A look at goal-setting, making time, and helping first-time authors stop making excuses and beat the mind games that stand in the way of publication.

Basically, this is where I get to unleash my inner-writing beast and say, “If I have to work this hard, so do you! Neener-neener!” 

And then I proceed to give you tools that show you how. 

Let me make a sports analogy, if I may: When I was learning to play tennis my coaches would all say, “Footwork is key…move your feet!” which was undeniably true. But the best coaches would then go on to tell me exactly how to do that. This stuff is not necessarily intuitive, and a good coach/teacher/instructor will find you new ways to tell you old advice so that something finally clicks with 1) your way of learning and 2) skill level. (Wow. That was a long ‘aside’.) 

Anyway, this is the second year I’m teaching this workshop and I’ve been told that it was one of the most popular/useful last year. My only guess as to why is that all advice offered is done in the Surrey spirit: to connect with other writers and see all our dreams come true. I’d love for you to join me in this.

5:30 - 7:00 pm - Book Fair! All presenters are on hand to sign. I sneak in a glass of wine and goggle at all the other authors. They are my rock stars.

Sunday 11:00 - 12:15: Blood Runs Cold - Fear, Shock and Horror in No-Holds-Barred Chillers. Two best-selling authors discuss handling all the delicate issues (and tissues) of modern horror.

This is with Michael Slade, a wonderful writer and speaker, and I think the ‘No-Holds Barred’ bit means I get to put him in a headlock. Who wouldn’t pay to see that, right?

For those of you who are attending, please say hi if you see me wandering dazedly around the hallways. That's why I'm there. {s}