Killer Nashville & a Self-Editing Handout

Clay Stafford interviews D.P. Lyle

by Jodie Renner, editor, author, speaker

 

Just back from another excellent writers’ conference! This one was the 8th annual Killer Nashville conference in – you guessed – Nashville, Tennessee. Congratulations to Beth Terrell and Clay Stafford and their crew for all their hard work on organizing a highly successful conference.

Guests of Honor were DP Lyle and Anne Perry, both amazing people! Doug Lyle gave a highly entertaining talk called "Best-Laid Plans: What Were They Thinking?" about the OJ Simpson and Scott Peterson cases.

I attended some excellent sessions, both panels and workshops, presented a workshop myself on Deep Point of View or Close Third-Person POV, and was on a panel on editing your won work.



I participated in a panel on revision and self-editing, called "Be Your Own Editor: Make Your Book the Best it Can Be," which was extremely well-attended (the large room was filled) and attendees were very enthusiastic afterward about how they appreciated all the concrete suggestions for revising, editing, and polishing their novels. I distributed two handouts to attendees, both with great tips on revising. Click HERE to go to my own blog to read one of them. They'll also appear on the Killer Nashville website soon.

The amazing Beth (Jaden) Terrell was our moderator. Editors: Christina Wilburn, me, and Carolyn Mulford

It was awesome to meet my client Lynn Sholes . Lynn, her husband Tommy and I, plus several others had some great discussions. We missed Lynn's co-author, Joe Moore, who had to cancel at the last minute!

It was great to meet Beth Terrell and Clay Stafford, the organizers of Killer Nashville, and a lot of Facebook friends, as well as some great new writerly people. I had excellent conversations with a number of interesting, talented people and should have gotten a lot more photos snapped!

Suzanne Berube, Sarah Wisseman, Jane, Molly MacRae, & Jodie


Then Sunday morning at 8:30, I presented a 90-minute solo
workshop on Engaging your Readers with Deep Point of View. I was thrilled with the number of people who got up on time for it on the third day of a very busy conference! I expected 6 or 7 people and was surprised when about 40-45 showed up and eagerly participated. It was a lot of fun! 



One side of the room for my presentation

I've been to a lot of different writers' conferences in the last three years or so and find them stimulating and a lot of fun! I love the networking and making new friends, then keeping in touch with them on Facebook or by email.

I had no idea I was so short! LOL

I gave away two copies of my books at each of my presentations, and sold about 30 - roughly the same number as at Thrillerfest. Doesn't come close to covering expenses, of course, but that wasn't the idea!

How about you? Have you been to any interesting writing conferences this year? Or other destinations you’d like to tell us about?

Jodie Renner has published two books to date in her series, An Editor’s Guide to Writing Compelling Fiction: Writing a Killer Thriller and Fire up Your Fiction (Style That Sizzles & Pacing for Power), which has won two book awards so far. Look for the third book in the series, out soon. For more info, please visit Jodie’s author website or editor website, her other blogs, The Kill Zone and Resources for Writers, or find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. And sign up for her newsletter.