Reader Friday: Your Most Useful Writers Confabs?

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We’re winding our way toward the end of the year, so let’s share some of our hive wisdom. What are your favorite writer conferences for networking or making contacts? Describe the best conference you ever attended, and please tell us what made it a good experience for you.

8 thoughts on “Reader Friday: Your Most Useful Writers Confabs?

  1. I’ve told this before.

    When I graduated from college–avoiding being stepped on by the dinosaurs as we made our walk–my mother gave me a trip to the writer’s conference at the University of Oklahoma.

    The conference was an eye-opener because I met the late Foster-Harris, Dwight Swain, and so many other distinguished teachers. (Later, my contacts at that conference would cause me to meet the late Jack Bickham. Professor Bickham was a man of major class and assistance. Because of the late hour I got to see him on a Friday, he gave me three hours of uninterrupted stories, instruction, and just plain ole Okie visiting.)

    Three years later, I uprooted my family and moved to Norman where I got to study with Professor Harris, Hollywood movie and television writer and bestselling novelist Bob Duncan, aka James Hall Roberts, and others.

    That conference shaped my life.

  2. For practicality (and cool fun!) the Writer’s Police Academy. I’ve been 5 times. Classes taught by first responder trainers, hands on experiences. Good contacts.
    For professional advancement, probably SleuthFest where I met the editor (at the elevator!) that led to my first hard cover publication. That was my “hometown” conference for my early writing years.
    Now, I try to hit Left Coast Crime if I’m around.

  3. Surrey writers convenes just across the Canadian border. It is like a small family with big-name regulars, Donald Masss, Diana Gabledon, Robert Dugoni… it offers everything the big conferences offer, but is more intimate. Plus the $ to C$ exchange rate is favorable to Americans—and that’s why it sells out early.

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