by Debbie Burke
The 34th Flathead River Writers Conference was October 5-6, 2024. The conference is always good, but this year was stellar with superb speakers and enthusiastic interaction among attendees.
As I drafted this post from my notes, it kept growing with more information that needed to be included. As a result, it ran way too long for a single post. So I’m dividing it into two. Today is Part 1 of the greatest hits from the event. Part 2 will follow in a couple of weeks.
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Debra Magpie Earling (Native-American author of The Lost Journals of Sacajawea and Perma Red) gave the moving keynote which set the tone that continued through the entire weekend.
Debra opened with a description of “wonder”, which she defined as “surprise mingled with admiration.” She went on to tell a story of wonder about the last Christmas she spent with her dying mother. On a peaceful Montana night, she described their visit as like “being inside a snow globe.”
Her mother said, “When I die, I’ll send you a sign. A hummingbird.” Debra went along with her mom but had her doubts. After all, hummingbirds are common at her home during summer so how would she ever know which one was the sign?
Nevertheless, after her mother passed, the following spring Debra set up many feeders and waited.
It was a strange summer. Other bird species came and went. Crows sat on the feeders. But not a single hummingbird appeared.
On the evening of her mother’s birthday in July, Debra and her husband were sitting outside and Debra said, “Well, I guess she didn’t send the sign.”
At that moment, the only hummingbird of the year appeared. It flew to Debra’s forehead and hovered for a few minutes then left.
Debra and her husband asked each other, “Did you see that? Is that what I think it was?”
With that anecdote, she summed up the magical wonder of storytelling, the conference theme.
While talking about where inspiration comes from, Debra said, “The muse is a lot of dead people who want their stories told.”
That sentence sent chills through me. Recently I’ve considered writing historical fiction. Did Debra send me a sign that it’s time to explore the past?
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Million-selling Harlequin romantic suspense novelist Danica Winters told the audience, “This is not your grandmother’s bodice ripper.” Romance sales account for an astounding $1.4 billion each year.
Today’s variations are limitless: contemporary, historical, erotica, Young Adult, thriller/suspense, LGBTQ+, dark romance, paranormal, holiday, fantasy/romantasy. Even serious social issues like human trafficking find their way into romances.
Why are they so popular? Danica believes, “They are everyone’s escape. They bring joy and make people laugh. Romance is a promise. We writers are entertainers.”
Danica sells many more paperbacks than ebooks, unlike other genres where ebooks dominate. She added an interesting market detail: When Walmart changed its shelving to hold 6″ by 9″ books, that prompted publishers to shift book production to that same size because Walmart is such a huge market.
While most romance readers are women, Danica said about 20% are men, often in law enforcement and the military. Turns out even alpha males like escape, too.
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Three-time Agatha winner Leslie Budewitz focused on crime fiction with an excellent summation of differences within the genre.
- Mystery is “What Happened?”
- Suspense is “What’s Happening?”
- Thriller is “What Might Happen?”
Leslie has her finger on the pulse of the cozy market and talked about shifts within the genre, including a new trend of millennial cozies that include some swearing and adult language.
For a cozy, the semiofficial acceptable body count is three. So far, Leslie has only had two murders in one book.
With 19 published books, Leslie must keep track of two amateur sleuth series and multiple standalone suspense novels. She developed an ingenious system to avoid repetition of plots and characters. For each book, she creates a spreadsheet with the following headings:
Victim Killer/Method Suspects Motive VGR
What is VGR? The Very Good Reason why the amateur sleuth gets involved in a crime.
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Only a truly gifted writing teacher can make grammar entertaining. That describes longtime college instructor Kathy Dunnehoff, author of bestselling romantic comedies and screenplays.
Kathy offered nuts and bolts hacks to improve writing productivity.
- Measure your success by what you control, not by factors outside your control. Success is the number of words you produce.
- Use a writing calendar to track production either by word count or minutes…as long as that time is spent actually writing. Watching goat yoga or doomscrolling doesn’t count.
- When you don’t write, record your excuse in the calendar. Talk about making yourself accountable!
- Recognize procrastination in its many disguises: research, reorganizing your office, talking about writing rather that writing, etc.
- When revising, try the “Frankenstein Method” (from Jessica Brody’s Save the Cat Writes a Novel): Start a new document for the second draft, then copy and paste sections from the first draft.
- There is no extra credit for suffering!
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On Saturday evening, our local indie shop, the BookShelf, hosted a reception for conference attendees and speakers. Gather a bunch of writers in a bookstore and we’re more excited than dogs at the dog park. Even though people mock-complained their brains were overloaded and they were exhausted, no one wanted to leave. All that creative energy kept us buoyed and eager for the following day.
Come back here in two weeks for Part 2 of the Greatest Hits from the Flathead River Writers Conference. Highlights include freelance article writing, side hustles to supplement income from book sales, anatomy of a publicity campaign, and 16 questions an agent asks when assessing a manuscript.
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TKZers: Do any of the ideas mentioned resonate with you? What is your favorite productivity hack?
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Conferences are also a good venue to sell books and I did!
Please check out my latest thriller Fruit of the Poisonous Tree at this link.
I’ve created a few “Frankenscripts” cobbled together from early drafts intertwingled with other material. They’ve all been problematic.
In my WWII thriller, the VGR for Carl Jung interviewing Hitler was that the Oberkommando Wehrmacht offered him 20,000 Marks. When he turned that down, they offered him one Marc, instead, i.e., Marcus Rosenberg, a friend and concentration camp resident. The thornier problem was giving Hitler a VGR to let Jung talk to him.
J, Frankenscripts and intertwingled. LOL! Your creativity must give fits to spellcheck.
Jung’s VGR is outstanding. Could Hitler’s VGR be that narcissists love to talk about themselves?
Who doesn’t love to talk about themselves? But to make it credible that Der Failure would consent to a visit from Carl Jung, I gave him a horrible nightmare on top of his insomnia:
“…Then, by the light of the fire, Hitler saw something awful coming, something that whispered a word through bony jaws as it approached.
Hitler’s throat tightened. He couldn’t cry out; he couldn’t breathe. His chest seemed confined. He tore open his pajama top, trying to get more air…”
It gets much worse. In the morning, Hitler tells Gen. Olbricht to arrange for Jung to visit him in Austria.
Perfect!
I love what Debra said: “The muse is a lot of dead people who want their stories told.” I don’t necessarily believe it, but it give you a lot to think about.
And my Frankenstein method doesn’t even involve cut and paste (I’m that lazy). I just rename the first draft as the second draft, make changes, add, and delete as necessary.
Ahhh! “… it GIVES you a lot to think about.” I remain unable to string too sentences together without making at least won or two errors. 😉
(And, yes, I did proofread before posting it.)
LOL!
Michael, Debra’s line resonated with me and I keep thinking about it.
I attended last year’s conference, and had a wonderful time. Good recap, and glad someone is standing up for romance. You pick a genre, there are romance novels in there.
Terry, so great to meet you in person at last year’s conf!
Your comment about romance reminded me of Deb’s recent post. In Castaway Tom Hanks finds love of a sort with the beachball b/c humans have a deep need for connection.
Thanks for sharing insightful wisdom from this wonderful conference, Debbie. It sounds well worth attending.
Leslie’s VGR is vital IMHO for plotting murder mysteries. What the sleuth believes a suspect’s motive for murder to be of course is important as well, but they need a Very Good Reason to investigate to begin with. Something is off, the police are overlooking something, they are convinced the wrong person was arrested etc.
I like the Frankenstein Method and have done a version of that. There’s a somewhat similar approach which Matt Bell discusses in his book “Refuse To Be Done”, which Matt says is the part of his advice no one ever wants to hear: retype your entire first draft into a fresh computer document (he works with two screens but you can do this from a printout of the first draft). As you retype it, you will make changes, more in flow than if you were going through and spot correcting.
I haven’t tried this yet but want to.
Tracking word counts is a great productivity hack. Another I love and need to get back to doing are writing sprints.
Looking forward to Part II of your conference writeup. Have a wonderful week!
Dale, hope to entice you to the conference sometime!
I’ve heard of retyping an entire ms but I’m too lazy. However, copy and paste into a new doc intrigued me.
Sprints break logjams for a lot of writers.
Have a productive week!
I agree with the VGR but add, why now? There must be a reason for the antagonist to act now, not last year, six months ago, or next year.
It sounds like a great conference!
Patricia, why now is a terrific question! Thanks for bringing that up.
Why now will be mentioned in part 2 as an important point when pitching an editor or agent. What is the reason for this story to be told NOW?
Absolutely! What is pushing the antagonist now? What internal and external pressures? And then, what is the protagonist’s VGR for getting involved — when most of us would call 911 and leave the investigation to the pros!
Sounds like a great time.
Wish you could have been here, Brian!
Deb, I am so grateful you took notes. I thought I’d remember it all. Not even a chance. Thanks for the recap. I can’t wait to part 2. I wonder now what I missed.
Please share with us your a-ha moment.
Susan
Sue, I know better than to trust my memory! By the end of the weekend, all of our brains were bursting.
Hard to pin down a single “Aha” moment b/c there were many. But Debra’s comment about dead people wanting their stories told sticks with me.
Thanks for your first recap of this conference, Debbie. I’ve heard Leslie Budewitz speak and she is first-rate. Her breakdown of crime fiction is useful for experienced writers and newbies.
Mystery is “What Happened?”
Suspense is “What’s Happening?”
Thriller is “What Might Happen?”
Looking forward to your second recap.
Elaine, I’ve heard Leslie many times and I always come away with something new and helpful.
Thank you both!
Sounds like a great conference! Thanks for taking notes, Debbie. So much wisdom and experience there.
I especially liked “Success is the number of words you produce.” A good way to measure success. Also really liked Leslie’s VGR idea.
I’d love to attend your conference one of these days.
Kay, we’d love to have you attend! How about a meetup next year with TKZ contributors and readers?
Thanks for the recap, Debbie. I’m still thinking about Debra’s description of the muse, too.
Credit for the term VGR — the Very Good Reason — goes to my late friend and editor, Ramona DeFelice Long, who would be pleased that it struck a chord with you!
Leslie, you were terrific but that’s no surprise!
Glad you mentioned Ramona b/c I didn’t write her name down when you talked about her.
Leslie’s tidbit,
Mystery is “What Happened?”
Suspense is “What’s Happening?”
Thriller is “What Might Happen?”
resonated with me the most. Sounds like a keeper of a conference, Debbie!
Deb, this is the 34th year of the conference. Come and see us for the 35th!
Thank you for the recap and support, Debbie. So many helped out this year and, for the first time in four as coordinator, I was able to sit and enjoy so many of the presentations. I agree with you that they were all top of the ice cream sundae (without the strychnine cherry, Leslie Budewitz!). We had a delightful time and, for those of you who have posted that you’d like to come some year, please do—we have too much fun.
Friendliness and a welcoming attitude are the conf’s best qualities, all right, Craig. Congrats on a successful event.