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Wednesday, October 5, 2011

A Sci-Fi Geek Takes On M&M

...takes on M&M.
So… as some of you know… this past weekend I attended the Moonlight and Magnolia's conference down in beautiful Decatur Georgia. (For those of you who DON'T know… this is a romance writer's conference… and I'm no romance writer.)

I was recruited (albeit reluctantly) to attend by my awesome CRIT gals, Kendall Grey and Gina Lamm.

They were already going to be attending and they thought it would be a great opportunity… All of the agents/editors attending cross genres and a couple even adventure into the realm of YA.

Now, Pendomus incorporates romantic elements, but it is, by no stretch of the imagination… er… romance. So the idea was really intimidating at first. But, in the end, I am sooooooo glad I took that leap and trusted them.

The hotel the conference was at ended up being completly booked, so I had to stay at another hotel 5 minutes away… which, as it turns out, was a good thing. The convention center was being torn down the last day of our conference and they were in the process of picking it apart. (Helloooooooo, why is there no toilet paper in 4 out of the 6 stalls? They do realize a romance writer's conference is going to be mostly women… right?)

Anyway… meeting Kendall and Gina was amazing! They are wicked cool ladies both on Twitter and in person! I also met so many new people with whom I adore… Alicia, Denise, Nicki… just to name a few.

The seminars ranged from really beneficial, to pretty basic, but overall, worth the experience.

The biggest news on my part is that I pitched Pendomus to two people:

The fabulous Jessica Faust from BookEnds, LLC and the amazingly sweet Leah Hultenschmidt of Sourcebooks.

As you know from my freak outs earlier in the week… I am not a pitching genius. Trying to figure that whole ordeal out… or what they might want was confusing and uber a bit nerve wracking. But in the end, things went really well!

Both of them have requested to see the full manuscript! HOLY CRAP!

So… time to hunker down… get the last four chapter edits done and send it off to be examined by these wickedly awesome ladies.

LONG STORY SHORT: A romance writer's conference is a fantastic place for the Sci-fi writer… I met amazing people, learned some new stuff and even drummed up some interest for Pendomus.

Now… it's time to put my efforts in and make this happen.



16 comments:

DB Fission said...

It was indeed the first step on ur new journey. Let the adventure begin! Of course, reading this blog makes me wish I had been there. Perhaps next time. ;) I am so happy for u, Carissa! And proud of u!

K.T. Hanna said...

I KNEW you'd love it. I'm so proud of you and happy for you.

And it's really great for me to know, because I don't write romance - just have some romantic elements too.

Thank you for sharing, but above all, I'm just so glad you went!

Gabe (Ava Jae) said...

Oh man AWESOME! You got two requests that so I amazing I can't even express it's amazingness!

Ehem, this is the part where I finally get to say it: I told you so! I so did. I SO did.

Congrats Carissa! Now get to work. :)

Carissa Andrews said...

*shakes fist at the comment generator thingy*

Eh-hem… okay… LOL

Thanks guys for your comments! It was above all, an awesome experience… and yes… SO GLAD I went! Now I need to get my butt in gear. Hoping to have the edits done and sent by Halloween! Eeep!

Precy Larkins said...

Yay! Awesome! Congrats and good luck! <3

keepitreal said...

Awesome!! I am so excited for you!

Amanda Bozeman said...

WOOT!

That is great news, Carissa. Best of luck ;)

Shain Brown said...

That is amazing. I wish you the best.

Jennie Bennett said...

That is amazing!! Hope it goes well! :)

Kara_Malinczak said...

See Carissa? I told you that you were going to be famous someday. And you are on your way. Booyah!!!!

No seriously, congratulations.

Ciara Ballintyne said...

Congrats on making it that far. Hope it goes well for you.

Ray Plasse said...

What! Men don't use toilet paper?????

KendallGrey said...

I think my comment got eaten!

It was AWESOME to meet you. Had such fun. If you come again, you should stay an extra day or two so I can take you around ATL. We can get into all sorts of trouble. I promise! ;-)

T.S. Welti said...

Send it over when you're ready, hun. You are going to rock this out. Take no prisoners! :D

Carissa Andrews said...

Thanks for all the comment love, everyone! I'm looking forward to getting it done. :)

Anita Grace Howard said...

YAY! What a great time!! I'm sooooo glad you went. And super UBER congrats on those requests!

I happen to know both of those ladies, sort of personally. Leah was the first editor to offer on SPLINTERED, kicking the auction into gear. :) Loved her. She is SO nice. And Jessica is the sister agent to my prior agent, Kim Lionetti. You're in great hands with either/both and I wish you TONS of luck and good vibes w/that full! Keep us posted, and again, CONGRATS.