Sunday, May 02, 2010

Romancing the West - Awesome-sauce!



The Romancing the West mini-conference yesterday was amazing!! So much goodness packed into one day, my brain is fit to explode with all the excellent advice and info.

I was especially thrilled to meet up with my on-line buddy, Fiona Lowe, and it was sooo great to chat face-to-face rather than e-mail-to-email!

Here I am, posing with Fiona at the tea break! (Thanks to the lovely Rachael Johns for taking the pic!)


Fiona gave an excellent workshop on conflict and finding your characters' backstory. And the importance of drip-feeding information throughout the story rather than giving a great big info-dump upfront.

Nikki Logan's workshop on branding was awesome. It's something I've really struggled with but it was just like someone (Nikki, lol) bopped me over the head with the clue-stick. I hope I can now implement her advice!

And Juliet Marillier's workshop on history, guesswork and wild imagination was fantastic! Not least because it reassured me the way I go about researching and weaving it into the book isn't half as crazy as I've always wondered!

I'll be putting a full report up on my website shortly!

In other news, I'm over at Shelley Munro's blog today, with a writer's tip. Hope you can pop over and say hi!!!

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a GREAT conf, Christina. I can't wait for Adelaide's turn on the 15th. I'm now heading over to your website to have a squiz.
Tam :)

Christina Phillips said...

Hi Tam! It really was great. Would love to make the Adelaide conference as well!!

Cari Quinn said...

Sounds like an awesome conference, Christina. Glad you had a good time. :) And that was a great tip at Shelley's!

Rachael Johns said...

It was just awesome! But I am so just knackered!!!

Christina Phillips said...

Cari, thanks for checking out my tip at Shelley's!

Rach, me too. I could easily have spent all Sunday in bed!

Fiona Lowe said...

So great to meet you. Christina! But the time went way too fast!!!

Kaye Manro said...

Sounds like a fantastic con, Christina! What great workshops in such a short time!

Christina Phillips said...

Fiona, the time went way too fast - story of my life! Was lovely to meet you at last!!

Kaye, there was an amazing amount of info packed into the day. The Committee members all deserve medals!

Eleni Konstantine said...

Say glad to hear you had a wonderful time. As Tam said, we're gearing up here in Adelaide for our day conference. It's just the best meeting up with fellow writers!

Christina Phillips said...

Eleni, I know you'll have a wonderful time in Adelaide, just wish I could make it - maybe one year!