Thank You, Teresa

Because I paid $30 and sent in my conference application fairly early, I had the opportunity to participate in a workshop with Teresa Nielsen Hayden of Tor. Each of the seven workshop attendees got fifteen minutes of comments on the first ten pages of our respective manuscripts. We had thought we would be reading our submissions out loud, but that would greatly diminish the time each writer had to get feedback from Teresa. So we cut out the reading. And I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I had practised, but my stomach and nerves wouldn't have made the experience pleasant. I let out another sigh when Teresa said someone else would go first and I would go second. My stomach settled, my hands stopped shaking, I could do this.

And then, just as suddenly, I was going first.

Interior Monologue: "AAAAACCCKKKK!!!!!!"

Teresa mentioned that the synopses in general were problematic. So she started my fifteen minutes by asking me, "What's Human Dignity about?"

Interior Monologue: "Huh? Did I write that? It seems strangely familiar. Oh wait! I think I remember the theme of that story."

So I spit out the theme of HD. And Teresa said, "Well that's the theme. What's your book about?"

I had no idea where to start. I remembered that I had prepared a pitch for my agent interview, but that was buried somewhere in my bag. Realizing I had to say something, I mumbled some self-depracating (yet - I'm told - amusing) comment about how this was my first conference. And then I just started into the plot and everything was fine. But for a nanosecond, my worst fear of crying in front of Teresea Nielsen Hayden of Tor almost came about. Thankfully, it didn't happen. And everyone was incredibly indulgent and supportive as I fumbled my way through my answer. Especially Teresa.

Her comments were great. The comment I remember most clearly was when she pointed out a lovely writerism. "A perfect silence smacked the oak table." As soon as she drew a red line under the word "smacked," (I was sitting next to her, looking over her shoulder) I knew what she was going to say. And I had to laugh at myself. It had seemed such a clever thing to write at the time I was polishing my first ten pages. I was getting rid of the word "hit" because I had used it just before or after that sentence. And "smacked" seemed really artistic in its place. But how silence can make sound is beyond me. Which is something I didn't even think about when I substituted "smacked" for "hit".

Anyway, it was a great experience. And somehow I managed to get swept up into the group of important RMFW type folks that took Teresa to dinner. So I got to hear more from Teresa about publishing, writing, authors, and all sorts of fun industry gems. I drove home thinking, "Wow. That was fun." Just a day into the conference, and I'm already buzzing.

Saturday morning was the agent interview I've already described. And then I was in classes all day. Great classes, but that's a later post. After the big banquet, a smaller number of the attendees wandered up to a party. And somehow I ended up all alone in a conversation with Teresa. I don't know when we started talking, but the first time I looked at my watch, it was 10:15, and we both made noises about calling it a night soon. The next time I looked at my watch, it was 11:15, and we moved up to a party in the RMFW president's room with a very small group of people. At 12:15 (yes, AM), Teresa, the RMFW Pres, the RMFW Treasurer (I think), and myself were camped out on a bed, still chatting. At 1:15 I was trying to squeeze in a "ThankyouTeresaIhadagreattimetalkingtoyougoodnight" as the elevator doors slid shut. And then I sped down seven floors to leave the hotel and drive home.

That entire time, I talked about my book only once. I have been told that HD is a scientific thriller, not science fiction. I tend to think of it as SF, but I wanted to know what an industry pro would think so I could know if I was doing something stupid in billing it as SF in a query. Teresa said it was science fiction. And that was about it for my book.

Let me tell you how happy I am that we didn't talk about my book. And how nice it was that I didn't even feel compelled to bring it up. In fact, I had to really make a point of remembering to ask if she considered my book SF. I had the best time talking about anything and everything with Teresa. After a day and a half of concentrating on writing, getting published, getting an agent, it was very refreshing to just kick back and be women, be people. And I realized on Sunday that our conversation also gave me a human element to associate with the publishing world. That makes the idea of eventually submitting my work to a publisher or agent seem less like a black/white, accept/reject, anonymous, cruel world. Talk about refreshing and revitalizing.

And all that for $30 and an early application.