Trip Report:  Autumn Author's Affair, Lisle, IL
October 1 - 3, 2004
Sponsored by Love Designers Writer's Club
Publisher of Rendezvous Review Magazine

Friday, October 1:  Rode up to Chicago with Kathy G and Dixie from my local RWA chapter.  Arrived in time to check in and head to the dinner, a delicious buffet.  Met up with my roommate for the weekend, Katie.  After dinner, we were treated to a quite lavish and extensive Trivia contest.  We split into teams of five (ours was appropriately named the Dodos) and we had to answer 100 questions in all -- 10 rounds of 10 questions each.  Each round featured a video clip of a romantic movie, and we had to name the title and actor/actress, another video clip of a novel made into a movie, and we had to name the novel's title and author, an audio of a theme song of an old TV show that we had to name, a reading from a romance novel and we had to name the author, etc., etc.  We ended up coming in 3rd of 6 teams.  Dixie and Kathy's team came in first.

Saturday, October 2:  After a breakfast buffet that was very tasty, we gathered for our Keynote speaker, Julie Kistler.  Her speech was very entertaining and motivating.  Basically, there are several keys to success in the writing world, but they're pretty simple, really:  show up, stick around, keep getting better, and keep a positive outlook.  She did a good job of kicking off the conference with an upbeat message.

The first timeslot of the day, guess who was a presenter -- none other than moi.  I shared an hour timeslot with another author, so I had 30 minutes.  My workshop was entitled Superwoman:  How to Manage Your Writing Career When You Can't Quit Your Day Job.  :)  It's a practical workshop in setting your priorities, time management, evaluating requests that come in against your priorities, learning how to say "no" without guilt, staying flexible and celebrating your successes.  It went really well and the audience members (about 15 of them in all) had some great questions for me, and a nice round of applause.  I was very happy with how it went.  The other half of my hour was a plotting workshop by Jennifer Stevenson called the Marriage Box.  Very interesting new way to analyze conflict between your heroine and hero.

The next session I attended a workshop by bestselling authors Jennifer Greene and Cathie Linz called The Keys to Writing and Selling Romance.  Ah, if only it were as easy as sitting through a one-hour workshop.  Jennifer started off by sharing her thoughts about the need to stick to the elements of a romance that are different from other genres, such as

Cathie focused mainly on building compelling heroes.  Make a list of characteristics that make your hero compelling.  Each author's list will be different.  Add depth to characters by adding layers that make sense.

After lunch, Natashya Wilson, Senior Editor of Silhouette's Bombshell line spoke about what Bombshell is, and a few details about what else is going on at Harlequin outside of Bombshell.  None of it was a surprise to me, except for the launch of the "Next" line -- which features an older hero and heroine and their second chance at love and life.  It's like chick lit for the older heroine.  It'll be in mainstream category format, and they are seeking authors who can dedicate to those lines.  It's like Red Dress Ink at the next age group.

The next workshop was my favorite one of the day, presented by two best-selling authors, Susan Carroll and Kimberly Cates.   Their workshop was entitled Finding Mr. Right:  Developing Strong Heroes and Heroines, and Finding Their Perfect Match.  They opened by defining 5 factors in building the chemistry between the hero and heroine:

Then, the best part of the workshop was next.  They handed out a character sheet that they each use to build their characters when they're in the beginning stages of a book.  Using the character sheet, we all developed the basics of a hero and heroine, while Kimberly wrote our ideas up on the whiteboard.  By the end of the hour, we had a pretty well fleshed out couple, complete with what each ones' strengths and weaknesses were, how they conflicted with each other, and how they helped to fill gaps in each others' lives.  The worksheet helps with the plotting too, and I always need help with plotting, so I think I'll give it a try next time I start a new book.

The last workshop of the day was a Tax Tips and Record Keeping for Writers, by Terri Stone, and although it wasn't a lot of fun, it was very useful information and a great wealth of tips.

Sunday, October 3:  Breakfast, an award given out to Northern Illinois' Librarian of the Year, and a rather long and rambling speech by a woman who has opened her own (very) small press and was looking for authors.  We hit the road around 10 or 10:30.

It was a fun weekend and I'm glad I went.  It was my third time to AAA and I'll continue to go, because I meet some great people, get enthused and motivated and learn something along the way, too.