The 2012 ACFW DFW Conference
ATTENDING THE 2012 ACFW DFW CONFERENCE
Attending the 2012 ACFW DFW Conference at the Hyatt Regency at DFW Airport was both the wisest investment I could make second only to joining the ACFW in 2011. The Conference was a whirlwind 4 days of meetings, conferences, workshops, classes and fellowship. I survived three of them and lived to tell.
THREE OBJECTIVES
I had three main meetings or appointments booked which were priorities
1. With an Agent,
2. With a Publisher/Editor,
and
3. With a Mentor.
RESULTS
#1. My Agent of choice was Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. Sadly I did not get a booked appointment with her. But there were other ways to make contact. By chance, after an Agent Panel on Thursday night, I had about ten minutes of her time and made a good contact with her. With the mentors I mentioned at the time, the targeted publisher and my one sheets to show, she was open to contact post the conference and when my manuscript was completed. Item #1 on the checklist was checked off the first night.
#2. My next appointment was to meet with Harlequin Senior Editor Melissa Endlich on Friday morning. I had attended the spotlight session with Harlequin the night before and made it a point to ask questions in the group and then personally introduce myself after the event was over. In the Friday appointment it too was a productive meeting. Melissa and I visited about the interesting spotlight the night before and the author who was persistent to get her book published. She looked over one of my chapters and with a good visit she suggested I had a future with the publisher.
I remember asking, “If I had a future with H/LI what is the process towards publication.” She answered “I don’t think its a matter of IF but WHEN,” and she answered my questions. I left the chapter and the one sheets, which from my marketing and advertising years in radio and TV paid off very well in the photo paper glossies I had produced. And that too was encouraging.
#3. The third appointment came with Gail Gaymer Martin, a writer of numerous published novels over the past 30 years. She was one of the founders of the ACFW and a friend of my mentor Margaret Daley. She reinforced all my checklist agendas and suggested working with a good Critique and/or Editing editor. Margaret Daley suggested as much after the Gala on Saturday Night.
So, in summary, I went home more confident with several key areas to my question IF I HAD WHAT IT TOOK TO BECOME A PUBLISHED WRITER. I like Melissa Endlich’s terminology: “Not a matter of IF but WHEN.” I also like how Tamela Hancock Murry put it, “There’s no time limit on getting your first manuscript perfect. Gail Gaymer Martin also suggested to “Take my time and make sure I’m writing what I am called to write.” All three meetings were productive and I am grateful to know my writing has ‘potential.’
UNEXPECTED HIGHLIGHT: MEETING WITH MARGARET DALEY,
CHIP MAC GREGOR AND CAPTAIN PICARD?
On my final night of attendance, which for me was Saturday Night, I stayed around for the afterglow fellowship after the GALA awards dinner and presentation. And I had a special gift from God. Actually, I had three.
After Colleen Coble had received the 2012 Carol Award for her Lonestar Angel novel in the Romance Suspense category, I bowed out to find the men’s room. Once there and headed to the lavatory to wash my hands and saw a strange sight in the mirrors. There, at the urinal stalls was a man in a kilt and another dressed like a Star Trek Character.
When the man dressed in the Star Trek costume came over I had a twinge of sarcastic humor. I simply finished washing my hands, reached for a towel to dry them and nodded, “Captain,” before turning to the door where the man in the kilt was holding it open. Then I smiled and had a breath laugh outside in the lobby. The man in the kilt was none other than Chip MacGregor of the MacGregor Agency. He was someone I did want to meet that weekend but that humorous scenario made for some fun conversation to do so.
Actually the lobby in front of the ballroom was a great place to visit with Chip, who later invited me to the lounge upstairs after the gala for a drink and to watch his Oregon Ducks playing football on one of the sports HD screens. Chip is an interesting person. I suspect he only handles “A” list writers and the cream of the crop at that. He also is similar to Johnny Carson in my book, someone at the top of his game, very well known and doing very well. He also has a rather unique sense of humor.
I specifically attended the Thursday Agent Panel with him in Attendance along with Tamela Hancock Murry because in my book they both are the stars of the conference and there’s no secret I’d like to have Tamela as my agent. But I also attended because I wanted to find some humor in the conference and I knew from listening to the 2011 Agent Panel with Chip in the CD Mp3 disc from St. Louis that he had a wry sense of humor.
When I told him as much in the lobby there at the DFW Hyatt Ballroom he laughed not quite recalling what he had said. I reminded him that when he was introduced last year the hostess said he often wrote fiction under a pen name. He asked, “what did I say?” I reminded him he said, “Yes, I write under the name of John Grisham.” The room laughed from the audio of that CD but not half as much as he did in the lobby there at the Hyatt Hotel. So I, a pre-published nobody without even a manuscript to talk about with one of the top agents in the business had something to say to him twice. First, from the odd [turned out to be a Speculative Fiction writer dressed up like Captain Picard] and secondly with the reminder of his ‘John Grisham’ punch line. For Chip it might not have been the highlight of the conference for him but for me it certainly was.
The second and more important gift was meeting Margaret Daley one-on-one in the bookstore post the conference and along with two of my invited guest who turned out to be sort of celebrities themselves with Margaret we had about two hours together to talk, visit and speak in depth about my writing, her writing and where my writing might head in the future.
Steve Myers & Margaret Daley
Cece Cervantes, Margaret Daley, Sandi Hammonds (left) and I with Sandi and Cece (right)
It was a whirlwind three days and nights for me that frankly exhausted me. From the preview orientation Wednesday afternoon to the Gala on Saturday I was one wiped out puppy. But it was all very productive and beneficial. The only challenge was ‘Now What?’ That’s to be learned in the Post Conference post yet to come.