Catherine Stine's IDEA CITY

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Sunday, June 8, 2014

Notes from BEA

I went to BEA recently and had a blast signing books, meeting friends, checking out forthcoming novels and snapping photos!
Plus, the night before the expo, I got to hang out at the Harvard Club, and pick up a YA finalist Next Generation Indie award for Ruby's Fire! The place brimmed with other interesting writers, including Lindsay "LC" Barlow, a finalist for her horror ebook, Pivot, and Janet Shawgo, a finalist for her romance novel Find Me Again. I was impressed by the VP, Catherine Goulet for her enthusiasm, professionalism and intense dedication to promoting great indie lit.

I signed at the SFWA booth and the Headline booth, where the Next Gen Indie winners and finalists signed. It was big fun getting to talk directly with librarians, teachers and bloggers.
Meeting Kelly Hashway

I met Kelly Hashway, an online blogger and friend. She was signing at the Spencer Hill booth for The Monster Within. I also said a hearty hello to Jonathan Maberry, a fellow Philadelphian, who is quite beloved for his amazing horror novels.

Stopped by to meet and greet the inspiring Georgia McBride, founder of Month 9 Press and Swoon.
Chatting with the fab Georgia McBride
And hey, I couldn't resist getting my picture snapped with the uber-buff Ellora's Cave cover models. One of them even writes romance. Who would've thought?!
The Ellora's Cave cover models were good sports

Hanging with Hugh Howey
The next day I got to meet Hugh Howey, darling of the indie scene, and hot damn, his Wool series proves that he's one excellent writer. Have you read it yet? The first in the series is perma-free!
He wrote a smart post about Amazon and Hachette debacle.

I also sat in on a fascinating panel with some of the most successful indie romance authors, HM Ward, Bella Andre and Barbara Freethy ( a hybrid author). They all said that readers love series, and that when creating one, a writer should leave it as open-ended as possible so that you can add on more books should the series become popular.

Bella said that she has a family series, the Sullivans, with eight siblings and when readers clamored for more, more, more she actually extended the family into a series about the cousins, and then extended it into a handful of cities. These women are all super-fast writers. They say in this era of insta-buy ebooks that people want the next books in the series immediately after finishing the last one! I guess I'll have to get better at fast drafting.

Have you been to BEA? Any other great conferences?
Oh, and before I forget, the huge book giveaway is still open. Click here to enter the Rafflecopter. Plus a must-read from Indie author Dean Wesley Smith here.

15 comments:

  1. You got to meet some real stars! Glad you had a good time and got to attend such a big conference.

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  2. Ha! Love the two buff bookends you found. Sounds like a great time. Hope to go some day. :)

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  3. Cat, what a great post! I love seeing you hobnobbin' and havin' your nob hobbed. (You know what I mean.) And congrats on the award for RF!

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  4. You had enough fun for a hundred people! What an event. So glad you picked up your award in person. That had to be a super thrill.

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  5. What an exciting adventure. Awards, meeting new people. Signing your books. Happy you had such a great time.

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  6. Sounds like you had an awesome time!

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  7. It was so great to meet you in person after talking online for years. :)

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  8. Hi Catherine, what fabulous pics! And how nice to see you with my new publisher, Georgia, who is publishing my 2 middle grade fantasy novels next year! I hope to be at BEA next year and meet up with you! My fave pic are the adorable, um, bodyguards you have there. :) I hope you signed a ton of books!

    MANY Congratulations on the award!

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  9. Looks like you had an amazing time.

    Congrats on the award!

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  10. Very cool. I'm insanely jealous, but there's no way I could have made it out to BEA this year. Way to go on the award! That's rocktasitic!

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  11. What fun! I wish I could have gone. Maybe next year. You'll have to dish on whether you learned anything new and groovy.

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  12. Thanks all. I'm teaching at a writing workshop all this week. New post coming soon!

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  13. Great photos, Catherine! I love the one of you and Kelly=) You guys must have been really happy to have had the chance to meet at the BEA. And congratulations on your award... you should feel quite proud! I hope you enjoyed teaching your workshop. I'm teaching one in two weeks for middle grade writers and I'm very excited=)

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  14. It looks like you had fun. I hope I get to go to BEA sometime. And be a professor ;) You're so cool Catherine.

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  15. Hi, Catherine,
    Sound like you had a whale of a time. I'd have had a ball too meeting up with writing buddies and those who are big in the writing world. Congrats on your achievement.

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