Monday 14 April 2008

At last!

The Winchester Writers' Conference schedule has finally been posted on their site. I scrolled through in excited fashion, hoping for some Science Fiction contributors but alas there are none. There is a Fri/Sun course entitled "Writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy" but it's being held by a fantasy writer and I've always been told that anyone who refers to SF as 'Sci-Fi' gets laughed out of town...

I am eagerly reading through the Saturday program though and trying to pick the talks I want to go to. Might also go to the Friday Pitch and Presentation mini course which claims to put you through your paces on pitching your novel. Bit scared by that, but then that's probably even more reason to go! I really wanted to sign up for a couple of one to one appointments this year with agents, but none of them look hopeful. Most say no SF on their descriptions and I've looked at the websites of others and they don't look keen either.

I went to an eclectic mix of talks last year including short stories, scripts and being the perfect author for your agent (I should be so lucky) and came away much more energised than by just going to the novel based ones. Might try something unusual again this year, I could certainly do with the motivation! Sadly I have to wait till June for that, will have to think of something else to help with the here and now.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't get it.
If SF does not stand for Sci-Fi, then what does it stand for?

Denise said...

I've been told by several science fiction writers that somehow it's ended up that SF is an acceptable abbreviation but sci-fi is not! Strange but true.

Karen said...

I've been to the Conference once before and loved it...not sure whether to do it again this year. I think I'll nip over and have a look at the website!

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Thanks for the link, it looks brilliant and I wish I was going. I shall have to bookmark this for next year.

Lane Mathias said...

Shame about the lack of SF (I thought it was Sci-Fi too) representation but it looks like there are some good bits whet your appetite:-)It doesn't mention the competitions yet? I wonder if they're holding them this year?

You are the queen of alternating fonts!:-)

Denise said...

Karen - Go on, you know you want to!

Debs - Definitely worth planning for next year, and the 1 to 1 appointments alone make it unusual.

Lane - I've looked at the Agents websites a bit harder and found two that will look at SF so I've requested appointments with them and sent off my application before I chicken out!

The competitions are listed on the pdf file on their front page. Not sure why they haven't put them on the competition page!

I don't want to keep alternating fonts, but my goldfish memory doesn't remember which one I want!

Anonymous said...

When you find something to help with motivation...please let me know!!

Fiona Mackenzie. Writer said...

I don't get it. Why are the americans so keen sci-fi and not us? I enjoy it and wish there was more choice.