CONFERENCE PROGRAM
FRIDAY, JUNE 21
| 9:00 AM-1:00 PM |
Workshop: Charlotte Cook |
| 2:00-4:00 PM |
Workshop: Charlotte Cook |
| 5:00-7:00 PM |
Reception with Cash Bar |
| 7:00-9:00 PM |
Dinner Guest of Honor: Anne Perry |
SATURDAY, JUNE 22
| Plaza A | Plaza B | Plaza C | Plaza D | |
7:00-8:00 AM |
Breakfast |
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8:15-9:15 AM |
How to do a Killer Reading[Raphael]
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Depicting Religion in Historical Fiction[Dray, Pasha, Pilgrim, Sharratt] |
8:15 – 9:45Book Trailers: From PowerPoint to iPad Apps90 min workshop[Burns & McMahan]——–10:00– 11:30Swordplay and Its Influences on Culture90 min workshop[Blixt] |
Agent/Editor Panel #1[Cabot, Fox, Heller, Huets Johnson] |
9:30-10:30 AM |
Four X’s – and a Y – Mark the Spot: The Hidden Treasures of Historical Mystery[Alfieri, Perry, Ramsay, Rock, Spann]
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Is ‘Genre’ a Dirty Word? Commercial v. Literary HF[Cameron, English, Kaplan, Sharratt, Waldherr] |
Writing About Women in History: Animating Their Times and Voices[Cabot, Biaggio, Bracewell, Duffy, Perkins-Valdez] |
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10:45-11:45 AM |
To Trump or Trumpet the History Police[Cowell, English, George, Gortner, Smith] |
COLD READwith Deni Dietz and Greg Johnson |
The Feisty Heroine Sold into Marriage Who Hates Bear Baiting: Clichés in HF and How to Avoid Them[Bagwell, Ellis, Higginbotham, Iorio, Perinot] |
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Noon–1:15 PM |
Lunch Invited Speaker: CW Gortner |
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1:30-2:30 PM |
Location, Location: Transporting Readers to Historical Settings[Dray, K. Johnson, Knight, Lower, Perinot] |
The Witchcraft Window: Scrying the Past[Kent, Mailman, Sharratt, Witten] |
Virtual Salon: The Historical Fiction Blog[Bruno, Douglas, Swift, Rieseck, H. Webb]
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Sex in HF: How to Make It Hot[English, Gortner, Jones, Morin, Quinn] |
2:45-3:45 PM |
Agent/Editor Panel #2[Dietz, Goodman, Marr, Tempest] |
HF Set in the Ancient World: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly[Alvear, Dray, George, Quinn] |
Off the Beaten Path: Reading and Writing Outside of the HF Mainstream[Connell, Domin, Friend, Rose] |
Making it to Mainstream – And What Comes After[Bagwell, Barden, Bilyeau, Bracewell, Swift] |
4:00-7:00 PM |
Booksigning, Reception |
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7:00-9:00 PM |
Dinner Banquet Guest of Honor: Steve Berry |
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9:00 PM + |
Costume Show: Gillian Bagwell Sex Scene Readings: Diana Gabaldon |
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SUNDAY, JUNE 23
| Plaza A | Plaza B | Plaza C | Plaza D | |
7:00-8:00 AM |
Breakfast |
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8:15-9:15 AM |
Author/Agent Talk: The Inside Scoop[Jefferson & Lyon] |
Historical Fiction: The Search for Research[DiFulco, London, McDuffie, White] |
All in the Family: Bringing Characters to Life Through Genealogy[Kearsley] |
Historical Fiction: The American Experience[Daynard, Ramsey, Weisgarber] |
9:30-10:30 AM |
Foreign Language, Slang and Dialect in Historical Fiction[Bagwell, Platt, B. Webb] |
Building an Effective Platform for Your Historical[Barko]
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Poisoners and Poisonings Through History[Sutton] |
Publishing Models: Indie Presses and Self-Publishing Pathways[Dunn, Lewis, Makansi, Victorson, Weigenstein] |
10:45-11:45 AM |
Colour in Historical Novels[Dixon] |
COLD READwith Natalia Aponte and Jean Huets |
Audiobook or Podcast[Ulett] |
Writing the Cinematic Novel[Mackin] |
Dear Mary:
I note Lev Raphael is doing a session. I’m familiar with Lev’s background and writing. I seem to remember…on an early schedule printout for this conference…a session relative to gay people in fiction was in the plan. My suspicion is that Lev would have done that….and that you may have cancelled that because of negative feedback. Any response?
Hi Carlyle – I sent you a response but thought I’d post it here. We had a ‘gay characters’ session at the San Diego conference in 2011 that was very well attended! No one proposed that subject for 2013, but i’m sure it will come up again, as it’s very popular. No way did we get negative feedback about that topic (or any other topic). Thanks.
I just attended another Writer’s Conference in Vegas and all attendees were given a spiral bound book containing our schedule, with bios of all the instructors and tip sheets about their session titles as well as lots of space for class notes. For example: the 8 people on the editorial board who will make the decision to buy your book–who they are and what questions they would ask the agent or rep. (We role-played this.) It was very helpful. Classes were repeated at diff. times so we had less chance of missing our 2nd choice class because it was scheduled at the same time as our lst choice. Only the personal pitch sessions with agents interrupted some portions of the class times. Is any of this a similar scenario in the HFS Conference?
Hi CJ – well, some of it is similar! In the first place, though, attendees don’t need to sign up for sessions/panels/presentations, you just go to the ones you want. We do have concurrent sessions, so you have to choose one of four at any given hour. If you sign up for a pitch session, that will interrupt whatever other presentation you might be at (so please sit near the back!). We will have a conference program that will have all the speakers’ bios and photos in it — they are also online at our website. We are about to post descriptions of each of the sessions online, which you will be able to print out and bring with you, if you need reminding, so attendees will have a better sense of what each speaker or panel will be covering. The conference program ‘should’ have some room at the back for notes (i’m putting it together now). Thanks for asking!
Am I understanding this correctly…the Agent/Editor panels….. Is this where attendees pitch their novels to the Agent/Editors? Or is this a panel where attendees ask said A/E pithy questions?
Hi Carlyle – this is where attendees pitch their novels TO the Agent or Editor. There will also be a couple of panels with Agents and Editors, so get your pithy questions ready!
OOPS! Major oops! thanks to sharp-sighted (and sharper-witted) Barry Webb, I realize I gave you the wrong answer, Carlyle. The A/E Panel sessions are NOT where you pitch your novel – this is where they give a presentation and then there’s a Q&A. If you want to pitch your novel to a specific Agent or Editor (or more than one), you need to sign up for a pitch session – and there are still some available time slots, so if you’re interested, check it out! There’s no extra charge! (Thanks again, Barry!)
is the booksigning for the public?????
We’re talking about that right now, as a matter of fact. What’s your opinion?
What are these references to the “Blue Pencil Cafe”? Is this something that’s only accessible by invitation?
We will have more information about the Blue Pencil Cafe up on the website in about a week from now (i.e., April 15 or so). Thanks for your patience!
Will Diana Gabaldon be at the Conference? (She is my absolute favorite historical author. I’d sign up in a minute just to see and hear her!) I didn’t know this kind of conference even existed. I just completed book one of a historical series and am looking for an agent. Will there be agents at your conference to pitch to? How many participants are usual?
Dear CJ – Yes, Diana will be at our conference! She’s our “Sex Scene Goddess” and will be mc’ing the ever-popular Late Night Sex Scene Readings on Saturday night after the banquet. So glad you heard of us! (can you say where?) Good for you on the completion of your first book in a series — we definitely have agents and editors to meet with and pitch your book to – check out the Editors & Agents page on the website BEFORE you register so you can then make your 1-2-3 choices from among them when you register. We usually have around 300 attendees, so you can almost get to meet everyone! It’s lots of fun and a ‘must-go’ for any historical fiction author or reader!
Do you plan for agents to be at the conference for those of us who would like to pitch finished novels?
Hi Joan! Absolutely! Look at our Editors & Agents tab on the top menu to see all the great people we’ve got lined up to meet with conference attendees. When you register, you can indicate your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices and you’ll be signed up for a meeting time, which you’ll have notice of before the conference. Check it out! — thanks, Mary Burns, conference publicity coordinator/webmistress
This lineup looks amazing! Unfortunately for me, school wraps up in New York State on June 21st, and I could never get away with taking taking personal time for the last two days of school.
If only it was a different weekend!
I ‘d also like to know if recordings of sessions will be available. Thanks!
Hi Kathleen — at this time, we are not planning to record any of the sessions.
Would the Board be OK if individual panels record their own sessions?
This is a terrific lineup! Could I ask why there isn’t an announcement of the conference in “The Writer,” “Writer’s Digest,” or “Poets & Writers”? We don’t need to be such a well-kept secret, do we?
Thanks for the noodge, we’re trying to get the word out faster — please let others know about the conference wherever you can!
What do I do when there are wonderful workshops running across from each other? Will there be recordings of the workshops? Maybe? Please?
Oh, sad but true situation! It’s always such a dilemma when there are so many good topics and presentations! But even so, we’re not at this time planning to record any of the sessions. But you can get a friend to collect a set of handouts from ones you may miss!
Will you post descriptions as well as titles? I’m particularly curious as to what “Colour in Historical Novels” will be about. Does this mean people of color?
Great Question, Elyse! This session is going to be about the meaning and symbolism of actual colors (blue, green, red and all the rest) as they have come down through history and different cultures. I’ll ask jay Dixon to elaborate more–jay?? Also, we’re going to be asking all our speakers and presenters to post a bit more about their presentations so we’ll have a better idea of what each one is about.
That’s a fantastic idea!
Great idea! To make the best decision on what session to attend, it would help to have more in-depth descriptions of the class and instructor.