Memphis report and MEGACON tomorrow!

For those of you who came for the MegaCon info, it starts tomorrow. If you’re in the Orlando area and consider yourself a geek/nerd of any sort, you should be there. I’ll be there all three days. You can find me in Artists Alley at Purple10. This will be the first year my entire family has gotten to attend with me (though Brittany will be limited because of her class schedule) and I’m pretty excited about it. Bring some books for me to sign, or better yet, pick some stuff up from me there!

Additionally, at 5:20 on Saturday afternoon, I’ll be on a panel “Break-In Stories,” talking with other comic creators on how we “broke in” to the comic industry. Others will be: Cully Hamner, Chuck Dixon, Mike Miller, Frank Tieri, Steve Horton and Russell Lissau. I know several of them so know you will get some good stories AND will get some good answers to your questions. We’ll be in room 310 EF.

Last week…make that two weekends ago (I skipped a blog, last week, didn’t I? Oops!) I was the keynote speaker at the Mid-South Christian Writer’s Conference. I know, right! While I’ve spoken and had sessions at conferences/conventions before, this is only the second time as keynote…and yes, it gives me butterflies. Pretty much always! But, I tend to remember about 10 minutes in (I have to warm up, I guess) that I’m talking about WRITING, something about which I’m fairly passionate and then the overdrive motor kicks in.

I did two sessions as keynote and then a “breakout session,” where I gave an overview of how to write for graphic novels as most of the attendees were more traditional (ie., prose) writers. As I do in my class at Full Sail where we get the chance to really dive in deep, I get very excited to see the lights of possibility come on in the eyes of those in attendance. Often, it’s like revealing an entirely different world to them—and that’s kind of exciting.

The keynotes were a big challenge for me. Generally, as in the graphic novel session, the subject is pretty focused and straightforward. The staff (thanks April and Tracy—with no E!) wanted me to talk about something that could be for ALL writers. You see, the conference was not just for novelists. Also in attendance were songwriters, poets, memoirists and devotional writers (I’m sure I left somebody out!). Yikes! Generally, I’m all about STORY. You see, just ask my students and they’ll tell you that they constantly hear from me STORY IS KING! And I believe that! SO, I had to try to come up with something that covered all writer types.

And then they tossed in the curveball. Oh—and make it accessible to writers of all skill levels, from beginners to established/working writers.

Yeah.

In the end, I used that time to (I hope) both challenge and encourage them to BE BETTER WRITERS and to HONE THEIR CRAFT regardless of what level their writing may be or where they consider themselves. And while it very difficult to tell sometimes if those who are listening are enjoying it, I didn’t see anyone nodding off (the same is not true for my classroom!) and I take that as a good sign.