Last week, I jumped into my “big girl” pants and bravely marched into New York City like I owned the place (even though I was really just a scaredy-pants writer) and attended my first Thrillerfest Conference. What an amazing week! This was easily the BEST writing conference I’ve ever attended. The writing workshops and panels filled with talented famous authors were incredible, as was my added bonus of attending a whole day workshop at FBI Headquarters.
During the week, the International Thriller Writers hosted a special event on Thursday afternoon called Pitchfest. Imagine between 300 to 400 writers who anxiously want an agent to represent them for their yet-to-be published novel, all standing in somewhat of a meandering line in the hallway outside of the five ballrooms on the third floor of the Grand Hyatt Hotel. It’s a huge crowd and it seriously makes your tummy queasy, just thinking about elbowing these people out of the way to talk to an agent, who will probably hate your idea anyway and say: “No. I’m not interested in your novel.”
All I could think about was trying not to cry, when I got rejected. Read more
