From the Frying Pan Into the Fire

The day finally has arrived that I go to New York City to hone the pitch for my thriller, The Nubian Codex, and deliver it to four editors at the Algonkian Pitch Conference. I've been to only one other non-journalism writer's conference last July at Madison, Wis., and it was a great experience. I would like to have returned, but the organizers thought it would be best moved to the spring. As luck would have it, it's this weekend, too. Making matters worse, there's one agent in particular I would have liked to have met. Still, I think the pitch conference is the next step on my journey toward having my book published

We had to write a pitch as a pre-assignment for the conference. It will be interesting to see how it will change over the next several days. I'm not too nervous. I've had half the book professionally edited by Ray Begovich, a former professor at Ball State University who now teaches at Franklin College. He said, "This is a good read that will appeal to an educated audience. I see screenplay potential here as well -- it's quite cinematic in many respects." I'm glad to hear that since that's precisely what I was going for.

My husband Jeff Brailey just returned from the Pike's Peak Writer's Conference in Colorado. It was his first, and he, too, found it very inspiring. I guess we're just on a writing binge right now.