This year’s conference
has a stellar line up: Sheldon Siegel, Jacqueline Winspear, Cara Black, Anne
Perry, D.P. Lyle, Kirk Russell, Tim Maleeny, George Fong, Valerie Plame, Isabel
Allende, David Corbett, Otto Penzler, and John Lescroart. All I can say is
“WOW.” This is a conference every mystery and thriller writer should do at
least once.
The sessions deal
with character development, dialogue, real crime case studies, dealing with
agents (many in attendance), writing styles, plot constructions, developing the
bad guys and the good guys, even marketing and promotion. This allows for some
serious conversations with the moderators and authors who have probably more
than a hundred best sellers amongst them.
This is the 21st annual conference at Book Passage that puts
writers, great authors, and teachers together to help hone their craft. There
will be editors, agents, and even a publisher or two to help beginners and even
experienced writers learn more about their profession.
This is a hands-on
conference with Q&As and discussions with FBI agents and detectives,
forensic experts, and even a judge. All it needs is a few criminals to make it
real.
Here’s what
Jacqueline Winspear has to say about the conference:
From Book Passage’s Promotion
page:
In this short
Q&A, bestselling novelist Jacqueline Winspear discusses why she enjoys
participating in Book Passage's Mystery Writers Conference, which will be held
from July 24-27, 2014 in Corte Madera, CA. Winspear is on the faculty
this year as a conference chair. She is the author of New York Times
bestsellers A Lesson in Secrets, The Mapping of Love and Death, Among the Mad,
An Incomplete Revenge, and Leaving Everything Most Loved, as well as four other
nationally bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. Her next novel, The Care and
Management of Lies, will be published on July 1st. Winspear has won
numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha, Alex, and Macavity awards
for Maisie Dobbs, which was also nominated for the Edgar Award for Best Novel
and was a New York Times Notable Book.
What is the most rewarding part of teaching at the conference?
JW: The most rewarding part of the conference is in seeing the
participants bloom over the course of the four days that they are with us -
their confidence in themselves as writers increases dramatically, and you can
see the content really having an impact on the work, and how they approach
issues such as revision, character development, dialogue and the important
quality of knowing how to weave their background research into the narrative.
What do you hope aspiring writers will get out of this
conference?
JW: One of the points
I always make during the opening session, is for participants to have a clear
idea of what they want to come away with. I encourage them to take some time
alone and write down aspects of their work and life as writers that they would
want to see impacted by the conference - this helps them to make choices when
there are optional sessions, and it inspires them to ask questions of the faculty
that will help them in their work. I hope that each participant leaves with a
breadth and depth of knowledge that they did not have at their fingertips
before. But more than anything, I want them to leave fearless and
enthused about their work - indeed, with a plan to take the next major step in
becoming a published author. Many come without a clear path - but we do
all that we can to ensure they are on track towards publication and success in
their writing careers.
All the
information is here:
I’ll report next
week on the activities and who the murderer really was.
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