Not-So-Weekly Update: TRICON + MEETING AN AGENT
Last weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend Atlantic Canada’s first speculative fiction convention, TriCon! It was an honour to speak among fellow panelists Hayden Trenholm and Diane Walton, the brilliant founder of On Spec magazine. Special thank you to Liz Westbrook-Trenholm for moderating and her very insightful comments. TriCon is such an incredible opportunity for sci-fi and fantasy writers in Atlantic Canada and has been long overdue, I'm so happy and grateful to have participated in the very first. Here is a photo from the panel that I spoke on, “Becoming a Better Reader.”
There were lots of wonderful questions from the audience, including how to read more effectively, how to manage your free time in a way that is most beneficial to you, and how to incorporate real life events into your writing. I think the most important topic we discussed was the nature of “good reading for good writing.” What is the best way to read in order to improve your writing?
Well, the best reading that leads to good writing is reading that inspires! And I think inspiration can only truly come from fun. The trick is then to read something that you genuinely enjoy and are inspired by - read it for fun first, because you’ll likely pick things up without ever realizing it. Then read more intentionally. Focus on what you’re feeling while reading the story, and try to discover what the story is specifically doing to incite that feeling.
In other news, I also had the wonderful opportunity to workshop my picture book query letter with the highly talented literary agent Kurestin Armada from Root Literary in NYC.
Kurestin was a fantastic resource in helping identify the flaws in my query letter. She provided some vital insights into how to improve both the story and query for the better. I now feel ready to revamp the book and hit those query trenches with confidence.
This is going to be one heck of a picture book. Special thank you to TriCon for providing such incredible events for sci-fi and fantasy writers in Atlantic Canada. Keep an eye out for My Friends Are Weird and subscribe to my newsletter for updates!
