Though, as you can see, the learning the trapeze was pretty darn awesome. But that’s another post.

I am currently represented by Beth Fleisher of Barry Goldblatt Literary. Barry, in what clearly is a stroke of staggering genius, does annual retreat where the many of the writers under his umbrella get together and talk. This year, it was at Club Med in Sandpiper, FL (which has trapeze lessons as one of its athletic options). Some of the talk is about craft, some of it is about business. But mostly, it’s about speaking to people who in your career but are maybe just ahead, or just behind, or way ahead or exactly where you are. I was one of the New Kids this year, which gave me the license to ask the Embarrassing New Kid Questions and actually, y’know, learn stuff. Which was great, because I had alot to learn

Some of the highlights, no particular order:

•  Making a living from writing is incredibly difficult to achieve
• This is not a business where you can count on anything
• Midlist is not death-some midlist stays in print forever
• Barnes and Noble controls a mind-boggling huge share of book sales
• Time management is key: Not only do you have to respect your creative time, so do your friends and family.
• This is not a hobby
• Scrivener is worth the money for the “Outliner” function alone.
• Work For Hire is not a way to build a career, it’s a job. There’s a difference
• “No matter how long you work, you always think the next project is the one that’s going to change everything. And it never does” –Charles Vess
• Wanting Neil Gaiman’s career isn’t healthy
• Blogging and Twitter is optional. A website, however, is mandatory
• When thinking about online content, ask yourself what you get out of it
• If the love triangle between your YA characters does not exist, it will be invented by the readers
• Real writers are not competitive
• Give yourself permission to not do everything
• Don’t say no to an editor without a counter suggestion
• Noodletools is worth the money because of how easy it is to use
• When interviewing someone for research, use specific questions…
• …but be open to listening to where their story goes.
• Mortified is an excellent resource for the specific details and shared generalities of being a teenager
• Fantasy is the inner journey explored outwardly
• Sara Ryan has done an excellent favor for comic writers everywhere, What Artists Wish You Wouldn’t Do: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (also, Getting a Robot to Make a Sandwich)
• Holly Black’s rules for fantasy world-building work for sci-fi (just replace “magic” with “technology”), and for realistic fiction, thanks Jo Knowles’s impressive insight.
• When coming up with your magic system, think like a gamer: how can I cheat the system? How can I break it?
• Smell description is the best way to get people into a world
• I need to read more. A lot more.
• I made the right choice signing with this literary agency