President's Corner

SEPTEMBER 2006

NTRWA President, Sherry Davis

First, let me say how proud I was to represent our Chapter at the National Conference in Atlanta. I have attended many conferences over the years, but I have to say Atlanta will always hold a special place in my memory because I was representing, in my opinion, the best chapter of RWA.

That said, Atlanta was also the conference where I had the most to gain. I had spent the last twelve months completing two manuscripts. I had two appointments, one with a Sr. Editor of Harlequin and one with Agent Paige Wheeler of Folio. So, I left DFW Airport with a good feeling of a successful conference ahead of me.

After a full day on Wednesday, I had dinner with friends and an agent who owned her own boutique agency. (No, I didn’t pitch. Bad manners and all that!) By Thursday, I realized my appointment with the Sr. Editor wasn’t going to work. I turned in the appointment and picked up another with Sha-Shana Crighton of Crighton & Associates.  Now I had two agent appointments for Friday.

I already had my pitches down, so I spent some time in the bar Thursday night. I ended up having drinks with Karen Whiddon and her agent Lucienne Diver of Spectrum (she bought!)and Jennifer Jackson of Donald Maass. I found out Jennifer liked urban fantasy and asked if I could send a query. She said sure. I was pretty happy at that point. If nothing else went well, then at least I had a query with Jennifer Jackson.

Friday, I showed up for my agent appointments and picked up a cancelled appointment with Jessica Faust of Bookends. She requested the full of my urban fantasy! Ten minutes later, Sha-Shana Crighton requested the first half of my urban fantasy and the first 100 pages of my single title romantic suspense. I went from there to Paige Wheeler, who requested a partial of both books. Not bad for a Friday morning.

By then it was lunch and I was due at the Passionate Ink Luncheon. I met the agent with the boutique agency, who requested I pitch my urban fantasy, which I did. We spent the walk from the Georgia Aquarium to the hotel talking about my book. She requested the full!

On Saturday, I went to a couple of book signings and Cherry Adair invited me to pitch my book to her editor, Kate Duffy of Kensington. So, I did. She said send it. (Now, I have to pick one!)

When I returned home, the agent I’d pitched to after the Passionate Ink luncheon had emailed me. She’d been to my website and read my partial. She wanted to make sure I’d put her on my list of agents to send to!!  Now, that just doesn’t happen. Not to me, anyway.

On a side note, the e-publisher I’d queried about my short contemporary requested the full on my 2004 Hot Prospect winner! So, now I have three manuscripts going out.

So, that’s my conference experience. Yes, Atlanta will always hold a special place in my heart. You can bet I’m working hard, polishing my mss. I’d love to be attending the 2007 Dallas conference as a published author.