California Dreamin’ Recap
The last weekend of March was the super-busy crush of the California Dreamin’ Conference and it seems like I’m still recovering! Three hundred authors came together for three days in Brea, California to connect (and reconnect) with friends, industry professionals, and readers, and to learn from the best in the business.
Between the conference and the busy Easter holiday weekend, I’m bushed! So instead of a discussion of Georgian and/or Regency history or characters, I’m sharing some California Dreamin’ photos.
April Kihlstrom’s Book in a Week
Author April Kihlstrom took her Book in a Week program and presented a four hour book camp for the California Dreamin’ Conference. My favorite insights:
Start your writing in a mental “state of play”. Write in a spirit of fun.
All those questions for developing characters and themes? You don’t have to have all the answers at the beginning. Ask them and move on. Your subconscious will give you the answers when you need them.
Here I am with Sarah Vance-Tompkins
What Would Jane Austen Tweet? Isn’t that a great title for a presentation on how a romance author should use Twitter? Sarah Vance-Tompkins was awesome! My favorite line: Keep it Light, Bright, and Polite!
Author Tameri Etherton‘s mascot, Lady Dazzleton, joined us for one of the excellent California Dreamin’ dinners. (Tameri was there also!)
Here I am with author Anne Cleeland
Anne Cleeland spoke on the oh-so-controversial subject of accuracy in historical fiction. Believe me, in writing circles, sparks fly between historical purists and the rest of us on this subject. My favorite takeaway: Know your readers, and write to their expectations.
Author Tessa Dare
Author Tessa Dare spoke on Hooks, High Concept, and Writing Big. Not having been born with a marketing brain, these buzzwords put me into a total brain fog. Tessa’s talk provided helpful insights, and the key one: It’s about the marketing!
The Amazon Panel
The conference featured a whole self-publishing track and one of my favorite presentations was this panel on Kindle publishing. At the podium is author Debra Holland and seated are representatives from Kindle Direct Publishing, Smashwords and Amazon Author and Publishing Relations. Plus, the Kindle team had a special open house for one-on-one discussions and questions.
I was too blown away by Author Lisa Kessler‘s presentations on crafting Black Moments to take pictures. My takeaway: make the black moment big and bad! She spent the last part of her talk helping authors twist their characters into the necessary knots to make things more awful for them. Make them suffer! Lisa was awesome, as usual. If you are an author reading this, check out one of her workshops!
Laura Drake and Jackie Diamond
The conference ended with a book signing in the beautiful Embassy Suites Atrium. Laura Drake and Jackie Diamond joined about fifty other California Dreamin’ authors to chat up fans and readers.
The next California Dreamin’ conference is already in the works. Mark your calendars for March, 2017!
All Images: Wikimedia and the author
Ha! I’m so glad the Black Moments workshop helped you!
Thanks for the shout out!
Lisa
That’s a great workshop, Lisa! I love how you get to the heart of the darkness. You have such a devious mind, and I mean that as a high complement!
Ha!
Why thank you!!! 
LOL
Lisa
Alina,
What a great blog! I almost feel as though I’m back at the Embassy Suites, enjoying the conference! I love your pictures. Thanks so much for sharing them with us!
And of course I forgot to thank you Judy and the other committee members. You did a fabulous job planning a great conference. I heard one person say she liked it better than RWA Nationals, and that’s saying something!
Great post Alina, love the pictures. All of the presenters were great. I saw some of the same speakers you saw, and a few different ones.
Lisa Kesslers Black Moments presentation was also very helpful to me. I’m working on changing my story to pump up that big black moment for more impact. SO glad I took her workshop.
Great post. Thank you for sharing the pictures!!
You’re welcome, and thanks for stopping by!
Great blog post. It was a great conference. I had a fabulous time! Kudos to the conference committee. I love the recaps of the workshops in your blog post.
Thanks for stopping by, April. Great presentation at the book camp!
Oh, and I forgot to mention Kim Killion talking about fixing the inadequate abs and tattooed arms of male cover models. What a hoot!
What a fabulous recap! Brings back so many memories. I can’t wait for 2017, seriously, I CAN’T wait! Let’s have another conference next month.
Everyone was so nice and the workshops were outstanding. A HUGE THANKS to the committee for making this conference awesome. I’m sure they’re all exhausted, but they should know their hard work helped so many other writers.
See you all soon!
You are so right about the committee. They did a fabulous job!