Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Saints & Sinners

This past weekend I was in New Orleans for the Saints & Sinners conference, my first opportunity to go to a writer's conference as a real, published author. (OK, the book isn't exactly out yet, but it felt real!)

I went to a couple of workshops (John Morgan Wilson rocks!) and picked up a couple of tidbits. I participated in a panel discussion with three other authors: Alistair McCartney, whose queer encyclopedia is coming out next year (really interesting writing); Lauren Sanders, whose book I haven't read but want to; and Aaron Krach, author of Half-Life, which I had just read before the conference.

It was a really interesting panel-- after we got past the basic stuff about how we got started and what we write, we actually talked a bit about what moves us as readers and writers, and about gay publishing and our obligations to our audience and our material.

Later in the day, I participated in a group reading with a bunch of other authors. It's the first time I wasn't really nervous when reading my own work.

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