#dfwcon

Met a hero in real life today. She is a lovely human and a beautiful writer.

People come from all over the country to attend the Dallas Fort Worth Writers Conference (DFWCON). I became determined to attend the DFWCON after participating in the #WriteClubDFW contest. If you don’t know what this contest is, go immediately (Yes, right now!) to the DL Hammons.com website! This annual contest is a great way to hone your writing skills, where you get FREE feedback on your work if you are within the top 30 selected short stories. While the details of the contest are outside the scope of this post, you can find them at DL Hammons’ site or visit Solange Hommel’s WordPress site (a past winner), to see a great post on what it’s like to compete in the contest.

I’m a complete introvert so was happy when a writing buddy agreed to join me for the conference.

The week before the conference Twitter buzzed with posts from people all over preparing for their journey to DFWCON.

My friend and I are in Houston, so we decided to drive up to Dallas on Friday afternoon. The night before I was frantically packing, and then unpacking, and then repacking trying to decide what to wear and terrified I would get there and wish I had brought different clothes.

Exhaustion finally beat out my fear of looking like a dork, so I climbed into my own bed one last time before departing to Dallas.

When you purchase a ticket for DFWCON you get one free pitch session, during which you get to pitch your manuscript to an actual agent. In the weeks prior to the conference, someone from DFWCON will ask you to pick an agent from a list. The pitch session is approximately nine minutes long, so focus and brevity are key.

In addition, if you are brave enough, you can anonymously place a copy of your attempt at a query letter into the “Query Gong” box. On the last day of the conference, a panel of literary agents will listen to randomly selected queries. The goal is to have yours read without getting three gongs. A gong signifies that if you had submitted your query directly to the agent, they would have stopped reading and placed it in the slush pile.

On Friday afternoon, we piled into my friend’s SUV and spent the time during the drive up, rehearsing our agent pitches.

Several hours later, upon arrival at our hotel, we sat down armed with highlighters to chart out our plan for the conference classes as if we were mapping our attack on Disney World!

We carefully reviewed each class description and any limited seating classes for which we had registered. We were determined to ensure between the two of us, that we maximized attendance in all of the topics, which interested us the most.

An hour later, with our color-coded conference schedule complete we were ready to grab dinner!

Over dinner, we chatted about our networking goals, discussed how to best minimize my introvert handicap and shared business cards.

Upon return to the hotel, I took to Twitter, reading posts from DFWCon.org and others who had posted pictures from the pre-conference mixer and agents dinner.

This instantly made me nervous and my heart sank at the thought of my author pitch, so I spent a couple more hours rehearsing.

Early the next morning, (conference starts at 8 am), I was feeling confident and well prepared. Besides, I had a buddy, so I figured I could keep my social anxiety in check.

Then it happened. On my way downstairs to get breakfast and meet my friend, I felt my stomach drop the minute the elevator door opened. It was full of complete strangers peering at me and worse some wore DFWCON lanyards. I froze, my face flushed hot and my stomach tightened. I meekly shuffled into the elevator and tried to stare at the floor terrified of accidentally making eye contact. I felt frustrated and disappointed in myself. What was I thinking? If I couldn’t even talk to the DFWCON crowd on the elevator how was this going to work at the conference?

The conference center was huge and buzzing with activity as people checked in at registration. Vendor tables were humming with activity, finalizing last-minute details to accommodate the numerous visitors they hoped to attract.

After registration, color-coded charts in hand, we headed to our first class. My friend had to leave early for her pitch session but we arranged to meet up afterward. Safe in my class I decided this wasn’t so scary after all and began to feel more at ease.

Right before class ended and about 30 minutes before my agent pitch she sent me a text telling me the agent she met with wanted to see her manuscript! I was so excited for her and we swapped virtual high fives! Suddenly, it hit me. What if I totally bombed my agent pitch? OMG, I thought. Now I felt pressured and like she had raised the bar impossibly high. Pure panic set in and I began to completely second guess myself. Now the perfectly rehearsed pitch seemed wholly insufficient. I began to revise it in my head and sought out the refuge of the restroom so I could decompress and silently mouth my pitch to myself, in hopes of smoothly delivering this newly revised version.

In the safety of the bathroom stall, I pieced myself back together and rehearsed my pitch until 20 minutes before my scheduled session. During this time, people came in and out of the bathroom. I washed my hands and casually walked to the door on my way to the pitch area.

Upon exiting, I bumped into a man who was entering the bathroom. Startled he apologized and I smiled at him trying to assure him it was okay, making every attempt to minimize the embarrassment he must have felt for inadvertently entering the women’s bathroom.

As he continued to try to proceed into the bathroom, I gently motioned for him to stop indicating this was the women’s room. His face flushed red with embarrassment as he pointed to the sign on the door that read “men’s room”. Time stopped for me at that moment. It seemed like an eternity passed as I stared blankly at his face trying to decide how to respond. All I could muster was a faint “sorry” as I hurried off to find a corner to hide in so I could process this new humiliation.

Here’s a picture of the corner I hid in attempting earnestly to avoid running into the man on his way out of the restroom.

Finally, it was time to get in line for my pitch session. They were running slightly behind so I had a moment to sit and that’s when I saw a Twitter notification on my phone. As I read it, I sat in complete shock. It was DL Hammons. He had sent a tweet asking when I was going to come and see him. What? How did he know who I was? Did he actually read my tweets? I was overjoyed and completely star struck. This is a person I had admired for months and now he wanted to meet me.

I completely forgot about the bathroom incident. Now I was focused on DL Hammons and my pitch.

I met with literary agent Dr. Uwe Stender of the Triada US Literary Agency. He graciously alerted me my manuscript wasn’t for him. He provided me, however with lots of great advice and encouraged me to keep trying. This is a great individual, so writers if you have stuff that falls within his niche, I encourage you to submit to him. It would be an honor to have him represent you!

After reconnecting with my friend, I got my coveted photo with DL Hammons! I’m sure he must think I am a total dork!

Finally, it was time for lunch, which was great as by now I was starving. We sat down and my friend instantly began chatting with everyone. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a silhouette of someone taking the last seat at our table.

Of course, it had to be the man who caught me coming out of the men’s bathroom! He smiled at me and all I could do was smile back and wonder how long it would take before he mentioned our chance meeting earlier. Before I knew it my friend and I were actively engaged in a conversation with him about his latest book and the Marvel film “The Infinity War.” I braced myself the entire time to gracefully engage in dialogue about my bathroom romp, but he never once brought it up (If you are the man and you are reading this post, know that I am sending you a virtual hug!).

Tiffany was at our lunch table. Click here to see her book “Keep Your Eyes On Me”

After lunch, it was off to more classes. Prior to departing back to the hotel for dinner, we cruised by the vendor tables and met so many great people! Be sure to save time to peruse the vendor tables, as you would be surprised at the connections you can make. My friend and I connected with the DFW library who generously offered to house our book and we even met other individuals who we plan to enlist for our next project. So, don’t bypass the vendor tables!

During dinner, my friend gave me tips for surviving the mixer as an introvert. She stressed that everyone is in the same boat and challenged me to give out at least ten business cards. I’m an overachiever so having a task helped me focus on that, rather than the fear of meeting new people.

At the mixer, I ran into a person I met on Twitter who had offered advice and refuge to any introverts needing a home base during the conference. She told us we could spot her if we looked for her butterfly cane. I immediately went to thank her for the encouragement and she not only gave me a hug but also introduced me to other people at the mixer. This is a great example of how when writers help other writers awesome things can happen!

While I was terrified, my OCD overachiever nature beat out my social anxiety, so I kept mingling until I handed out all ten business cards. I met so many interesting and talented writers, editors, and book designers.

We met Joy at the mixer. Joy is a nurse and she and her partner Terri are releasing their first book “The Wake Up Call” this July. You really have to read about this book!  Visit her website bakergoodman.com

I felt exhausted after day one of the conference but was pumped for day two to begin.

Early the next day we headed to the conference. Once again, we had mapped out a plan of attack. Time flew quickly and soon it was time for my memoir workshop. I encourage you to monitor the list of available workshops as they fill up fast! The workshops, unlike the class lectures, provide the opportunity for you to work through problems or get 1x1 feedback.

When we got to the part of the workshop where we each had to read some of our writing out loud, I felt dizzy but at this point had committed to bravery. I read an expert from my manuscript, which is a non-fiction collection of humorous short stories about six brothers in law. To my relief, I got chuckles from around the classroom. My bravery paid off. I learned so much from hearing the memoir writing of the others in the group. Be sure to make the most of all the workshops!

Finally, it was time for lunch and the highly anticipated Query Gong Show. This year they had so many submissions they were unable to get through all the query letters. It was helpful to see the common themes in the query letters that made it through without a gong, in comparison to those axed.

I came away with tools I could immediately apply to my query letters and advice to pass on to others.

Sadly, day two of the conference was now ending. On our way out, we ran into people we had connected with earlier in the conference, so spent the last few minutes exchanging goodbye hugs and business cards.

To my surprise and delight, the registration for the 2019 DFWCON is already live! If you register before June 17, 2019, you get a discounted price and pay only $279 instead of the regular price of $399.