Thursday, June 21, 2012

Guest Post: Olivia Boler's THE FLOWER BOWL SPELL

Being hosted by Col Reads is such a treat. Thank you so much for having me as a guest blogger today and for bringing some attention to my new novel The Flower Bowl Spell, available as an ebook and in paperback.

I’m feeling particularly jazzed today. I recently got done attending the Book Passage Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference in beautiful Corte Madera, California. Since I’m drafting a young adult (YA) prequel about Memphis Zhang, the witchy heroine of The Flower Bowl Spell, which takes place when she’s about fifteen years old, going to this conference was my chance to see if I was on the right track with my writing so far.

A little about Book Passage. It’s an amazing independent bookstore that also has a lovely café and sells travel gear, cards, and gifts. They have a superb book-buying staff that does tons of research on the latest best books out there, and are extremely selective about what they carry. They also host a bazillion book groups as well as small conferences, classes, and workshops for aspiring and established writers. I’ve attended readings by authors I admire, bought books, and nibbled on cookies in the café, but this was the first conference I’d attended there.

I’m no newbie when it comes to writing conferences, but the ones I’ve gone to in the past were pretty different. One focused on writing and craft, and less on selling and publishing. It was held in the Napa Valley, so there was plenty of good food—and of course, incredible wine! Another conference I attended a couple of years ago was the San Francisco Writers Conference. This one was fairly huge with hundreds of people and loads of panels mostly focused on getting agents, attracting editors, and marketing tips. While it inspired me to get The Flower Bowl Spell published, it was also overwhelming and gave me a sense of just how many writers there are out there who share the same dream of publishing—and who might not see their dreams realized. (Did I mention it was overwhelming?) Of course, with self-publishing gaining ground, those writers have a better shot, but that’s another blog post…

Thanks so much, Olivia, for sharing your thoughts on Col Reads. I'm looking forward to finishing "The Flower Bowl Spell" soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment

I absolutely love comments. Thanks for taking the time to share! Col