To put this in perspective, I had never in my ten-year writing career attended a conference alone. The first conference I went to as an author was the New Orleans GRL, which I attended with fellow author Rowan Speedwell. Since then, I’ve gone with a variety of people but never on my own. Why? Because, Trish – the girl behind JP Barnaby – has severe social anxiety. That’s where JP came from in the first place. Trish made her up to hide behind so she could find the courage to promote the work she loved.

Fast forward lots of years. Now Trish is married, her depression and anxiety are under control, and she’s happy. She’s looking forward to her new release in December and coming back into the world of writing with a fresh perspective. For example, JP’s website went from hard-hitting porn stars to the tagline of “good food, good friends, great books” – because that’s her focus.

Next, I’ve never attended a conference without either a romance or LGBT theme. It’s always been RT, RWA, Gay Days, or GRL. This would be a completely different ball game with authors across all genres, teaching and learning from each other.

I have to say – it was an awesome experience.

The weekend started on Thursday when, after checking in to the Hilton Midtown just blocks from Times Square, I quickly did my outstanding homework for school and then met a friend for dinner. We walked to Central Park and talked non-stop, filling each other in on what had been happening in our lives since we last saw each other. He’s a successful communications director for a large retail firm, and I found the man of my dreams with three boys in the package. After dinner, I got my stuff together for the next day, talked to my husband for a while, and went to bed early.

Friday morning dawned bright and clear with an air of excitement. The lobby and restaurant buzzed, not just with conference goers, but business people and tourists getting ready for their New York adventures. I checked in at the registration booth, attached my badge to my Gryffindor lanyard, and checked out the map. Which, for anyone who has ever met me, knows was a challenge. I figured out where I was, and then turned the map this way and that to try and orient myself to which way the conference rooms were. In the end, I just wandered around until I found what I was looking for. Thankfully, the rooms were all in a big L-shaped corridor on the same floor.

The first session I wandered into was Pitch Perfect given by Jeanne Bowerman and Tiffany D Jackson who were hilarious as they delivered tip after tip for those who would be pitching that weekend. The conference had a component where, for a fee, authors could pitch to prospective agents in a Hunger Games-style arena. Since I already have a publisher I love, I did not participate. My goal for the conference was to hone craft and build my business.

Suspense Essentials: Secrets to Tapping into Tension (Whatever Genre you Write) turned out to be one of my favorite sessions at the conference. Steven James was funny, engaging, and had takes on tension I’d not thought about. I walked out of that session and bought two of his craft books: Troubleshooting your Novel and Story Trumps Structure.

My next panel, I didn’t really get into during the first few minutes, so I headed over to Permission Granted: Launching Your Writing Life After 50 with Joan Dempsey. Why? Because I’m just south of 50 (I turned 45 in March), and I’m transitioning to a related but different genre (Romantic Suspense) so in some ways, it’s like starting over. I found out a lot about myself during that session, including that I hadn’t been putting too much effort into my writing career because I’m afraid of actually succeeding.

My last panel for the day was something that I have a pretty strong hold on because of my day job but I got some great nuances from it: Data-Driven Online Platforming for Authors. EJ Wenstrom spent the hour talking about Google Analytics and how to use iteration in your marketing plan to make it more effective. I added some great things to my business plan for 2019 after that talk.

Something I didn’t expect to happen during the day – I talked to some people, critiqued some pitches, and made a few friends. But, that also made me hit my social quota for the day, so I headed to my room, ordered some awesome New York style pizza and vegged out watching the Food Network.

Saturday started with a storm, not the abstract kind, but the dumping water kind. It worried me because I had dinner plans that night with another friend from the city. We were heading to Butter, a restaurant owned by celebrity chef Alex Guarnaschelli, and since I’m a Food Network junkie—this was no small deal.

So, I kept an eye on the skies and my texts, and headed to my first panel Enrich Your Writing with Vivid Imagery which I loved. The presenter, Jordan Rosenfeld, gave such clear and wonderful examples, it was easy to imagine using such techniques in my own writing. My biggest issue is setting—you could plop Aaron into any city in America and it would be the same book.

Whitney Davis was funny and charming as she presented her very first rendition of the talk The CPR Technique: Avoiding the Mid-Story Slump. A lot of my planning is based on James Scott Bell’s Super Structure, but I picked up some great tips from this talk.

Applying Best Practices to Design to Your Book Covers with Carol Van Den Hende had some great tips for consistency in your visual branding—fonts, colors, placement, shapes, etc. It made me go back and do a little redesigning on my website when I got home. And…she gave out M&Ms – BONUS!

Next, I went to another panel by Joan Dempsey since I liked the first. You Said It! Master the Two Most Important Functions of Great Dialogue – which I already knew, characterization and advancing the plot. But she framed it from a practical perspective that illustrated how to use the examples.

Find Success Writing Romance from Rachel Herron really wasn’t anything I didn’t already know, but it was the best option in that time slot because I’m not a fan of the unreliable narrator.

My last panel of the day, Writing a Damn Fine Story was awesome. It was a great way to end the day because I love Chuck Wendig. I even got a high-five and thank you for one of my comments after the talk. I have his book Damn Fine Story on audio which I’m currently listening to each night in the bathtub as I relax before bed.

It turned out that the storm had passed during the day, so Susan and I had no trouble heading the six or so blocks to Butter on foot. We had a wonderful dinner, awesome conversation, and wonderful companionship. I’m grateful for her coming into the city to have dinner with me so I could see the restaurant of an Iron Chef.

Sunday was a short day—just two sessions before I headed out to the airport. The first, The Second Draft Deep Dive: Revising to Sell by literary agent Paula Munier had excellent, actionable tips for revising your books to be attractive to agents and editors. Then, the final panel of the conference was a bit of a letdown. Crossing Genre with JD Barker. I didn’t really get what I was looking for from it.

All in all, it was a great experience and worth the expense of a weekend in Midtown Manhattan. I’m looking forward to going to the Writer’s Digest Conference again next year, and who knows, maybe I’ll have something to pitch!

JP Barnaby is an award-winning gay romance novelist and the author of over a dozen novels. Her heart and soul, the Survivor Series, has been heralded by USA Today as one of their favorites. She recently moved from Chicago to Atlanta to appease her Camaro (Jake) who didn’t like the blustery winters. JP specializes in #RecoveryRomance but slips in a few erotic or comedic stories to spice things up. When she’s not working on her latest novel, she binge watches superheroes and crime dramas on Netflix with her husband and Jack Russell Terror, Chase.

A physics geek, she likes the science side of Sci-Fi, and wants to grow up to be Reed Richards.

Sign up for her New Release Newsletter and get a free novella: eepurl.com/nvXb5

Website: www.jpbarnaby.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/jpbarnaby

Facebook: www.facebook.com/jpbarnabyauthor