UntitledTown Author Book Festival

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This was the second annual Author Festival Green Bay has had. We tried it last year and it was a huge success, so it will be an annual event. It gives us all something to look forward to. A couple days ago, I gave you a list of all the workshops I was going to, well, I added two. So, nine altogether. Of those nine, three were disappointing, including one author presentation, the one I just came from, ending the festival. Let me say, every presenter was an author, most local to Wisconsin. Some were agents and publishers, as well as authors. So, there was a lot of expertise to be had. Building Your Dreams, Writing with Purpose was the first I went to that was disappointing. This was the first workshop I went to. I don't have a picture of the location. I forgot to take a picture of the beautiful hotel it was located at - Saint Brennan's Inn. Now, the presenter is a dynamic person, and most likely a good author. My problem with her, was she was basically tooting her own horn instead of giving me anything useful. Though, I did take notes. I took notes in every workshop. The second disappointing workshop was Publishing Talk: Marketing Yourself as a Writer. One thing that made this disappointing was there should have been a microphone. I sat close, but even so, I had a hard time hearing them. And second, the guy, an agent from New York, had long hair and kept playing with it. Totally distracting. Though I had notes, I didn't come away with much. Those were the first two workshops. The Publishing one was at the Neville Public Museum - the picture with the dinosaurs is where that was. The last disappointment was with known author presenter - Christopher Moore. I was not impressed with his satirical humor. Nor was I impressed with his mockery of Christianity and the Bible. He was at West High School, also the place where I finally got a picture of the Trolley that took everyone who wanted to each of the workshop locations. The author presentation I loved, even though I haven't read any of his books, but my kids have, was R.L. Stine. He had a wonderful presentation Friday night, and the Weidner was packed, my friend said it was mostly kids. I don't know about that, there were plenty of adults in attendance as well. The other workshops were very good. I learned something from all of them, even the disappointing ones, but I learned more from the good ones, and the ones I had no trouble hearing. If I hadn't had an audiology test done not too long ago, I would think I was hard of hearing. That is not the case. They needed a microphone. I added the workshop: Time Travel Secrets for Historical Nonfiction Writers. I hadn't signed up for that one, but the presenter was in the one earlier that day where I couldn't hear very well and the agent played with his hair. She was excellent, and though she didn't use a microphone, her voice was loud enough it carried well. That one I learned a lot from, and even though I write fiction, I can implement what I learned in fiction writing. One thing that is good about writing, is that rules carry over. What is basic for Children's, is also basic for YA and Adult. The same is true for fiction and nonfiction. Another carryover is magazine and book publishing. You need to read the submission guidelines and follow them. My favorite workshop was: I Can't Even Right Now - Dealing with Writer's Block. There was good interaction with the panelists, and even I had some valid questions they were able to answer, which was good. I had a few more questions for the workshop: Publishing Talk: Building Your Writer Brand Through Social Media. That workshop was totally interactive. One thing one of the presenters said in the workshop: Beginnings, Middles, Ends was that most writing workshops on even a smaller scale than what we had normally costs $375 per person. Ours was a large festival, with many workshops every two hours, starting Thursday afternoon. Each day started at 10:00 a.m. and ended with the last presentation around 6:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. I didn't attend any on Friday except R.L. Stine. I didn't find any I was interested in. But I did attend all day Saturday and today. With a total of nine author presentations/workshops I attended. It was fun, and I think you can see in the picture of me and my friend in the middle, not only the smiles on our faces, but I have really lost some weight. I think the picture in two weeks will show a dramatic difference to last month. That picture with my friend, who normally takes my picture every month, looks fantastic. Several people at church this morning said they can see a difference. I know I'm feeling slim. So, I'm hopeful for the next picture. That has been my weekend, and my experience with this year's UntitledTown event. Oh, the reason our event was free, was because of our sponsors. There was only one event that was not free, and that was another author - Michael Perry, also known. He had Breakfast on the Farm this morning. No, I didn't attend it. I was in church. I'm looking forward to next year. Who knows, maybe I'll be a presenter next year. How was your weekend? Thanks for reading. I will get to notifications tomorrow. I have a date with the pool and fitness center in the morning. So, time for me to go to bed.