One area in which book publishing and law share common ground, I’m happy to note, is in evidence at writers’ conferences and writing workshops that take place almost every weekend of the year at locations throughout the country. If you attend any of these events, you will witness firsthand the sight of established authors – including some of the biggest names in the business – teaching craft, or providing inspiration, or patiently answering questions from new or aspiring writers of every stripe and skill level.
In law, we call this The Unbroken Chain – the quaint notion that those experienced in the practice owe an obligation to teach and train the next generation of lawyers, just as they themselves were trained by the generation before them.
I finally had a chance two weeks ago to participate in the writers’ version of this extraordinary tradition, at the Eighth Annual University of New Mexico Writers Conference in Albuquerque. This is a conference I had paid to attend only a year earlier, when literary legend David Morrell (he of First Blood/Rambo fame) provided a stem-winding lecture on the history and future of publishing. This year, following an equally riveting keynote by author and poet Jonis Agee, I presented a one-hour workshop – my first – on Writing the Mystery. It was, I have to tell you, both a ton of fun and an exhilarating personal experience.
The same spirit of camaraderie evident to attendees of the public sessions was on full display behind the scenes, as the faculty met for dinner both before and after the conference, and managed to sneak a few drinks in between (after 5:00 of course.) I got to meet editors Elise McHugh of UNM Press and Christine Pride of Hyperion, and agent Katherine Flynn of Kneerim & Williams, and to spend some quality face time with my own editor (Peter Joseph of Thomas Dunne Books) and agent (Antonella Iannarino of the David Black Agency), who were good enough to fly in from New York for the event. On the whole, a good time was had by all.
Most important, I got to know event organizer and overall force-of-nature Sandra Toro, whose varied resume includes stints as a teacher, historian, political operative, T.V. host, literary agent, and celebrated author. Sandy and her charming husband José, himself both a lawyer and an author in his own right, were the glue that held the weekend together, and I know that I speak for all in attendance, on both sides of the podium, when I thank them for their Herculean labors.
If you write currently, or if you’ve ever aspired to write, or if you just enjoy books and literature, you’ll find something useful and appealing at a writers’ conference. Just Google “writers’ conferences,” or check the website of your local writers’ group or organization, or look in magazines like The Writer or Writer’s Digest. Once in attendance, you’ll commune with like-minded individuals, gain inspiration, learn the writer’s craft, rub elbows with agents and editors, and generally bask in a warm and supportive literary environment. Maybe you’ll meet a favorite author, or discover a new one. Maybe you’ll even learn something new about yourself.
And you’ll do so safe in the knowledge that the authors (and agents and editors) in attendance are there not for any pecuniary motive or gain, but simply to share in these same simple pleasures, and to inspire and nurture a new generation of writers, and to give something back to the literary community at large. Just as the writers before them gave something back, generation after generation, in a great, unbroken chain.