I totally missed the third day! I had only one real-time chat scheduled but I was so tired (as per usual) the alarm clock didn’t wake me up.

Later today, however, is the chat I CAN’T afford to miss. I’ve been waiting for the “How To Edit Your MG Novel” chat ever since the conference started. I’m not so thrilled with the “From concept to creation” chat though. What can be discussed in 30 minutes’ time? Even those which extended an hour seem too short to learn anything. But anyways, we’ll see…

I REALLY have to start checking out the week-long workshop forums. Maybe on Saturday. I’m also whipping up a gimmick for this blog. Watch out for it as soon as the Muse Conference ends.

…went a bit smoother than the first one.

I wasn’t able to attend Andrew Hook’s conference because I was just so tired yesterday, not even a plane crash could’ve woken me up. Cynthia Bryan, my 9pm conference “speaker” couldn’t make it, so organizer Lea Schizas took over and answered general questions. Basically, I strayed away from the chat and did some other things. Oh, but I caught the reason why Lea organized the whole thing.

Lea said she was a member of a writers’ circle before who shared no links and gave no tips because all the writers feared the other would outdo them. Lea vowed that she’d do what she can to help other writers in the future and share what knowledge she has amassed since then. And of course, she’s done it for a bit of self-promotion too.

Now, the conference with Carolyn Howard Johnson for “The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward by Writing Zero-Tolerance Queries and Cover Letters” went a lot better than the others. The time we had was quite short so her answers were also terse. The best one I think was the question about including relevant education (i.e., a degree in writing) in a query letter. Carolyn answered with a resounding NO. She said, “you let your talent speak for itself.” Good for you, Carolyn.

Another question which caught my eye was something about being a non-US resident querying American agents. Carolyn said that the problem is it might pose legal issues. No mention of non-US residents not being able to write for an American audience. Well thank you, Carolyn, I think I really like you now. I’ve found a couple of agents who’re willing to represent non-US residents, by the way. I’ve lost their links since my PC crashed but I’ll find them later and post them here.

The biggest peeve I have with the chats is that the Java applet, Parachat, keeps booting me off for unknown reasons. I’m not very thrilled with the real time chats mostly because of it. Maybe next year we can go with mIRC. Or maybe, I’ll just sign-up for the week-long workshops. Talking about the workshops, I haven’t checked things out thoroughly. But I poked around a bit, and so far, things look promising. Let’s see how tomorrow goes.

BOMBED big time…

I knew from the outset something would go wrong. First, my poetry conference instructor, Liz Fortini, can’t log in the Java chat applet. And THEN, I had mistakenly deleted the files for one of my new web sites! It would have been all right except I’ve hired a designer specifically for that!!!

After much panicking and spazzing out, dreamhost was finally able to restore my files! Thanks Dreamhost! So if I were you, I’d sign up with Dreamhost now. I got on with their crazy offer of $110.10 off your order in celebration of their 10th yearanniversary. So instead of paying $119 for their annual plan, I paid only $9. Crazy isn’t it? It’s only for the first 1010 customers since their anniversary though, not sure if it still works now.

If it doesn’t don’t depair, you can still get $97 off!!! That’s right. Just use the promo code: MAM123 when placing an order and get $97 off a yearly subscription.

Back to Muse Online…So, as I said, I mistakenly deleted my files. I got in late for my 3pm conference and guess what? Yes…my conference “speaker” got booted off the Java applet. So I waited until 6pm for the next conference. But I was too busy chatting with my mom, I got in late again! And then by that time, I got distracted by other things (actually, the conference is still ongoing right now, but whatever…).

So there goes my first day for the Muse Writers Conference. *sigh* I hope everything goes smoother tomorrow

 All right, here’s my sched for the Muse Online Conference. Time is based on EST.

CHATS

OCTOBER 8

12:30pm, Aspects of Poetic Imagery, Liz Fortini
3PM, WORLD BUILDING, Kim Richards
6PM, FAITH IN FICTION, Colleen Drippe, Rose Dimond, Maya Bohnhoff and Karina Fabian

October 9

10 am, PUBLISHING THE SHORT STORY, ANDREW HOOK
9pm, Think Like a Producer-How to Get More Publicity, Cynthia Brian,
10 PM,  The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward by Writing Zero- Tolerance Queries and Cover Letters, CAROLYN HOWARD-JOHNSON

October 10

7PM, Book Marketing for Shy and Frugal Authors
Travel the Path of the Hero to Overcome Blocks and Transform Your Career, SHEL HOROWITZ

October 11

2PM, HOW TO SELF-EDIT YOUR MG NOVEL, MARGOT FINKE
6PM, From concept to creation — moving from idea to draft to pitch to publication of the first novel:  a 30 minute journey,  MAGDALENA BALL
8PM, SYSTEMS OF FAITH AND MAGIC, MAYA KAATHRYN BOHNHOFF

October 13

11AM, The Art & Science of Self-Publishing, SUSAN K. STEWART
12PM, How to Write A Mystery, MARILYN MEREDITH
Oct 13, Meet Lida, LIDA QUILLAN

October 14

2PM, Pitch Perfect:  Getting to the Heart of your Romance Novel, JANET WELLINGTON
9PM, Secrets of the Professional Freelancer Jump-start your freelance writing career; STOP dreaming and start DOING, BEV WALTON-PORTER
10PM, Assaulting A Writer’s Thinking, Lea Schizas
11PM, CONFERENCE CLOSING PARTY

WEEK-LONG WORKSHOPS

MARILYN PEAKE, Keys for Adding Depth to Fiction: Visualization, Symbolism and Intensive Research
Vickie Kennedy, How to Format Your Manuscript and How to Write a Proper Query Letter
DIANE J. NEWTON, J.D. WEBB, PEPPER SMITH, Building a ‘Can’t Put it Down’ Suspense Novel.
BARRI BUMGARNER, Making Crime Pay
PATRIKA VAUGHN, Writing Blunders & How to Avoid Them
K. L. NAPPIER
PROTECTING YOURSELF AND YOUR WORK
LYNDA S. BURCH, Writing for Kids and how to make the stories soar!
PAULINA B.JONES, Made-up Mayhem Learn the art and craft of creating fictional mayhem.
T. C. MCMULLEN, Novel Writing
LARRY MONIZ, SELF-PROMOTION FOR AUTHORS
KARINA L. FABIAN, Virtual Book Tour
TERRY WHALIN, Book Proposals that Sell
DEVON ELLINGTON, Dialogue Workshop
JANET ELAINE SMITH, THE LIFE OF THE PARTY: YOUR CHARACTERS.
RALEIGH PINSKEY, How to Keep Your Book Alive and Selling for a Long, Long, Long, Long Time.
JANE BERNARD, Fine tuning your 5 senses gives you the power to excite, entice and entertain with your writing.
EARL STAGGS, Writing Mystery That Sells
MARSHALL TURNER, Website Essentials and Internet Marketing for Authors
BETH BARANY, “Call to Action: The Writer’s Adventure”
HOPE CLARK, The Shy Writer - Self-Promotion That Hurts Less The Shy Writer isn’t just for the introverted soul. It also talks about common sense self-promotion.
Dyanne Davis, The workshop is designed to give aspiring writers a REAL view of the entire process.

Yes yes, I know what you’re thinking. How the heck will Mariella be able to manage that damn schedule? Well, honestly, I have no idea. But I’m not about to back out.

I can’t believe it’s Monday again. I got up from 15 hours of sleep a few hours ago and if I might say, I don’t exactly feel too good. My eyes are puffy, my back aches, and my head’s all empty. Before I get stoned for sleeping too much, let me just say I went on for two days without sleep to finish some projects since today’s the start of the Muse Online Writers Conference! Goodness, I haven’t even read the guidelines and arranged my schedule yet. I swear I’ll get on right to it after I  update my blogs…all FIVE of them. On a happier note, I got 2 of my five new web sites up. I hope everything goes as planned. I even took less gigs than I would have this month so I can get on right to it. Anyways, I have to end this here so I can arrange my conference schedule. I’ll post it here too in a few hours’ time.

I moved from crib.bohemianwordsmith.com to:

http://atelier.bohemianwordsmith.com/

This will be my permanent personal blog link! No, I swear, really! :)