Dear Jake,

By the time you read this blog I will be on a jet plane.  Don’t try to follow me.  Just let me go.  This is something I have to do.  I don’t think I can wait another day.

There’s just so much out there to discover.  I need to learn new things in order to grow.  I want you to be on fire and in order to do that I have to get in touch with some experts who can show me a few tricks of the trade.

Stay strong for me, Jake.  Trust me when I say this is the best for the both of us.  Keep that flame in your heart for me.  I’ll be back before you know it and ready to dig my talons into you.

LYG,

Sandra O’Byrne

Yes, friends, this year’s RWA Conference in San Francisco is my second one to date and I am really on fire about it.  Craft is where it’s at for me.  I went to the conference last year with a newly minted manuscript ready to seize the day.  I learned a lot from that conference.

How to pitch.

How to network.

How to make my manuscript an even better one.

And that’s what I’ve been doing this past year.  A pitch here.  A pitch there.  But mostly re-working my manuscript.  I’ve been honing my baby and making it an even better book.

What do I expect to gain from this year’s conference?

More knowledge, friends.

I’m also going to have a blast re-connecting with old friends, my favorite authors and getting to meet new friends I’ve made in the romance community.

And I’ll be joining Terri in squee’ing and celebrating the accomplishments of so many talented friends.

Ciao for now.  I’ll be seeing you on the blogs.

In case you’re wondering, Jake is the hero of Santa’s (nice of her to change her name on me, eh?) MS called Sweet Melissa.  I was hoping she’d bring him with her as we’re sharing a room and there’s always room for Jake, but nooooooo.  Since Santa is actually leaving on a jet plane today and many people will be pitching later this week or later this year, today we’re going to do a group pitch session.  Everyone give us your best one to three sentence pitch and lets see if we can sell some books! If you’re a reader, give us a pitch for one of your favorite books and see if we can guess which book you’re describing.

To help everyone out, here’s the best one-liner pitch advice you’ll ever find courtesy of Christina Dodd. 

Define the type of story, give a sense of the plot, use action verbs, and whet the reader’s appetite for more.