Writers conference 3/2

In June the Heartland Writers Conference will bring together New York agents and editors, Midwestern publishers, and published and unpublished authors to talk about the business and art of writing.

It will present basic information about plotting, characterization and the hard job of selling writing, but some workshops will be more specialized. A former sheriff will talk about processing crime scenes, and a former librarian will discuss her erotic fiction.

This year's conference will be held June 6-8 in Sikeston.

Plans for the conference were being finalized just as the attacks of Sept. 11 occurred. Editors and agents weren't in the mood to leave New York, says conference coordinator Harry Spiller. "They were pretty stunned."

The former sheriff, who has written nine books, waited. Katharine Sands, a literary agent with the Sarah Jayne Freymann Literary Agency, and agent Sue Yuen of the Susan Herner Rights agency were among those who finally agreed to come.

The conference is sponsored by the Heartland Writers Guild, a group of 100 writers and aspiring writers in the Midwest.

In connection with the conference, the guild sponsors a writing competition called Great Beginnings. Categories are novel, short story, book-length nonfiction, article-length nonfiction, poetry and screenplay. The entry deadline is April 12. Attendance at the conference is required to enter the writing competition.

Guild member Bobbi Smith, a St. Charles, Mo., writer of 32 historical romance novels, has more than 5 million books in print. She was already a success when she joined the guild "for the camaraderie and the pure joy of being with other writers."

Writers conferences also provide information writers and aspiring writers need, Smith said.

She will present a workshop on characterization. "For fiction writers, the number one thing is to create characters the reader cares about," she says. "If they fall in love with the characters ... they're going to keep reading that book. They're not going to put it down."

Getting published is more difficult now than when she started out in 1982, the former Famous-Barr department manager says. In a business where agents don't want to talk to you unless you have an editor and editors aren't interested unless you have an agent, making contacts is essential to getting published.

"It's not luck," she said. "It's good business."

Among the other presenters will be:

Don Donaldson, a member of the faculty at the University of Tennessee Medical School. He also is the author of a mystery series written under the name of D. J. Donaldson. He has written two medical thrillers, "Do No Harm" and "In the Blood."

Charlotte Hubbard, a former school librarian who writes Black Lace novels and a serialized online erotic romance under the name Melissa MacNeal. The Jefferson City, Mo., writer will lead a workshop titled "The Ins and Outs of Erotica." Hubbard lives in Jefferson City, Mo.

Bob Robison, a Cape Girardeau native and Southeast graduate who is now a literary agent in Nashville, Tenn. He will lead a workshop on finding an agent.

"Fog" Gilbert, a poet who lives in Carbondale, Ill., and teaches a poetry workshop at John A. Logan College. He will lead a workshop titled "Meet Me at the Typewriter at Dawn."

Robert Vaughan, a former Sikeston resident and prolific writer who has long been a fixture at the conference, will be absent this year due to a scheduling conflict.

The conference doesn't just provide useful information, says Jeanie Stewart, a Hayti, Mo., resident who writes books for children and young adults. "It has helped me in the sense of encouragement more than anything else. It keeps you grounded in the realities of the writing business."

A former English and history teacher, Stewart says she has wanted to be a writer since she was a child. "But I never thought ordinary, average people could be writers. I thought it was always somebody you read about."

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182